31 Days of Halloween: When My Obsession Began

It's October 1st! Today the fall season officially kicks off for me. I love this time of year more than any other and I've always felt that Halloween should be celebrated all month and not just on the 31st.

For the last couple of years my friend, Mark has posted daily, throughout October, his thoughts and inspirations on why Halloween is important to him. Inspired by his posts I’d like to also share daily the things that fuel my passion for this season and holiday. So here is the first day of 31 Days of Halloween!

I hope you'll enjoy it and let yourself be enchanted by the spooky spell of Halloween's charm.


It began with a witch in our yard when I was about 13 years old. It wasn't this witch in the picture. I unfortunately don't have a picture of the first prop we made. My mom or sister might have one, but the point is that my courtship with Halloween truly blossomed that first Halloween I made the shift from "Trick or Treater" to "Home Haunter".

When my mom realized that my sister and I were getting a little to old to be going door to door asking for candy, she decided to do something that would still allow us to still enjoy the fun and spirit of Halloween. She decided we needed to decorate the yard with a witch and a couple of tombstones. She bought a really cool looking witch mask, a black robe and a hat. Then she took two, 2x4's and screwed them together to form a crude T shape giving some skeletal structure to what would be our wicked witch. My sister and I helped put the mask on and draped our homemade witch with the robe and hat. She looked quite spooky to us at the time! We placed her in the front yard along with some painted plywood gravestone we made. On Halloween night my sister, friend and I dressed in our scariest costumes. As Trick or Treaters came to our door, we'd jump out from behind the bushes and send them running down the street. We were hooked! As the years went by our haunt grew and we added more props and made things more scary. We made a lot of happy memories.

My two boys at 3 and 1 love the sight of a pumpkin, skeleton or ghosts. they are definitely my boys and I look forward to years of home haunting with them and my wife creating similar memories that they someday will pass to their children. Halloween is a great time for family and friends to come together to have fun. Those who view it negatively miss the point of the holiday entirely. For those of us who do love it though, there is a moment for each that sparks that love affair. Mine was that fall of my 13th year. (Maybe that's why I consider 13 to be my lucky number?) I always thank my mom for inspiring that love for it. Even if at times friends think I'm crazy. It's a good crazy! :)

Starting tonight and each night this month, I will be watching a horror movie as I do every year.

Tonight's movie horror is: Night of the Creeps