Well, that's not happening in this house, no sir, not on my watch. Actually, my dogs are nudists at heart. They eschew hats and capes. When they went through obedience training they both hated having to pose with the graduation cap. Larger dog Tralfaz wanted to chew it to pieces. I had to force him to stay in place while I clamped the damn thing on his cinder-block skull for the two lousy seconds required to get the photograph.
So you can see how well obedience class actually worked.
Anyway, my point today is that people may indeed be spending these crazy sums, but I'm not seeing it. I know we're still a week out, but decorating is definitely down this year, at least around here. Definitely seen fewer ads for Party City this year.
There are a few folks that have gone gung ho, especially a pal of ours in Long Island who sent us pics of his legendary display, but in my neck of the Hudson Valley it's definitely on the more reserved side. Still, we got:
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| Scary projectors! |
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| Scary skulls! |
And not much more.
I'm just curious if any of you have felt that Halloween may have peaked and is kind of on a downturn. I guess things always go in waves. Even if I'm right, and Halloween spending is below expectations this year, I'm sure it will return soon, with bloody bodies strewn all over the yards of America once more.
Personally, it doesn't bother me one way or another. The real data I would like to have is how many kids will show up at the damn door on Halloween. Historically I have either gotten caught short and wound up giving away money and raisins, or, since that could not be allowed to happen twice, have overbought candy and been stuck with the stuff afterward. It's harder to give away Halloween candy than I could have ever imagined as a child. Some outfits collect candy for our military personnel but no one around here seems to run collections, and you can't just mail out a box of loose peanut butter cups.
Halloween here seems to be pretty steady from year to year. Probably 20% of the neighborhood go mad with displays that include music and light shows. We do a generic fall thing involving scarecrows, pumpkins, mums, etc.
ReplyDeleteWe don't dress up Mongrel, but me and Mrs. Mongo put on some sort of mask to entertain/frighten the kids who come to the door for a handout. I will be a German Shepherd dog and she will likely be a sloth. The kiddie count is typically 100 - 200. It varies depending on how may "Trunk or Treat" events there are (where everyone drives to a parking lot and the kids go from car to car begging for candy).
It's certainly a much grander event than when I was a kid. Pretty much the only decor people had was a Jack-o-lantern, and costumes were almost always home made.
We have lived in the same house in the tony suburb of Fairfax County, Virginia for 30 years, and have definitely noticed an up trend in elaborate halloween decorations (except at our house).
ReplyDeleteProbably due to younger families moving in and displacing the old folks; most of the homes in the neighborhood were built in the early 1960s.
Now that our kids are grown, my inclination is to turn off the lights and draw the curtains, but wifey insists on at least a few decorations and a yuge, maga-sized bowl of full-size candy bars to hand out. I suspect an ulterior motive, as we are lucky if the doorbell rings more than a dozen times and we are invariably left with several pounds of Snickers, Nestle Crunch, Kit Kat's, and my favorite, Hershey's Milk Chocolate with Almonds.
When I see the stupid amount of money other people spend on frivolous holiday decorations, especially at Halloween, while I have thousands of dollars of repairs on my home that I can't afford, a few things come to mind:
ReplyDelete1) I'm in the wrong line of work.
2) I should set up a GoFundMe for household repairs.
3) The government needs to return assessments to FY2000 levels. And refund me the thousands of dollars in property taxes that could have been used to fix the house.
4) The state needs to eliminate school property taxes and use a sales tax to fund education.
5) There's not much need to decorate in my block. We're on a hill, and most of the homes are rental properties. Lots of darkened porches every October 31st. We take the kids a couple of blocks away where the street are flat, and the whole block is one big party.
All I'm gonna get out of this is some leftover candy.
Our rural spot get no trick or treaters. I have two skeletons out in the middle of the circular driveway, one on a old tractor and one on an old moped. They a permanent except other times of the year they are dressed and look like friendly scarecrows (shirkers). Two lit up fake jack-o-lanterns that make me smile.
ReplyDeleteMy office gets some decorations. I have a bat, a crow, a skeleton cat and rat, etc. We have an office decorating contest, but the office manager and his "happiness committee" have never stopped by my office. No participation trophy for me. I tell myself I do it for my own amusement.
Dumbest 'holiday' there is. The proliferation of "Sexy X" costumes is a huge turnoff as well.
ReplyDeleteIn other news, the reCAPTCHA had me click all the bicycles, and showed a girl on a scooter. I did not click that box, as a scooter is not a bicycle, but I was wrong.