# What is the one thing that influenced you to become a Halloween enthusiast?



## texmaster (Aug 25, 2008)

Couldn't win the Christmas lights contest


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## coffee4106 (Sep 19, 2009)

Growing up in a Missionary Baptist church i was taught evil was bad... there was no fun evil.. Halloween was bad, blah blah.. my mom always dressed up every year for school, totally embarrassing costumes i thought then.. however now i do the same thing.. HA.. The traditional candy was given, the pumpkins carved.. that was it though....

My teenage years... i started wearing black... color striped hair, people worried, small town, you know.. town kids just didnt do this... i was marked then as... different... my love started when i was told i couldnt be this way, i couldnt love halloween, i couldnt beleive in Magic, ghosts, or Ouija boards. I Never joined the church so i couldnt be kicked out.. but for ever, ive known i wasnt like everyone else around here. LOL

Now, i am considered a weird and hilarious grown up (to the kids), The adults around here just shake their heads at me as my kids think im totally awesome..(my ex thinks im a witch cause i pointed my finger at him and his truck motor blew up... honestly.. im NOT a witch)

My decorating gets more elaborate each year and the more people worry, the more fun it is.. SPITE i guess???? FUN.... and... EXCITEMENT!!!


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## Winklesun (Nov 1, 2008)

STRESS. It is an escape from it. Gives me something else to focus on besides worrying continually about stuff. 
I like it because it also doesn't matter if things aren't perfect and that is a nice change too.


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## purpleferrets3 (Jun 20, 2008)

For me it was Its the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown. I looked forward to the night it was on every year. I tried explaining to my kids that if you werent home when it was on you had to wait a WHOLE YEAR to see it. They cant grasp that concept being they can just walk into the other room and grab the dvd and watch it any time they want..It has become tradition at our house to watch it first to kick off the Halloween season.


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## MedeaViolia (Aug 31, 2009)

We had a halloween party almost every year when I was a kid, which I have to admit is unusual in the UK. 

I always liked dressing up anyway.. and then I became a pagan when I was in my late teens and it became a proper holiday to me..


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## Frankie's Girl (Aug 27, 2007)

My birthday is exactly one week after Halloween. I always considered TOT the highlight of my birthday week.

Art/theater geek all through school. Attracted to the weird/dark side of things. 

Seemed a natural progression. I don't remember EXACTLY what it was, but it's definitely taken off since I've been a adult.


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## Sigmon (Sep 23, 2009)

My inspiration for Halloween came from the Brigantine Castle as a young kid. It was a haunted castle on an amusement pier that was multiple stories high. It was very ominous looking sitting out there over the ocean. The inside was very well done and had a lot cool prop stuff including live actors.

I was devastated when the pier closed down, but even more so when the castle burnt down a little while afterward. 

My love of Halloween has been passed to my daughters and they help out with everything now. 

However, I wish I had a permanent residence so I could build all of the props I see on the forum and other sites. But moving every three years w/ the military and my weight limits doesn't make it feasible. We have fun and decorate the best we can every year (even overseas in Asia).

Did I mention we have more Halloween decorations than Christmas? LOL!


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## OMGDan (Sep 28, 2006)

Childhood memory.

Getting picked up from school by my mother that cold october evening, it already going dark, and her taking me for a costume. Which back in the early 90s were your cheap plastic masks, witches/vampire black plastic capes, plastic fang teeth and small bottle of fake blood.

Then going TOT'ing that night and the cold briskness and that autumny smell with everyone in the street outside and dressed up.

That kind of thing only happens once a year, and now i make sure to live it fully and share the joy.


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## GrahamWellington (Jul 1, 2009)

Fond childhood memories of Halloween have made it an important holiday for me.


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## dariusobells (Sep 24, 2007)

Being an army brat and growing up all over the world, Halloween was the only non stressful and just fun Holliday of the year. Didn't have to worry about calling family stateside at 1 AM no worries about if the local Easter/Christmas service would be in English or not. no shiping presents a month ahead of time. Just pick out the costume make it and go ToTing, to a party or both! of corse walking past walled cemeteries that were a couple hundred years old every day on the way to school in Germany certainly didn't hurt my Halloween spirit


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## Howlatthemoon (Jun 25, 2008)

Halloween has just always been fun to me.


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## crazy xmas (Dec 30, 2008)

My wife made me, Im hooked now!!


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## LawP (Dec 4, 2007)

Childhood memories of homemade costumes, crispy leaves on the ground (originally from CT) and my very patient Dad who let us go to as many houses as we had the energy for, made Halloween a very happy time for me.  When my own kids were little I made their costumes (pretty much had too since one year my son wanted to be a lobster!) and enjoyed seeing them have fun on Halloween night. Although my kids are older now and have the state hospital on speed dial, I continue to collect and enjoy Halloween...pretty much all year long.


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## MsMeeple (Aug 21, 2004)

I never did anything in the states for halloween except for pass out candy.
Once I moved abroad and our dutch friends asked us to throw a halloween party so they could see what it was like, I was hooked. Especially after seeing how much they all really enjoyed it! 
Its a chance to keep something that's really american while living in a country where I have to do so many things the dutch way!


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## MoonMoon (Sep 6, 2008)

I can't really pinpoint one exact thing since I've always been very fond of Halloween for as long as I can remember. As a kid I just loved everything about it, getting dressed up as whatever you want and going TOTing, carving pumpkins, making decorations and Halloween crafts etc. It was just a very fun and whimsical time of the year. I was a very artistic child and really into art, theater, and film, so I'm sure that aspect of me added to my love of Halloween. As I got older I guess I just started to creatively take advantage of the Holiday as much as I can.


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## Uno (Oct 29, 2008)

When I was a kid we always had this one house on our trick-or-treat route that would do a little bit extra to make things special. The woman who lived there dressed up as an elaborate witch and sat on her front porch handing out candy. She had a cauldron with dry ice steaming and played spooky sounds over her stereo. It wasn't much but it was the biggest thing going on in our neighborhood. 

When I got older I wanted to participate in Halloween still but felt too old to trick or treat. So I started dressing up with a few friends and scaring the people who came to my house. We played spooky music and rattled chains in the back of a pickup truck. It was simple, but it was the start.  

Today I still remember that house and I hope that someday in 20 years, someone else will remember my house and be inspired to enjoy the holiday into older age as I have.


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## Decorinator (Sep 16, 2009)

Definitely great childhood memories - over 50 years ago now! We had a costume "barrel" in our basement that we played with all the time, putting on shows and things, but at Halloween it was the best dress up ever.

No store-bought costumes to speak of in those days and mom didn't sew either; her favorite ideas were "gypsy" and "hobo." When we were young we loved gypsy - it was quite a treat to wear mom's flouncy skirts and all her costume jewelry. As we got older we got better at creating our own costumes!

The atmosphere out treat or treating was electric - the streets were full of kids - no real fear of strangers in those days - and you kept going for as long as you could keep walking! And then all that candy to enjoy afterwards. To a kid it was like winning the lottery; FREE CANDY once a year!

I've never really stopped being the kid who likes to dress up!!


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## hurricanegame (Oct 13, 2006)

I would have to say it just happened naturally. Since I was a kid my brothers and I would always want to watch horror movies (even though sometimes we got our way most times we could not) and always were fascnicated by the huge cardboard Jason, Freddy etc cut outs at the video stores.

The holiday when I was young meant a time to have fun, I remember mapping out details on how we were going to trick or treat (what blocks, how long, who to go with etc) and so forth. Many memories of going to Toys R Us to by the IN costume for that year, like the person mentioned above about being able to go out with patient parents that is prety much my story and the reason Halloween was so cool.

I was always awed by the grown ups who set up haunts, even though some would scare the pants off us they were sure damn fun..and I remember local strip malls being renting out to set up Halloween scare mazes where the young teenagers would hang out and what not..in the same plaza as a video store we visited frequently as kids..

As the years went on..I remember going out during my later teen years for the heck of it with friends even though we got asked "aren't you guys a bit old"..we didn't care we STILL got candy..for a long time I just lost interested..got my car..was going to the clubs a lot you know living the fast life..but..

