Tag Halloween

New Holiday Decorations

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Last year, I took my Halloween and Christmas decorations to the next level, all because I was inspired by the talented residents in my city who decorated their homes. Every year, the city of Burbank has a Halloween decorated house contest, and because there are many Burbank residents who work in the film and TV industry, the artistry and creativity exhibited are significant. For whatever reason, I was swept up in the festive energy of Halloween last October, and I made close to a dozen excursions to various neighborhoods in Burbank to see all the decorations.

During prior years, all I did in terms of decorating my place for Halloween was to put up wooden plaques of Jack Skellington and Sally at my front door, display three plastic skeletons (cat, Dachshund dog, and a rat) on the railing around my second-floor balcony, and string up orange and purple lights on the balcony. Last year, I added a 6-foot-tall Jack Skellington, a matching Sally, and a matching Zero, all three of which hung near the front door entrance. My place really stood out because I was the only resident in my community who put up any Halloween decorations, but my friends and I really enjoyed seeing those decorations. This year, I will be adding another element which should be a lot of fun to have as part of the display.

My Halloween decorations on Halloween 2025

Then as Christmas approached last year, I was inspired to continue the Nightmare Before Christmas story theme by adding an animatronic Jack Skellington (dressed as Sandy Claws) at my front door. I also switched the decorations on a 4.5-foot tree which I always put in my den area so that the Nightmare Before Christmas theme pervaded the tree. I also created a spiral at the tip of the tree to mimic the shape of Spiral Hill. The results were truly fantastic!

My front door display for Christmas 2025

I ended up with so many Nightmare Before Christmas ornaments and decorations for the 4.5-foot tree that it ended up being a bit overloaded, so this year, the decorations will adorn a 6-foot pencil tree. The 4.5-foot tree will undergo yet another decorating facelift, and I am truly excited for what I plan to create when I put that tree up in late November of this year. I know it sounds like overkill to have THREE Christmas trees (I have a 7.5-foot cashmere tree as the main tree) in the house this year, but I am having fun with all of it. Thank goodness I have enough space in my garage to store all the items!

This was a great launching point for the Nightmare Before Christmas theme inside the house!

My Nightmare Before Christmas Holiday Tree

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I have had a 4-foot Christmas tree for many years which is an accompaniment to the 7.5-foot Christmas tree I also have. Sadly though, I have never had the same enthusiasm for the decorations on the smaller tree as I do for the ones I place on the big tree, but since I love the glow of the tree lights in the den, I always put it up during the holidays. There have been a couple of times I have considered coming up with a theme for that tree, but nothing ever sparked enough for me to take action.

Everything changed this year when I decided to have a Nightmare Before Christmas theme for my front door Halloween decorations. One of the most wonderful aspects of the film The Nightmare Before Christmas is that it honors both Halloween and Christmas. Since the film is one of my favorites, I finally got the inspiration to change the theme of my smaller tree, and I have been so happy with the results. I even added the curl onto the existing tree to mimic the spiral mountaintop in the film.

The Days Of Trick Or Treating Are Over

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42308248 – children in fancy costume dress going trick or treating

Halloween was always my favorite holiday, because I could dress up as anything I wanted to be. It was always such a blast to think of what I wanted to be for Halloween, and my mother always obliged, albeit begrudgingly at times when she wasn’t thrilled with my choice or had to put together a costume for me. That being said, there were only two years in which she took on the task of putting a costume together for me: in fifth grade, when I went as Cleopatra, and once in seventh grade when I went as Princess Leia.

Year after year, I used the same hard plastic trick or treat pumpkin which my mother bought me when I was five years old, and I always managed to get that Jack O’ Lantern filled to the brim with candy when I went trick or treating. Back then, parents were concerned about apples containing razorblades, so I was instructed to never accept apples, but I could accept all the candy I wanted, as long as the wrappers were intact. I had my favorites, like Snickers Minis and Dubble Bubble Gum, but I was such a polite kid that I was happy to get any candy when I approached front doors and made that request:

“Trick or Treat!”

The Halloween I celebrated in sixth grade was characterized by trick or treating with several friends in Bel Air, an upscale community in Los Angeles. When we knocked on the doors of the beautiful homes there, we didn’t get Dum Dums or candy corn. Instead, we received things like full sized Hershey bars and little boxes of Godiva chocolates. One house we went to handed out $5 bills, which was a sizeable amount to a ten-year old in 1976!

Things have changed dramatically over the years, with parents opting to take their children to the mall or to scheduled events in lieu of knocking on doors at dusk. I completely understand why, since the hazards of walking around after dark and accepting candy from strangers can be just like playing Russian roulette. In the eleven years that I have lived in the same community, I have only had four groups of children trick or treating. It’s a dying trend.

This Candy REALLY Isn’t For Me

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IMAG0259

I bought these bags of candy last week. No, I didn’t pick them up for trick-or-treaters, because we never get them up where I live. I also did not get them for myself, since I react to the cheaper chocolate based candies. I bought these for my almost 83 year old mother, who loves Snickers and Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, and who would be upset if I didn’t acknowledge her love of these candies on Halloween. How’s that for a role reversal?