Halloween is my favorite holiday
October holds so much nostalgia and joy for me. It’s the best month of the year, by far.
Everywhere I’ve lived so far in my life, October has had the most perfect weather. One day, there’s a chill in the wind, cooling you off when the warm sun is shining. The next day, you can’t step outside without getting soaking wet. And that’s a dream to me.
I grew up in southwestern Pennsylvania in a town with rolling hills and millions of trees and farm land. When the landscape changes from completely green to hints of orange, yellow, and red, life feels unreal.
I attribute my love of Halloween and October fully to my dad - the biggest lover of Halloween I know. He has Halloween tattoos, has spent thousands of dollars on Halloween costumes and decorations in his lifetime, and is a lover of all things scary. It’s just who he is, and he truly has passed it on to me and most of my siblings.
Every October from when I was as young as I can remember up until I was around 13, we held annual Halloween parties. EVERYBODY came, fully dressed up and ready to party. It was my dad’s pride and joy - and I loved it, too.
In the weeks leading up to the party, we set up all of his decorations: inflatables of all sorts, dismembered body parts hanging from trees, handmade tombstones with fun names written in them, life size animatronics, sound machines, orange and purple lights, cobwebs, baby dolls, spiders, snakes, bats hanging from bungee cords, fake blood, smoke machines, and the list goes on and on…
In the later years, my dad started going all out and built haunted houses that you’d have to walk through in order to get into the garage (where the parties were held). I have distinct memories of him forcing me to stand outside in the freezing cold, holding up the tarp so that he could staple gun it to the wood beams he built. Stinkbugs just came to Pennsylvania, and they wouldn’t stop dive-bombing me. The smell of tarp plastic mixed with fake blood is forever in my brain (Dad, I loved that you forced me to do this. I think about it all the time).
The Halloween parties were always held the same day as our town’s trick or treating. We’d get dressed up, walk through the neighborhood we grew up in, and get candy from the neighbors we knew. All I remember is that it was ALWAYS freezing cold.
The night of, we’d put on an awesome playlist mixed with my dad’s music, classic Halloween songs, and spooky sounds. There’d be alcohol for the adults, and fruit punch for the kids. My mom would make fun Halloween snacks, and we’d have bowls of Halloween candy and popcorn balls.
The adults would dress up in spooky costumes and run around trying to scare us kids. Every year, I was so excited to see what my dad had in store. Most of the time, he would get a scary mask and build a costume around that.
One year, my friend’s dad dressed up as Michael Myers. He was a tall, quiet man, and played the role well. He ran around my family’s whole farm, chasing us down the pitch black road and into the open fields where we couldn’t hide. That might have been the most fun I’ve ever had in my life. If it ever got too scary, we could go inside where my baby sisters were in the living room watching Nightmare Before Christmas, peeking outside from the living room window.
After my parents divorce, Halloween was still a very important holiday for me and my family. My dad spent a lot of time making it feel special for us. Decorating the house, showing us scary movies, taking us to haunted houses and hayrides. Saturdays were spent at our local farm that had a pumpkin patch, apple picking, a corn maze, a giant slide, and pumpkin people (see below). Driving through cemeteries while listening to Halloween noises (doors squeaking, people screaming, clowns and witches laughing - you know, normal things that normal people listen to while normally driving through a cemetery) and watching the rain. Our favorite tombstone was one that has a witch’s broom on it. I wish I had a photo of it.
Halloween hasn’t felt the same since I left Pennsylvania. Each year, when I feel a slight crisp in the air, I want to go home immediately. Wait in a long line with my family to go to a haunted house. Squish in between my sisters in the back of my dad’s car to go to a pumpkin patch. Take a nap on the couch while I smell the chili cooking in the kitchen and listen to my mom’s cheers for the Steelers. Lay in my childhood bedroom while it rains. Read It on my mom’s porch. Watch a scary movie and eat sour candy. Watch my baby sisters dance around to “This is Halloween.”
These are moments I will never get back, that brought about emotions I fear I will never feel again.
I have a spider web tattoo on the back of my arm that I got 3 years ago. I claimed that I wanted one for as long as I can remember (which is true), and I know that I’d never regret it. I have never regretted it. In fact, I love it so much. And I think the real reason that I had been wanting it for as long as I can remember is because it symbolizes everything I wrote about today.
And if you’re wondering - yes, my dad still loves and celebrates Halloween very much every year. It is still a very important and beloved holiday in my family.
My Halloween Playlist
Mood board