Just a few years ago the nostalgic memories started coming back..and people here in Canada started decorating their houses again..a lot of people around here lost interest I should mention which probably contributed to me taking a haitus from Halloween..so a few years ago I found this forum and I've conducted haunts for the past three years in a row now..I don't think I will ever lose interest again..

I attend Halloween parties as well AFTER I've conducted my haunt for the trick or treaters..the holiday is just simply amazing..the costumes..the memories..a chance to just let lose and dress up yourself..one day to BINGE on the junk food most of us hardly consume on a daily basis lol..

Great thread..I remember last year we started a thread talking about the nostalgic memories of how trick or treating was so BIG and popular in comparison to now..it seems Halloween is coming back around however..


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## Halloweenfan (Sep 18, 2008)

I think it's really a bunch of things. I guess I can't really think of one. Trick or treating has always been fun, costume contests at a couple places was great to part of, later on it's been a lot of horror movies that I like to watch like Saw, Freddy, Jason, Leprechaun, Aliens, Independence Day, Poltergeist 2, Chucky, and so on; and than you have animatronics, strobe lights, just regular lights, and fog machines. I like animatronics period, I like lights also, and strobes are just so cool. I like lighting, and I like animatronics. I guess I like having pictures on walls so the liking in cutouts so much.

Don't forget about good Halloween food like pumpkin cookies, Caramel Apples, and just about any candy you want out there like Candy Corn, or bags of Trick or Treat Candy.


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## hurricanegame (Oct 13, 2006)

Oh and who here as a kid used to DECORATE their windows with those Halloween decorations you could buy from Zehrs food market, any outlet store etc..they usually were to be hung or taped on the windows..I remember the house we resided in when were were kids had huge windows (three living room windows to be exact) and each one would be filled up..that was fun..we didn't set up haunts as kids but the windows were spooky enough...now as a adult the haunt is a must..and the windows are still used but not as much..


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## Glockink (Jul 7, 2008)

Would have to say trick or treating as a kid, seeing all the houses decorated. Going to Switz's In Syracuse NY every year and seeing the Halloween display that had, and picking out a costume. Pumpkin farms. Hayrides. Orange and black. Cider and doughnuts. Bonfires. Pumpkins. Witches. Frankenstein. It all makes me smile. First day of fall, I get the happy little grin and it lasts until Nov.1t, then I start planning for next year....
Kinda hard to pinpoint JUST one. Im a Halloween nut. Always have been. Always will be.


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## Ghost of Spookie (Sep 28, 2008)

Wolfbeard said:


> For me, the Monster Mash and the whole original Bobby "Boris" Pickett "Monster Mash" album is probably the reason I love Halloween so much. I still know every word to every song on the album. Who wouldn't love "Me and My Mummy," Blood Bank Blues," Graveyard Shift," etc.? The Monster Mash came out when I was a kid and it has been a part of my haunting side since then. I wore out the original vinyl album and have two more newer versions on vinyl.
> 
> I was fortunate enough to meet Bobby "Boris" Pickett a few years ago and I now have a personally autographed copy of the Monster Mash album on CD. I was saddened when he passed away not too long ago. That autographed CD is one of my prized Halloween possessions.
> 
> ...



That's a really nice memory Eric. Gee I guess the biggest influence in my life that is the reason why I love doing up Halloween would be my parents. While they didn't go all out to decorate for halloween like we do here on the board, my mom always dressed my brother and I up and took us ToTing and dad would hand out the candy at home. They loved seeing how all the kids were dressed up and you knew they did. Mom always made it fun going around the neighborhood. 

My brother and I looked forward to Halloween coming every year. We always got to pick our own costumes. I remember Mom and Dad also hosted some halloween parties for us kids. I remember bobbing for apples and playing other games. Dad took us on a halloween hayride one year. However my allergies to hay as it turns out had me off the wagon in no time. I've never forgotten about that. Did enjoy drinking the hot apple cider however and eating the donuts at the farm waiting for my brother to return from the hayride. Apple Cider was always a tradition in our house. And every year we would go out and pick out a pumpkin for each of us to carve. Mom and I would sometimes bake Halloween cookies and make caramel or candy apples--apples we had picked from an orchard. Dad loved candy corn and popcorn balls; I never was big on them so he always inherited mine. He has allergies to chocolate so he never at my candy bars. 

Between my brother and I, we would end up with a real haul of halloween candy that night. Enough to last for months. We canvased a lot of nearby streets. And everyone back then gave candy to kids. We would stay up that night and sort it all out by kind and see who got the best stuff. And then the negotiations would begin trying to make trades.

We also loved to stay up and watch the B&W horror movies on TV, it was a family event each year. Then when my brother and I were teenagers, Dad would be sleeping (work the next day) and Mom would stay up and watch all those great Saturday Night Live Halloween shows with Gilda, Jim, Chevy, Dan (who am I forgetting). Ding-dong. Trick or Treat for Unicef....


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## HauntedHorror (Aug 8, 2006)

I've always loved Halloween so I don't think there is really any one single thing I could point to... I guess one thing that helped was in grade school, my school always celebrated it. We had those old-fashioned coatrooms and some of the classes would always have little "haunted houses" in them. We also had a big school-wide Halloween costume party for all the students every year which included their own haunted house (which was pretty scary for a mini haunted house made just for a party, staffed by PTA) and I loved it. I remember one year when I was about 10 or 11 I went through it so many times that the Grim Reaper asked me if I wanted to just stay in it and help scare people, so I did. First they had me jump out of a coffin but then I had another idea. I was dressed as a black cat, so I hid crouching behind the Grim Reaper's huge robes and when people walked past I would leap out and hiss at them. I startled quite a few people that way and it was so much fun... I still miss those great Halloween parties they did and especially the haunted house... I love haunted houses.
As I said though I've always loved Halloween. I think it also relates to my love of horror movies/books as well because since I was old enough I loved those too, I started with Goosebumps, those came out when I was about 10 and then I moved on to Stephen King when I was 11 (thanks to my parents who had a lot of King books in the house  .)


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## Brimstonewitch (Aug 23, 2009)

Oddly enough, I grew up in Salt Lake City Utah...very religious area but outside of religion, a very non-judgmental atmosphere. I remember we had day every year at school when we got to take our costumes to school, dress up and then there was a parade as each class was walked around to every other class and we got to see all the great costumes! I don't recall anyone not participating and it was great fun! 

I also remember during the ToT'ing the streets were FILLED with kids going around of all ages. It was a blast and I guess that carried into my adulthood. Now coupled with my Pagan beliefs it's even more personal for me and cannot imagine not being a part of such a FUN time of year. Coupled with the fall foliage ... well if you're not in my part of AZ....it's beautiful to boot!


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## 1971Mach351 (Aug 29, 2008)

well i dont really get into the ToT aspect of halloween simply because where im from it isnt safe. i am more into the the whole large scale scares like haunted houses and hayrides ,so on that note the thing that got me hooked was the first time you scare the living crap out a tough highschool football player is when i got hooked.


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## LV Scott T (Aug 14, 2007)

Two reasons for me.

One: Growing up (huh?) in a small mid-western town, going to the Jaycees Haunted House was an annual requirement. And, if I was lucky, we would sometimes venture to surrounding towns and visit their haunts as well. Add to that the colors and smells of Autumn in the mid-west, and Halloween soon became my favorite time of year... right after Christmas, of course!

Two: I was actually very shy & introverted as a kid (and young adult). Halloween gave me an excuse to dress up and be someone different, even if only for 1 or 2 nights out of the year. In a costume, I discovered I could be as social and outgoing as I wanted. For me, costumes were literally as mask behind which I could hide. Later, I discovered that growing a beard accomplished the same thing. Eventually, I learned that all of these were "magic feathers" and that I could actually fly without them.


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## stay-at-home mom (Sep 24, 2009)

*Outlet for creativity*

I do blue collar work (stay-at-home mom) so it is once a year where I can actually complete a project and be proud of it. Other parents think my costumes are over-the-top, as we only get a few compliments, but I don't care. I am not competing - I just do it for myself. There is no denying that the costumes are fantastic!


