Halloween Gatherings
As summer turns to fall, and the calendar pages creep closer to the “-ber” months, we can almost hear the crunch of leaves under our feet and the eerie echoes of disembodied voices in the crisp night air as anticipation builds for the 76% of adults who do something to celebrate Halloween, from passing out candy to dressing their pets (sorry, Fido).
Americans love Halloween to the tune of 10.6 billion dollars in 2022. The average person nationwide spends a whopping $100 on costumes, decorations, candy and greeting cards each year, and Texas ranks fifth nationwide for Halloween spending. Anything for a party, right?
Texans will have to work harder to percolate enthusiasm for the orange and black holiday this year as we are still exhausted from the relentless record-breaking heat. Fortunately, if you need a little nudge to get into the spirit this year, we have plenty of ideas to get you started.
Aside from costumes, achieving the desired atmosphere is essential to the holiday vibe. I have narrowed it down to three spooky styles. Although you can purchase decorative items just about anywhere, going the DIY route on a few projects will light your inner jack-o’-lantern. Here are a few creepy themes with illuminating DIY ideas.
Whimsically Spooky
Think sweet and playful with a gently creepy edge — friendly pumpkins, cute little witches, cuddly bats, dancing skeletons, and cartoonish spiders. This G-rated style is perfect for the little ones, but adults enjoy the simple festiveness. This style lends itself to DIY projects. You will find a ton online, including Pinterest, the mecca for DIY creativity, followed by a trip to a dollar store for low-cost supplies. Here are a few ideas to get your creativity flowing: Hand-painted paper-mâché pumpkins, spiders crafted from paper, googly eyes and pipe cleaners; tiny cheesecloth ghosts; cardstock bats hung with fishing line; and tabletop haunted house silhouettes cut from poster board.
Supernatural Gothic Aura
Turn your home into an authentic haunt with an unsettling ghostly atmosphere emphasizing a connection with the spirit world. After all, Halloween stems from the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain, during which people believed the spirits of the dead roamed the earth. Go heavy on the candles to create shadows and eerie corners that compel you to look over your shoulder. Employ a fog machine or dry ice to add moodiness and mystery. Consider including graveyard imagery and barren, twisted trees to evoke a sense of desolation and decay. Adding an atmospheric soundtrack (I suggest the band Midnight Syndicate) will intensify the sense of foreboding. Here are a few DIY projects that fit this style: Human-sized ghosts made from chicken wire and cheesecloth (add dim lighting inside for ultra eeriness); delicate hot glue cobwebs; haunted mirrors (old mirrors with images rendered in translucent silvery paint); and large cardboard silhouette cut-outs for windows — think gnarled trees with crows, ghostly apparitions and moonlit graveyards.
Morbid and Grisly
This style is all about inducing extreme macabre terror. It includes severed limbs, bloody murder weapons, torture chambers, jump-scare animatronics, and strobe lighting effects. In short, all ghastly, gory, and shocking imagery fits this style, but the best executions of it aim to tell a story. For example, if you have a favorite gruesome horror movie, you can recreate one of its scenes.
Alternatively, you can draw inspiration from the progression of haunted house attractions that immerse you in the tales of unhinged characters who systematically terrorize their innocent victims. And if you’re feeling extra creative, write your horrifying narrative! Here is a bit of ghastly DIY inspiration: Clothing stuffed with foam or other fillings to resemble corpses or body parts; faux blood (find various recipes online to suit your specific purposes); gory skeletons created enhanced with spray paint and melted plastic or spray foam; and prop knives made from foam, paper- mâché, and paint.
Get friends and neighbors involved in dressing up and scaring others. Be sure to warn attendees of the scare level on a scale of one to five heart attacks. Forewarn parents and let them decide if it suits their young children.
A CREEPY GATHERING AT YOUR HAUNT
Once the decor is decided, invite friends for festivities matching ambiance and let the ghoulish games begin! You’ll get to show off your creativity and enjoy some laughs (or screams). Here are a few ideas for gathering your Halloween-loving posse together for an evening of frightening fun.