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## chartreusechaos (Jul 7, 2009)

1971mach351, ooooh, I'm in love! My ultimate fave Mustang! 

um, sorry for the interuption


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## HauntedPumpkin (Nov 4, 2006)

For me it was Dr. Shock on saturdays with old B&W scary movies and B-movies. If anyone grew up in Philly in the 70's should know who Dr. Shock was. I think that started me off with Halloween and all things scary as a kid and now.... here I am.


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## strublay (Jul 31, 2009)

Well for me it all started with my mother. She adores Halloween, and every year my mother and father would throw these huge parties a few days before Halloween (like the weekend before or the night before), do up the entire house with bare black light bulbs, white sheets over furniture, homemade props, and a record of scary sounds that I'll never forget. Then hand out candy and dress me up to go trick or treating on Halloween night, always with custom/homemade costumes (I was a black cat for so many many years!).
Then there's The Haunted Mansion, several scary/creepy movies (Poltergeist for one, Dracula for another), the Undertaker from WWE (not Halloween, but the whole undead wrestler thing is cool), my penchant for the dark and dramatic, my prop making experience with theater, and my love of all things mechanized, ornate and steam punk... 
So yeah, a bunch of different areas of influence that got me in to being a Halloween fanatic, and got me in to my career choice... HA!


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## Girl (Aug 28, 2009)

Mine started with my mother, too. While ToTing, I would cry how I wanted to go home, and she would drag me "one more block" until we got home (what felt like hours later). Now she thinks I'm crazy how much I get into it. But she started it.


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## serpensphile (Nov 12, 2008)

stay-at-home mom said:


> I do blue collar work (stay-at-home mom) so it is once a year where I can actually complete a project and be proud of it. Other parents think my costumes are over-the-top, as we only get a few compliments, but I don't care. I am not competing - I just do it for myself. There is no denying that the costumes are fantastic!


Prove it!! We want pictures! *grin*


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## Stinkerbell n Frog Prince (Sep 4, 2009)

My parents. As far back as I can remember Mom would cut out pumpkins, bats and witches from huge sheets of paper to do up the house and windows. I recall her dragging the three of us kids with the baby buggy through the neighborhood TOTing. One of my earliest memories is of dad postioning the pumpkins in the window and him using christmas lights to lite them up. Dad and mom would take us to the city park field houses in the area for the Halloween activies. And every year he'd drive us out to the 'burbs to a flower nursery that turned one of it's green houses into a haunt. 

After Dad passed on and mom had to go to work the decorating stopped except for the craving of pumpkins but she did still drive us out to the 'burbs for at least the one haunt. By the time I was a teen I was hooked on Creature Features and Screaming Yellow Theater. I'd have friends over to get togethers in our very unfinished basement... the house was over 100 years old so you can imagine the creepiness of that basement. Hummm wonder if it was the old house that help with my Halloweenieness. 

By high school a couple of friends and I started the tradition of Haunted House Hopping trying to see how many haunts we could get in one night.

Stinker


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## Sigmon (Sep 23, 2009)

HauntedPumpkin said:


> For me it was Dr. Shock on saturdays with old B&W scary movies and B-movies. If anyone grew up in Philly in the 70's should know who Dr. Shock was. I think that started me off with Halloween and all things scary as a kid and now.... here I am.


I remember him and think about his shows often. They were the best movies and his little skits were ok too! We used to watch him down in South Jersey on a station out of Philly.


I mentioned earlier how my children are involved in my passion for Halloween. Once when we were coming back from being stationed in Japan my children went TOTing on base before we left and because of the time difference when we arrived in FL at a relatives house they went TOTing again. No jet lag there! LOL


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## creepyhomemaker (May 10, 2008)

My Mummy. Every year she made a BIG deal out of Halloween. I would get up on Halloween morning to find her dressed in some crazy outfit for work. I loved it. It always made me look foreward to when I could come home and put on my costume. Then at night it was my turn and we would go on our mission to get the world's largest haul of candy. We would shop all year for things to make our costumes that way we wouldn't spend much money. The week before Halloween she would take me to the dime store and buy me Mr. Bones candy and a Halloween themed toy/stickers. I always got excited when they gave me a free trick or treat bag. Wierd I know. 

Now my mom is more into the costumes and I am more into the decorations/props but sometimes I wish I could go trick or treating with her as a kid again just for old times sake. I might could pull it off if I wasn't so tall. Hmmm. She's short... maybe I could take her trick or treating. I could be "Mom" 

Mom is the Devil on the right.I love this picture. It was taken a long time ago.


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## twsted21 (Sep 16, 2009)

my influence came from tot'ing when i was a kid and also the movie monster squad and the haunted mansion at disney.


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## thegingerowl (Sep 8, 2009)

I'm not sure where it started...I think, a mix of my mum's enthusiam (a person who would take me on walks around cemetaries in the autumn to enjoy the quiet peacefulness), and a mixture of other childhood memories. Both of my elementary schools also held a big bash around Halloween. The first one had a nmodest haunt in their computer lab...I remember they hung sheets of black trash bags and linens from the ceiling to create a maze -- there were chairs with severed limbs sitting around, dry ice fogging on to the carpeted floor, and little open spaces within the maze where we'd stop to watch a short skit. One I can barely recall had a teacher appear as if her head was in a microwave. lol
Afterward, there was a party in the cafeteria and the janitor would give all the kids a hayride with his tractor around the blacktop. At the second school, the designated Halloween Day was a half-day and we were allowed to come to school in our costumes. Some lessons in the morning, then an all-school "spook walk" outside the parameter of the playground following small classroom parties with cupcakes and punch. Now that I think about it...I believe my pre-school had a similar thing.

And of course, as I have already mentioned, my mum has always made Halloween up to be a big thing...which it is! lol Pumpkin carving was a family event, and although we never really decorated outside much (save for a jacko or two), la mia madre loved tramping around the neighborhood as much as I did. I believe she also hand-made all of my costumes but one or two, and they were great! This year, both she and my stepfather have been really into prop-making, which is new and AWESOME.

In short, it would mainly be my childhood memories which have influenced me to become the year-round Halloween freak I am today. Picking apples from the open orchards on Apple Hill whilst sipping cider and nibbling pumpkin pasties...my jackolantern candy-bucket, and the way it smelled...long evening walks around our neighborhood in the autumn, shuffling through leaves with woodsmoke hanging in the air, decorations already peeking from darkened stoops. I love it all.


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## Ghost of Spookie (Sep 28, 2008)

creepyhomemaker said:


> My Mummy. Every year she made a BIG deal out of Halloween. I would get up on Halloween morning to find her dressed in some crazy outfit for work. I loved it. It always made me look foreward to when I could come home and put on my costume. Then at night it was my turn and we would go on our mission to get the world's largest haul of candy. We would shop all year for things to make our costumes that way we wouldn't spend much money. The week before Halloween she would take me to the dime store and buy me Mr. Bones candy and a Halloween themed toy/stickers. I always got excited when they gave me a free trick or treat bag. Wierd I know.
> 
> Now my mom is more into the costumes and I am more into the decorations/props but sometimes I wish I could go trick or treating with her as a kid again just for old times sake. I might could pull it off if I wasn't so tall. Hmmm. She's short... maybe I could take her trick or treating. I could be "Mom"
> 
> Mom is the Devil on the right.I love this picture. It was taken a long time ago.




I love the picture CreepyHomeMaker! Your mom looked fantastic!! It's funny thinking of parents dressing up for Halloween as mine never did (I posted about them above). I'm middle aged now and love to hand out candy in costume however.

I met my first husband while in college and at some point he showed me pics from his parents' halloween party. All of the adults were dressed in costume. I fell in love at that moment. I thought it was the coolest thing to have parents dress up for a party! Well I guess the love for him didn't last as I'm remarried now but I never fell out of love with costume parties. 

Celebrating halloween is not big on my husband's list and I got a kick out of two things that happened this week. The other day he moved something near a motion activated squirming rat in a trap and it set it off. He laughed and said your rat is moving! He didn't know I had it and had seen my other static rat props so it caught him off guard. Last night he went to toss something on the bed and I had shouted out don't do that and it triggered my motion sensored door knocker (knife switch variety) that I had on the bed and it sent out sounds of electrical current and screaming. Again he got "shocked" by the unexpected and broke into a big smile. I think he's warming up to halloween, usually he's a zombie when it comes to my props.

BTW I'm really enjoying reading this thread. Thanks for starting it Wolfbeard.


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## Halloween 2012 (Sep 3, 2009)

For me it was the 2 houses every year that did yard haunts and always tried to out do each other every year and Knotts Scary Farm. I attended Knotts Scary Farm every year until I moved out of state in 2005.


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## kprimm (Apr 3, 2009)

I have thought about t his very question so many times, what is it that i love so darn much about halloween? And my truthful answer is EVERYTHING!
I love the music, i love the costumes, i love the decorations and props. I love the fall time of year. I love the cider mills, the pumpkin patches, and carmel apples. I love walking in the woods an d the leaves crunching under feet. I love picking out my new costumes and decorations. I love scary movies and all the halloween specials. I love the halloween parties. I love how this season brings people togehter even strangers. Unlike christmas where people get together, halloween is different because you come together with ideas and working together on projects. I could never come up with an exact reason.After reading all of the previous posts on here, i think, yes that is part of why i love it so much also. It is literally everything, i just so love it all. Like my tag line says "every day to me is halloween" and it truthfully is.


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## Halloweeeiner (Sep 20, 2007)

Childhood memories and I always felt like I missed out when I was a kid. My parents never decorated, so the only thing we had for decorations was a pumpkin I brought home every year from the field trips to the pumpkin farm... now that I'm an adult, I go all out lol. Its the one time of the year I can still act like a kid


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## Bruja (Oct 18, 2008)

My mother used to decorate for halloween and i used to love helping and loved the peoples face who came to see it.. When my mother decided to no longer due it I was so upset luckily i had just moved out so i did my own. I pretty much had to start from scratch but was well worth it and have just done it ever since even if we were in a small place


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## Ghost of Spookie (Sep 28, 2008)

I picked my user name based on my love of the song "Spooky".


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## Turmoil (Sep 5, 2009)

Halloween became special to me when I was little and it was just me and my mom living together and we were broke for lack of a better word and all i wanted to be for halloween was a mummy, and my mom took the sheets off of her bed and tore them into strips so i could be what I consider to be the coolest mummy ever. That started the halloween love in my life. I went on to be in a horror hip hop group and started making stage sets for our live shows. After the kids came and being on the road playing shows wasn't cost effective anymore my stage sets started making there way into the house at halloween. Now it has grown for the last 5 years as the halloween party has become one of the best in central ohio.


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## PlusSizeAngel (Sep 26, 2009)

I think classic monster stuff is innocent fun. I am not fan of modern horror.


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## Evilpenny (Sep 25, 2009)

For me I remember getting into our county's costume judging contest and every year in the adult division the same guy won. He would win with a costume of a casket where his upper body was inside as part of a courpse, and his legs were the legs of a poor gravedigger with a pitiful looking face. The year I realized it my friends and I went trick or treating, and we came across his house. His yard display was the best! I knew then, that is what I wanted to be, someone that everyone talked about at Halloween. 

My dream came true, because when I entered the adult division for the first time I won, and I have won that division every year since. My room design in our haunted house may not always get the BEST scares, but I have been a clown now for 4 years, and I have to put a new twist on it every year. I do try to influence one room each year, and that is the room that is usually the room that gets talked about. It is a way of me celebrating privately knowing that I was the one that created the room.


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## Scary Firefighter (Sep 13, 2009)

I don't really know how to explain it but ever since I was a kid I've always thought that there was just a different "feeling" to the night of Halloween and I guess something about that has always appealed to me. It was my favorite holiday as a kid (and still is) and I always remember thinking it was cool when some neighbors went "above and beyond" in their attempts to make the night fun for the kids. Either by dressing up when they gave away candy or putting decorations in their yards. 

I am also a big horror movie fan and get a kick out of being scared but at the same time knowing that everything is still safe. I've always thought that it would be fun to be in a scary movie but since that's never going to happen I guess staring in my own yard haunt is the next best thing. 

Creating and building these props has also been a lot of fun for me. I think it's vital to a person's existance that they have some form of creative outlet in their lives and whatever they want that outlet to be is up to them. Some people paint, some people write and some people waste way too much money on building material so they can create Halloween props that makes his girlfriend just smile and shake her head. I guess I fall into the last catagory.


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## operatingnurse (Aug 22, 2009)

I agree with the stress relief. While concentrating on a project, I tend to forget about reality worries...


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## Shadowbat (Sep 27, 2009)

Everyone has posted some great reasons for their love of Halloween, and must admit, I agree with each one.lol


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## headless_horseman (Aug 7, 2006)

my family is really into halloween, my great grandma, who was an art teacher, would always draw halloween pictures for my brothers and i, and she taught us how to draw spooky things. my grandma always had a huge halloween village we would always but up the last weekend of september. my parents always made halloween displays in the front yard growing up, scarecrow, hay bails, spiderwebs, mums, ghost, colored light bulbs. the leaves changing and the smell of fire places and bonfire. going to the pumpkin patch every fall. mom always made apple fritters for dinner the week of halloween and carving pumpkins the night before. halloween night we always had chilli and watched the great pumpkin after trick or treating with my brothers. 

i miss those days a lot as i get older but i know these good times are why i love halloween so much.


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## briwesk (Aug 11, 2008)

i say it had to be my parents. When i was little, my dad used to take me and my twin sister to a cheap haunted house at a local garden center. I loved watching my sister scream and cry, and my dad laughing and me trying to be the "big brother" (even though we were twins) protecting her. We also have one of americas oldest winery where i live and every year they had the "haunted Cellars" and my mom used to take me, grandma, aunt and sisters there every year. On top of that, my parents threw a Halloween Party every other year. They were always buying props and making halloween special. 

now that I am 24, I build my own props and try to keep what my parents do. My parents are not really into Halloween as they used to be, but they still have their party every other year.


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## AxeHill (Aug 26, 2009)

I think what got me started was working for a haunted house years ago. A local radio station put on a haunted house and had no clue what they were doing. So a buddy and myself went up and started telling them what the needed to do. Next thing we knew, we had jobs as floor managers making sure everything was in place and actors were in their spots... It was a great time... after I got married, my wife discloses that she also worked in a haunted house and loved it.. next thing I know we are celebrating Halloween unlike anyone we know... he we are 7 years into marriage and 5 haunts later...


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## savagehaunter (Aug 22, 2009)

They had this haunted house at Boden Park when I was a kid and I was facinated by the props and actors and all they could do back in the early 80's before the wide sell of props and how to books. I was fasinated and started haunting my yard at 15 yrs old because of it.


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## alralralr (Sep 29, 2009)

my family is definitely the reason. i remember being nine and my mom showed me the movie halloween and i fell in love. we were known in our neighborhood for being the one house that would go over the top with it. i wish i had pictures. we would spend days working on it and setting it up. it was great. what's not to love about halloween?


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## Yubney (Sep 14, 2009)

Reading Famous Monsters of Filmland magazine growing up.


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## Deslock (Aug 24, 2009)

It's because Halloween's fun.

*Plain and simple*.

My mother helped me become the Halloween fiend I am now.

It's the one time of the year as a kid you can become something more than you are.

No stress about about buying presents. No stress about who you're going to please or displease.

It's the smell of fireplaces and wood burning. It's about pumpkins and the wonderful colours of the leaves. The chill in the air. The one time of the year when you can be something better, or different than your "normal" self.

It's _hard_ to explain.

But we love the tombstones. The bare trees rattling in the wind with the fear of the "unknown". The dark which carries our fear....and yet deep down inside we *all* love it.

The *secret* thing that will jump out when we least expect it...

That is what we live for.

We are _haunters_.

We are a "different" breed.

The "normal" people don't understand us. But yet every year they come to us for their once a year "fix". Maybe because once a year, they need it too, even if they don't want to admit it.

Our souls need that "scare" to keep us based in "reality".

But truth be told....Halloween is just plain cool. 