Host a horror movie trivia night
Besides the perfect theatrical selection(s), you'll need snacks and cocktails to match. Search "Halloween trivia questions" online — reward candy prizes to the winners.
If you own a projector and the weather cooperates, host an outdoor screening of a Halloween movie to amp up the creepy factor. Here are a few classic films that are popular selections for trivia nights:
- Scary: Bram Stoker's Dracula, Halloween, Nightmare on Elm Street, Night of the Living Dead, Nosferatu, Rosemary's Baby, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, The Exorcist, The Shining, and The Silence of the Lambs
- Kid-friendly: Hocus Pocus, The Nightmare Before Christmas, The Scariest Story Ever: A Mickey Mouse Halloween
Nerd out with literature
Invite friends and family for a dinner party where the entertainment is a dramatic reading of a horror story. Read the story to your guests or assign them parts.
Serve a dinner befitting the story and decorate the dining room to enhance the imagery. Here are a few classics sure to entertain:
- Numerous works by Edgar Allan Poe, including "The Masque of the Red
Death," "The Tell-Tale Heart," "The Fall of the House of Usher," and "The
Cask of Amontillado" would be excellent for this purpose. - "The Monkey's Paw" by W.W. Jacobs
- "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" by Washington Irving
- "The Yellow Wallpaper" by Charlotte Perkins Gilman
Hold a pumpkin decorating contest
For a successful pumpkin decorating contest, encourage participants to develop their designs beforehand. This will inspire everyone to put forth maximum effort and get competitive, with impressive results. Provide snacks, various carving tools, paint, and other art supplies. To keep everyone entertained while they carve, screen a scary movie or play Halloween-themed music. When everyone is finished, call in neighbors or another impartial judge. Let the judge develop prize categories to suit the participants: scariest, most creative, best non-carved or most colorful.
LOCAL EVENTS & GHOST HUNTING
Local events like haunted houses, Halloween festivals, and ghost tours can get you into the spirit (pun intended). And if you miss an organized event, you can always try a bit of
ghost hunting! Here are a few ideas from in and around the county to fill your autumn agenda.
Attend Boo Bash on Main in Sealy
Boo Bash is a yearly outdoor festival held on Halloween in downtown Sealy. Admission is free, and attractions include food trucks, live music, kids' games and contests, face painting, a haunted house, a train ride, and vendors. This year's event is on Oct. 31 from 5-8 p.m.
Visit Dewberry Farm Fall Festival in Brookshire
Dewberry's festival features a pumpkin patch, pumpkin painting, autumn photo ops, rides, a life-size pumpkin house, an eight-acre corn maze, and more. This event is held on weekends through Nov. 12 and is in full swing from 5-11 p.m. on Fridays, 10 a.m. to 11 p.m. on Saturdays, and 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. on Sundays. The festival also holds its BOOriffic nights starting at 7 p.m. This portion of the attraction does not require an extra ticket and features a haunted corn maze, jack o' lantern display, Stranger Things photo op, and axe-throwing. The ticket price at the gate is $41.95, but you can catch sales by purchasing online.
Try Some Amateur Ghost Hunting
If you're fearless, find a ghost tour or seek out some reportedly haunted locations for a bit of an independent investigation. Austin County has its fair share of ghost stories, so you never know what you might experience if you give it a shot.
One notable event of this ilk is the Sealy Area Historical Society's Ghost Tour. At the 2022 event, guests on the tour visited many reputedly haunted buildings, including the old Sealy Oil Mill, Sealy's first jail, and the Hackbarth House. Paranormal investigators have studied some locations and recorded compelling evidence, such as ghostly images and voices. In addition, eyewitnesses have also reported seeing two particular spirits move along the street from building to building.
Unfortunately, the ghost tour will not be held in 2023 but will return in 2024. Until then, gather local ghost stories from friends and neighbors, grab your recording devices, and (safely) investigate. As long as you are not trespassing or causing a disturbance, you can have an excellent time trying to make contact with a few visitors from beyond.
Feeling spooky yet?
All it takes is a bit of effort and fun to set the vibe, host or attend a Halloween-themed gathering, and perhaps seek spine-tingling contact with the other side. So, go ahead and start brewing the Halloween mood.
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