It wouldn't be the number 2 Holiday besides Christmas if we all _didn't_ enjoy it, and for our kids to enjoy it. We as adults want our kids to enjoy it too.

One day out of the year you can openly embrace the dark "scary" side of life, the one day when both the spirits of your loved ones, and the dark ones roam the earth.

So carve up and fire up those pumpkins !

And let the joy of Halloween fill your hearts, and those TOT's bags with candy.

Let the ghosts rattle those chains, and the spirits scare those bad spooks away !!!

God bless you all.

Des.


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## Gothic Klown (Sep 29, 2009)

I've always loved Halloween growing up. It's always been a passion to me. It wasnt until I was 16 that Halloween passed and I figured that not only can Halloween be fun, but making your own costumes and designs can bring 100% fun out of it and so i started down the road of Special Effects Make-up Artist. It also helped when i got this job (look at signature) because it helped me see many different types of designs and such.


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## cflear (Oct 17, 2007)

My love of Halloween started with my great friend and neighbor Kathy. She loved Halloween, and between the two of us, we would decorate outside our apartments every year, bigger and bigger.. 
Sadly, she passed away from breast cancer in 1999. Every year since, it's become a tribute to Kathy. Now that I have my own house, I can do so much more! And I know Kathy is wandering around the whole time, adding to the scare factor!


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## Catatonic (Sep 10, 2006)

When I was a 9 or so an older relative let me watch Nightmare on Elm Street (Part 1, on vhs). I was terrified for ages.... just absolutly horrified. A year or so later I saw The Making of Nightmare and it changed everything. I was in awe.... I was in love... I was forever changed. I LOVED FX makeup. I wasnt afraid anymore. I wanted.... no, NEEDED to learn how. I would steal makup from my mom or older female relatives and try to make bruises, cuts, scars. As a teenager I would scare my dad with various cuts and gashes. More than once friends would come over unannounced and find me with my face painted like the sky or some other odd creation. It just progressed into a love of Halloween, Fall, Leaves... all the things that you find here. It took years to find others that thought like me, and as passionatly as I do. You guys are great!!! Very cool reading everyones stories. They make my little black heart smile.


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## karasel (Jun 21, 2011)

I'm not sure....I've always liked halloween but I think my obsession started when we first started dressing up at work, its just escalated from there. I've been doing a spook trail or halloween party every year since. My kids are grown now, I really wished I would have been this way when they were younger.


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## blackfog (Oct 9, 2008)

It wasn't just one thing it is the whole feeling of Halloween and every aspect of it. The decorating, excitment of the TOT's, the fun of being anyone I want to be that night, the acting and putting on a show, the comments and thanks I get, the eeriness and dark side of it all has always fascinated me since I was a kid.


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## blazernut2k (Aug 24, 2009)

Halloween runs in my family's blood. My great grandfather/grandfather/father all worked for Universal and Burbank Studios at some point or another. This lead to some really awesome trick-or-treating during the 80's. I distinctly remember the elaborate yard haunts the Hollywood guys would put up in their yards, with each guy trying to one up the other. I remember going to Knott's Scary Farm year after year. When i look back on that time I see how fotunate I really was to be exposed to that in the heyday of 80's horror. Nowadays,I hope that some child may see my house and become inspired!


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## boobear (Jul 2, 2009)

When I got married years ago I thought I would have my own house. That led me to think I needed to decorate the entire house for Halloween, so I started accumulating things. 4 years later I still have no home of my own, but I have a ton of Halloween stuff and just keep buying things. I suppose that kick started my habit and I haven't given it up.


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## CreepySpiders (Aug 4, 2010)

For me, it was two things. 1) my mom who believed halloween was for scary costumes ONLY (thanks!). In the picture below I am the vamp. 2) a Special effects make up book I got in 4th grade. Still inspired to this day!


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## Halloweinerdog Lover (Jul 20, 2009)

It is definitely The Simpson's Halloween Episodes! I would watch them and want to re-create that opening scene in the cemetery. I remember trying to cut a tombstone out of cardboard with an exacto knife and sliced my finger open when I was very young. After that my Grandpa made me some wood ones so they would hold up better... and I have been absolutely hooked ever since!


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## Halloween Scream (Sep 29, 2010)

A few wonderful things inspired my Halloween love-affair! 
-My birthday is four days after Halloween and I often asked for a holiday-themed party. 
-I was 11 years old when Nightmare Before Christmas came out, the perfect age for being both slightly scared and completely awe-struck.
-There wasone special house on my street that went all out decorating. The woman that lived there dressed like a scary witch to hand out candy. She never said a word, just silently put the candy in our bags. I remember being so scared and so excited to go there every year! I try to re-create the same experience at my house now.


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## GhostTown (Jul 6, 2011)

Art




....plus ten more characters.


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## psox16 (Jun 6, 2009)

I value any tradition. There is something about celebrating or honoring a tradition through the years that gives me such a happy feeling. My Halloween memories are not unique, and that's probably because they consisted of TOTing and cartoon Halloween specials. I'm 24 now, and am striving to be that friend and family member who always has the Halloween party and comes up with the best costume. I am trying so hard to start new traditions so I can share them with my family, friends, and future children. Its similar to Christmas for me, its a reason to get people together to have fun. That and I love the season in general, it has the most change and it makes me feel happy!


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## Gym Whourlfeld (Jan 22, 2003)

My Family were all into Halloween. MY Mother and her Mother made costumes, dressed up too. My Dad was an adult vandal but then he was sort of a vandal outside of October too.??
Helping tip over outhouses in October, wiring gag car bombs to some friend's ignition system when they were parked downtown inside of a store, this was before inside hood latches, obviously. Those "Bombs" sold for 69 cents in the local hardware store. They shrieked, whistled, went BOOM! and made a lot of smoke coming out from under the hood as a finale.
My Dad quit doing the car-bomb thing "cold-Turkey" when flames shot out and up from the explosion. (Of course his Buddies were wiring up his car too!)
As a doodler, drawing kid, of the 1950's seeing Horror-Science fiction classics as first-run movies in the theater made quite the impression.
My imagination and work ethic to create my ideas has sustained a personal income for me the last 25 years.
I HAD to have More "Halloween"(It is ADDICTIVE!) so I opened my haunted house and have had it open for house tours almost every night for the last 25 years. The Ravens Grin Inn Mount Carroll, Illinois.


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## Guest (Aug 23, 2011)

Growing up, our Family had no traditions. We went TOTing approx. 2 times my entire childhood. I never saw scary movies. No Jason, Micheal Meyers, etc. I liked Halloween, but it was "neutral," take it or leave it.
When my kids were in elementary school, I found a cool ape mask at walmart. It has white hair, and is super creepy. (I still use it.) I stuffed some jeans and a plaid shirt with leftover walmart bags, and put a hat on his head, and put him on the porch. I was FASCINATED with my creation at night! I would go outside and stand in the dark and imagine that he would suddenly stand up! How creepy! Or his head would slowly turn in my direction.
On Halloween, everybody loved my thrown together creature. Many people took pictures of him, told me how great it was. I was hooked.
The next year I made another creature, a grim reaper that is very tall. My middle son named him Rex Hooliguard, and he is still with us today. People really liked him!
The next year I added a few props- a table with dead flowers...real dead bugs I find and carefully store throughout the year...a machete, etc.
The next year I added a scarecrow, and started to grow pumpkins. That was my funnest year. I started to buy Halloween items on purpose, not just scrounge. I also started paper mache.
Now, it's my hobby 100%. I use it to bring magic and fantasy into my life. I adore the night of Halloween itself. It does feel "different." It feels like there is something in the air- something old and magical and sweet and creepy.
I love old school Halloween. I love the pumpkin and apple recipes, and the kids being excited to do things with me...even tho they will be gone soon. I love school buses driving slowly by my house while my stuff is up, and all the faces pressed against the glass, looking at Halloween.I love Hocus Pocus witches...I love black cats...I love scary movies.
I am horribly sad at the end of Halloween night. Once a year is so special- but so rare.
We are Military too! I really love my stuff to lug it around across the world. I cannot dig up my yard, or attach items to my home because of Military Housing rules. I really have to be creative, and mostly just settle for whatever.


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## rockplayson (Jun 7, 2008)

Ever since I was little I have loved halloween. However it was not until I joined this forum that it became an everyday thing for me. Thankyou wonderfull forum for making me an addict.


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## ULTIMATE HAUNTx1029x (Aug 14, 2011)

I've always loved to scare people, since I was little it was always one of my senses of humor . when I was first introduced to Halloween as a kid , It instantly became my favorite time of year. I used to go out trick or treating for halloween, but now I work at Halloween events in my region. This year I'm gunna aim to work at Screemers toronto . I wouldn't be able to give only one reason for me becoming a complete Halloween junkie XP but one of the reasons is clearly because I love scaring anyone I can. Halloween has lots of meaning to me  , I've always loved everything about Halloween and I'm sure I always will .


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## c910andace (Aug 17, 2010)

My Mom was a master with her sewing machine and if I could dream it, she'd make it. We always had Halloween decorations but when I was a teenager I took it to the next level. Made our own stocks and gallows with my dad, duct taped coffins out of cardboard for the night which we would drape in material from Mom's sewing closet. We did the Cinderella method and put nothing out until that day. When the kids from the neighborhood started hanging out in our yard during the month of October we knew we were a hit! I honestly don't understand people who don't like Halloween.


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## HKitten (Sep 20, 2009)

I'm British and my parents never, ever celebrate Halloween. My dad thinks it's a silly american holiday - I don't think they ever even opened the door to TOTs! Poor things. Not that we get a lot of that anyway.

I love party planning though, and my birthday is three days before Halloween so I've always associated the dressing up and autumn feel of Halloween with my birthday  and now that I've moved out, and my boyfriend loves Halloween too, we've gotten really into it.


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## Houston Haunter (Apr 26, 2011)

My birthday is exactly 1 week before halloween and I to have associated the holiday with great joy in my life. Fortunately I grew up in a family that allowed us to TOT and go to Halloween carnivals. Some of you are old enough to remember when you could have school or church carnival that actually mentioned and celebrated All Hallows Eve. One of the funnest haunted houses (for a kid) was at my church and library. you could never do that today, so I take great pleasure in showing the next generation the fun that can be had with this holiday.


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## RCIAG (Jul 19, 2010)

This guy, Count Gore DeVol:










Our Saturday night host of Creature Feature. 

Him & the Saturday afternoon movies & other afternoon movies that would run on a couple of different channels (this was back in the 70s pre-Oprah days kids). I remember seeing Christopher Lee's Dracula & being horrified, seeing Karloff's mummy & having nightmares.

These images cemented me firmly in the horror genre & gave me nightmares for weeks, hell I'm not even fond of seeing them here & now!! 


































Man, I almost didn't post the vampire kid. I remember watching it at my aunt's house & having to cross a big yard to get back to my house & it was one of those times when, even though you're a big kid, in 6th grade & you KNOW that stuff isn't real you start walking & say to yourself "It's not real, there's no such thing as vampires, not realnotrealnotreal......buuuuutjustincaseImmastartRUNNINGVERYFASTRIGHTNOW!!!"

Barlowe & that kid did NOT get me that night. 

So I guess I'd say it was my love, fear, & fascination with all things horror & horrible that sent me into a Halloween frenzy. 

My life as a kid was less than idyllic, so knowing there were scarier things out there & fictional people who had it a LOT worse than I did made me feel a little less scared of real life in general.

I also learned at an early age that if you think icky things are cool, people will pay attention to you. I kinda liked that even if it was the kind of attention where people think you're weird, I still liked it. I was "different" & knew very few other girls that liked horror & I enjoyed & still enjoy that attention.


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## BeaconSamurai (Nov 5, 2009)

Dave Lowe's website. I saw a picture of a groundbreaker he made and thought "I can do that!" Then I saw something else and made that, the process just keeps going and going.


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## 22606 (Aug 11, 2008)

I've always been a bit of a weirdo







Most likely, the television shows and movies of the 1980's that I stayed up late watching












RCIAG said:


> These images cemented me firmly in the horror genre & gave me nightmares for weeks, hell I'm not even fond of seeing them here & now!!


That's what I'm talking about, RCIAG







I'm one of the nutcases who actually _wanted_ to find a Zuni fetish doll under the Christmas tree...


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## DarkManDustin (Jun 30, 2011)

Coffee4106, I can commiserate with you on the church thing, and the weird thing. I can't stand it when a religious nut shoots down Halloween and all that goes wit it. It's not of the devil. Read the history of it. Anyway, I am a Christian, but I don't agree with some of the beliefs like that. I do beleve in the devil and evil, but beliefs based on openion,stereotypes, misconception, and urban legends, I quetion. OMGDan, I'm a child of the 90s myself. Remember the deorations of that time? I was inspired by he Peanuts andGarfield specials and the Monster Plantation ride at Six Flags inAtlanta. What fues mylove or Halloween now is ths; I'm visually impaired. If I look at my Ipod or phone, o anyting up close, I ge stared t lk I'm on display. Halowengives me th free pass o be different and not be done that way. Haloweenis a day to be something you aren't.l


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## djkeebz (Oct 1, 2005)

I liked Halloween a lot as a kid but didn't partake much after that until 6-7 years ago. I was invited to a Halloween party and had so much fun picking out costumes and getting ready. It has progressed into an obsession since then!


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## runmikeyrun (Oct 7, 2008)

My earliest memories of Halloween were as a little kid. We lived out in the country so we would go to my grandma's neighborhood to trick or treat. When I was in 2nd grade, we moved into a housing development so it was game on as far as candy was concerned. There was the "one" neighbor who played sound effects and had a blow up skeleton sitting in a chair that they would pull up with a fishing line. The lady who passed out candy dressed as a witch and was very creepy. Not much, but it was more than anyone else did.

When I was 11 or 12 my love of horror movies and the macabre started. My friend's older brother did a home haunt at the top of the street. Kids talked about it for weeks before Halloween. When I was 14 I wanted to pull off a home haunt but my parents said no. My friend's older brother had gone off to college and his parents said we could continue the tradition. We did it 3 years, the one year we didn't do it was because we went to see Nirvana on halloween night. People now come to that house who we scared the crap out of 20 years ago with their kids and talk to his mom about how awesome it was.

Once I was 14 I started working in haunted houses. I worked in them on and off for about 7-8 years. I even helped design and set one up the last two years it operated, even getting to do the sound tracks for the rooms. It was awesome. If I had the time I would do it again in a heartbeat.

As an adult I became a firefighter and paramedic, partly because of my love of things gory. Over the years i've seen things that have made big tough cops and firefighters pass out, cry, and vomit. I think because of my love of horror movies it never really shocked me. Recently I worked for two years as a tissue recovery technician in the organ donation field. I performed surgery on dead people- surgically removing the bones, skin, tendons, and hearts of murder and suicide victims, car and motorcycle deaths, etc. I couldn't think of a gorier job than that! I even met my ex gf there, she is an embalmer. We would cut people up together. Our house was decorated inside year round for halloween. But that's another story...

Back on track- i've done home haunts ever since i've owned a home in 2003. They moved TOT on us a couple years ago so it's not on Halloween night, and with daylight savings time it's not even dark during TOT. But I still go through the motions and do the setup. It's tradition. It's in my blood. I couldn't stop it if I wanted to. I get my daughter involved too- she's now 5- when she feels like it she'll run around with a plastic cleaver or something, but always in her princess costumes!

Did I mention yet that I love halloween?


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## GodOfThunder (Aug 26, 2011)

Well, I suppose this is my first non-introductory post, so it's only fitting I answer this one.

Growing up in WI, I think I was a Star Wars character for something like 6 years in a row maybe, and remember trick or treating once when it snowed. Some family friends of ours had a big old house and a lot of hilly land and did a very suspenseful Halloween event each year, with an elaborate--and phony--backstory of a haunting in their 100+ year old house. I think the paradoxical enjoyment of being scared kind of hooked me. I never got into horror films substantially until my 30s probably. But when I lived in St. Louis, a good friend of mine was a Halloween NUT. Completely gonzo--haunted house in garage, lights, sound, fog, cemetery, cars lined up in the neighborhood to see it, the whole shooting match. So that has always stuck with me because I wanted to do something similar, although probably not to that degree.

And after my divorce, my ex cleaned out ALL the Halloween stuff. So after being busy doing the single Dad thing, I put holiday extravagances on hold.

So now I'm remarried, have a new house and looking at hosting our second annual Halloween party. Last year's was a blast and everyone had a good time, even though it certainly was vanilla from a thematic standpoint, costumes notwithstanding. So this year's gonna rock.


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## Forever Haunting (Jan 1, 2009)

Hmmmm...this is a really interesting question, and I have enjoyed reading everyone's responses. 

For me, I think it was 2 things primarily. 

The first was going to see the the movie "The Ghost and Mr. Chicken" as a kid. It starred Don Knott's who spent the night in this old haunted house that had hidden passages and an organ loft. It was amazing because the movie was scary, fun, and funny.....all in one. Now that I think about it, the Adam's Family and the Munster's probably contributed as well.

The second was the Halloween Carnival at my elementary school. It was one of my favorite events each year.


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## Forever Haunting (Jan 1, 2009)

Hmmmm...this is a really interesting question, and I have enjoyed reading everyone's responses. 

For me, I think it was 2 things primarily. 

The first was going to see the the movie "The Ghost and Mr. Chicken" as a kid. It starred Don Knott's who spent the night in this old haunted house that had hidden passages and an organ loft. It was amazing because the movie was scary, fun, and funny.....all in one. Now that I think about it, the Adam's Family and the Munster's probably contributed as well.

The second was the Halloween Carnival at my elementary school. It was one of my favorite events each year.


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## stickman6 (Nov 6, 2010)

My sister used to play the Disney Haunted House record ALOT when I was 2-ish (earliest memory). I liked one side but the other side scared me. Someone way earlier mentioned the "electric" feeling of TOT. My uncle was in the JayCees, so someone always carried me through thier haunt when I was really young. The first year I was given freedom from supervision, I paid to go through a haunted house and my uncle ran up in a hockey mask and picked me up and carried me into the darkness and let me hide and scare people with him. Blacklights and fake spiderweb. And most importantly... Fangoria magazine in the late 80s.


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## Mordessa (Jul 23, 2007)

This is a great thread! Took a while, but I read through the whole thing, and loved all the responses! Some of them are so similar to my own! 

I must count myself among the supremely fortunate people who were born to parents who loved Halloween. Though there usually wasn't much decoration at our house beyond the construction paper stuff us kids did at school or the occasional store bought cardboard witch in the window, we always had awesome costumes. Well, we did until my parents divorced and mom moved away. She was awesome with a sewing machine, and my dad was incredible with paper mache'. Between the two of them, our costumes were usually award winning at our school pageants. Haha! I remember when I was five or six, my mom made me a bumble bee costume out of a gymnastics leotard and my dad made me a paper mache helmet with long bouncy antennae that had sparkly gold balls on the ends. I loved that costume so much, I never wanted to take it off, despite that my little neck could barely hold the weight of the helmet. lol It hurt to wear, but everybody kept saying how cute I was, so no way I was giving THAT up! lol

My dad was also a major horror movie buff, so I was watching horror movies since way before I was old enough to do so. My love for Michael Jackson was compounded 100fold the day Thriller came out. And when I saw the Making of Thriller, I was in LOVE with the idea of special effects and makeup. I was always trying to do new things with makeup and such. Never could convince my parents to let me get stuff to practice wounds and stuff as I'd hoped though. lol

During the pre-teen years Dad would also take us to this huge pumpkin patch and we'd wander out among the punkins for what seemed like hours searching out the perfect one for us. Then, we'd get back to the place to pay for the pumpkin, and they would give us warm cider with a cinnamon stick in it. And then we'd go on the haunted hay ride as soon as it got dark. Man, I loved that hay ride!

And when we would carve the pumpkins, my dad would mute the lights with orange fabric over the lamps and stuff, and light candles so he could see what he was doing, and then as the kids scooped out the insides, and separated the seeds for roasting (after we'd drawn the pics of what we wanted our jackolanterns to look like onto them) he would do the carving and tell us really scary ghost stories as he worked... that man had such a flair for instilling magic into an atmosphere! 

To add to alllll this wonderfulness, we also lived three houses away from an old run down hotel, this is a pic of it after it had been painted:








But when I was a kid the paint was always pealing and the place was a massive gray building that was rumored to be one of Al Capone's old hideouts. And the wonderful owners used to do a haunted house in the place at Halloween. I was way too young to truly enjoy it back then, but even though I spent most of the walk through hiding my face in my father's neck as he carried me, it still seemed like a great time! 


Halloween was such a major part of my life that I got a job working at the haunted house in the mall when I was 17 or so, which I thoroughly enjoyed. Then, a couple years later I joined the cast of Fright Fest at Six Flags in northern IL. Worked there as a zombie (nicknamed Lorraina Bobbet zombie, since I looked like a baby sitter/housewife and carried a big knife. lol) for about 4 years, and then became the undead beauty queen, Hellina Handbasket, there for the next two or three years running. I absolutely LOVED that job. Probably the best one I ever had in my life. lol I did some of my best scares there. Honestly, there is no feeling in the world like scaring the kid who is ruining it for all his friends by walking up and confronting the actors, so badly that he actually falls on the ground, or watching five US Navy men running like children and screeching like girls just to get away from you... *wistful sigh* Ahhhh... those were the days... 

Halloween is just the most amazing time of year there is. Autumn is my favorite season, I love the smells, the crispness of the air, the apple picking, the trip to the pumpkin patch, the haunted hay rides, the Home Coming game for the HS football team... I just love it all. I can't even explain the happy feelings I get the minute I start to see the first tinges of color in the leaves or take that first breath of the chilled autumn breeze... It is simply magical. 

And when you add to that all the wonderful things about the day, like the creativity involved and the freedom to be whatever you can imagine and all the candy and cartoon specials and scary movies... *dreamy sigh* It's just the best thing I can even imagine.


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## bamaquad (May 18, 2011)

I really didn't become an enthusiast until a couple years ago when wy wifes aunt invited up to their camper in mid October. They were set up at a place called Tanne Hill and it was like all the campers u could see decked out like Christmas only with Halloween lights and props instead. I loved it. I paid $5.00 a night to get in and look around every night for the rest of October. After that 1st time I went and bought a camper and the rest is history. 

On the Saturday before Halloween the camp site is packed out with campers, treaters, Blow up jumps, everything u can imagine like a carnival but with a Halloween theme to it. When 5:00 rolls around u better be ready, non stop tots till 12:00. Literally 1000's of them. We have run out of candy the past two years. Last year we had 4 clothes baskets lined with plastic overflowing and still ran out. Can't wait to see how much we give out this year.

Along with candy we're handing out neon glow bracelets. First 600 get a bracelet.lol


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## His and Hearse (May 19, 2011)

Uno said:


> When I was a kid we always had this one house on our trick-or-treat route that would do a little bit extra to make things special. The woman who lived there dressed up as an elaborate witch and sat on her front porch handing out candy. She had a cauldron with dry ice steaming and played spooky sounds over her stereo. It wasn't much but it was the biggest thing going on in our neighborhood.
> 
> When I got older I wanted to participate in Halloween still but felt too old to trick or treat. So I started dressing up with a few friends and scaring the people who came to my house. We played spooky music and rattled chains in the back of a pickup truck. It was simple, but it was the start.
> 
> Today I still remember that house and I hope that someday in 20 years, someone else will remember my house and be inspired to enjoy the holiday into older age as I have.


Same exact story here. There was that one house that always scared the crap outta me, and as soon as I was old enough (7, actually) I HAD to make a haunted porch of my own. 

Other things have added to the obsession...visiting Disney's Haunted Mansion as a 10 year old, later love of horror movies, and just overall love of the season. It is A LOT easier to decorate now than in 1985, let me tell you. Couldn't even get spider webs back then, and you had to settle for whatever decor you could make yourself or cobble together from local drug store offerings.


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## wicKED weeKEnD (Aug 27, 2011)

I blame my mom and grandmother  In a good way. Details are here http://wickedwaysproductions.blogspot.com/p/making-of-wicked-halloween-enthusiast.html


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## serpensphile (Nov 12, 2008)

Our high school band had a haunted trail to raise money every year and I loved it. It was so much fun I set up a yard haunt so my kids could share the experience. It's really brought up close together!


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## Lea32R (Oct 16, 2008)

I don't think it was one thing. Like everyone else has said, as a child we had awesome Hallowe'ens. We never spent a lot of money on it, in fact it was mostly home-made stuff. I recall as a small child wearing a tattered bin bag for a witch's costume! My mum used to use food colouring to dye my hair green. We always had parties - pretty simple stuff - apples on strings game and I always remember making chocolate apples with my mum. We used to heat chocolate and dip the apples in and then make faces on them with Smarties and sugar strands for hair. When I was younger it was hard to get pumpkins in the UK so we used to carve turnip lanterns which is an old tradition in Britain. We used to go trick or treating and because we lived in a really close-knit community where everyone knew everyone, every single house used to give us sweets. My mum ued to always wear a witch costume that she made herself and she gave the costume to me a couple of years ago as she doesn't dress up anymore. I have worn it on Hallowe'en sometimes, although sometimes I wear other things.

And I remember as a kid, just believing that anything could happen on Hallowe'en. I used to swear that even the air felt different on Hallowe'en night, electrified. I truly believed that the spirits were about on Hallowe'en and who knew what they could do? It's that sense of...possibility...that really sealed it for me. I love to try and recreate that feeling. And autumn is my favourite season.


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## James B. (Oct 8, 2009)

I loved Halloween and fall as a kid and when my wife and I bought a house with a yard it was on. This site gave me plenty of inspiration in making items like tombstones, coffins, and corpses. 

I have always been a big fan of zombies and loved the haunted mansion ride ever since I was 6 and went to Disney World for the first time.


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## hauntedgraveyard (Sep 8, 2008)

I think the reason that I like halloween so much is that it was the one occasion that my Mum & Dad embraced as new immigrants to Canada. They were from Scotland, so they had a tradition of "guising" and carving turnip lanterns. 

My Dad was always excited to help my siblings and I pick out the biggest pumpkins we could find. We each got one  and it was a great day when we carved them all. My Mum would help us get our costumes done and always had lots of ideas. Even though my Mum was a bit of a health nut and we really didn't get many treats during the year, she loved giving out chocolate to ToTs. 

We always had the costume parade at school, which was one of the highlights of the school year. Being from Toronto, which is very ethnically diverse, it didn't matter where you were from, it was one occasion that most new immigrants let there kids participate in. There may have been a rag tag bunch of costumes, but it was fun. At that time, in the '60s and '70s, most folks just did a pumkin and hand out candies. Only one house on our street did a "haunted house" (they were "Canadians" and had been doing it longer) which was very cool and very scary. 

It was great to get in costume and trick or treat yelling "Trick or Treat" or "Shell out, shell out the witches are out!".

Sheila (now in Ottawa)


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## stormygirl84 (Sep 4, 2009)

I don't think that there was any ONE thing for me. I remember that my mother always used to love decorating for any holiday (not so anymore), and she certainly loved dressing me up when I was little.

And even as far back as I can remember, I always loved things like mermaids and unicorns, and other creatures that would be termed "cryptids" today. It was a short leap from there to things like werewolves and vampires and ghosts. Even back to first grade I can remember "writing" stories about monsters and other Halloween things. I remember loving spooky stories, even though they scared the bejeebies out of me. (Still do...) And I know that by the time I was about seven years old, I'd seen "The Worst Witch" so many times that I'd memorized every line. I went crazy for specials like Garfield's Halloween Adventure, DTV Monster Hits and The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, even when I was too little to really understand them. I remember being disappointed one time when one of my early school textbooks started talking about "legends," and I realized that they were referring to maps and not spooky stories. (I have no idea what the context was, but I remember being SO disappointed. I was young, too, probably seven or eight.) I remember being slightly obsessed with the Loch Ness Monster and Big Foot.

I think for me the love of Halloween was just... Natural.


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## arckrc44 (Oct 19, 2011)

It's the most creative of the holidays.


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## snigglez (Jun 4, 2009)

In 1965 my mom and dad bought their very first house. They had 3 sons. A year later I was born. Every year for as long as I can remember my dad use to set up a Maze under the carport. I remember seeing lines down the block for people to come in. Nothing was like this in the area. My dad did all his own props and involved all of us with the acting. My mom dressed up and handed out candy after they went thru the maze. Well since my mom and dad moved to another place and my parents basically handed over the house to me. I started doing displays at the house. Not as insane as he use to do but I did what I could. My kids (now all grown up) did not really get into the Halloween Scene the way I did growing up so I had to rely more on static and animated props. My husband is awesome and surprises me more and more each year. My Parents absolutely loves that I "kept the tradition" in the house that they use to do the maze in. They would come over every year to help and pass out candy and scare kids. So it makes me feel good that I am keeping what he holds dear in their hearts and that means the world to me to see them happy because they are AWESOME parents and I am extremely lucky to have have/had them both in my life (along with our tradition)  (My mom passed last Dec. but I know in my heart she will be there in "SPIRIT" for the rest of the years that my husband my dad and I will do our displays


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## jollygorilla (Oct 10, 2011)

mad monster party and disney world's haunted mansion


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## jollygorilla (Oct 10, 2011)

I forget famous monsters of filmland


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## Gryphon (Sep 28, 2011)

The thing that influenced me the most was when i went TOTing and saw one of the neighbors houses. they always left the house bare then on halloween they would take the day off and do up the whole house into a haunt. i loved the detail and all the love they put into doing their decorations. it was always the highlight of the night. i decided then and there that i wanted to be that guy. then what started as a few day project turned quickly into a year long obsession. The wife takes christmas (hence the two boxes of decorations) and i take halloween. it gets hard finding the christmas stuff when the garage is filled with halloween stuff


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## tomanderson (Dec 6, 2007)

ALL the responses are great, and many bring the old feelings back. This one quote in particular reminds me of how I used to feel running around on Hallowe'en night:



Lea32R said:


> And I remember as a kid, just believing that anything could happen on Hallowe'en. I used to swear that even the air felt different on Hallowe'en night, electrified. I truly believed that the spirits were about on Hallowe'en and who knew what they could do? It's that sense of...possibility...that really sealed it for me. I love to try and recreate that feeling. And autumn is my favourite season.


I remember the chill in the air, the literal chill, and the cold feeling of sadness, when I came to accept that it was getting late and Halloween night was wrapping up and wearing down. It was almost time to go home and get to sleep! Man, what a sad feeling that was/is. Seemed especially bad back then though. When one is a child, Halloween is really one's element--a world of creativity to play in.


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## Saruman of Many Colours (Sep 8, 2010)

Can't say that there was any one thing that so influenced me; rather, a combination of various influences. It does seem that I've come to Halloween from a slightly different direction than many others on the Forum. For me, it didn't start with horror movies. It originated with reading Greek and Norse mythology, other folk tales, 'The Hobbit' and 'The Lord of The Rings', and yes even playing Dungeons & Dragons.  So, basically, mine is more of a fantasy-oriented/inspired approach.

But anyway, in terms of the earliest Halloween-y influences that I can remember:

- Earlier this month, I had purchased 'The Berenstain Bears & the Spooky Old Tree', which I read to my son every night -- and I remember fondly just how much I loved that book as a kid. (Edit: And he enjoys it too. When the three little bears each get the shivers, he laughs. )

- The Disney cartoon 'The Lonesome Ghosts': http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6bK3y6IYql8

- Disney's 'The Legend of Sleepy Hollow': http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZhV4HDGJg5Y

- Scooby Doo -- Even as a kid, I was always disappointed when they unmasked the villain at the end of the episode, revealing him to be some ordinary guy rather than a cool monster. 

- Jonny Quest -- In particular, the 'House of the Seven Gargoyles' episode: http://the-haunted-closet.blogspot.com/2009/05/house-of-seven-gargoyles-jonny-quest.html


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