CONSUMING HALLOWEEN

As usual, I started celebrating Halloween pretty early this year, and when I say celebrate I mean hunting for Halloween stuff to mark the new season. I’m no longer alone in this. Data shows that peak Halloween buying has moved up by several weeks in recent years. There was a day this July that I visited four different stores which all had fully stocked Halloween sections. (If you’re wondering: Dollar Tree, Party City, Cracker Barrel, and Joanne’s Fabric.) ”Summerween” didn’t feel right to me at first, but my brain is adapting. The early product reveals add another chapter to the whole experience, and I’ll take it, because it spreads out the fun.

There are four tiers of Halloween consumerism for me: general retail, thrifting, the curated secondary market, and online shopping. The latter offers the best treasures while the earlier ones give the best experiences. This year, I’ve already taken part in all of these, and I will share some of my spoils with you here.

General Retail

I love the annual invasion of monsters in nearly every retail outlet. I go out of my way to explore shops all over my region. Hardware stores become well-lit spook houses, and routine grocery shopping suddenly involves a walk through a gallery of horrors. I don’t typically load up on new Halloween items, save for cheap dollar store offerings. I prefer old stuff. But Target got me this year with their new line of 80s-infused decor. They tapped into punk, Richard Simmons, shutter shades, clear telephones and a color palette straight from the carpet of a video arcade. But my favorite is a mayoral looking jack-o-lantern-headed blowmold. He’s one of several recurring characters like a green-skulled skeleton, and the mohawk skull. I appreciate the idea of Halloween mascots, even if they’re corporate. I mean, Rudolf the red-nosed reindeer was created for Montgomery Ward stores, so why not?

My Target purchases defied my usual taste for vintage things. But with each passing year I wonder how long I’ll continue to find things from thirty, or even fifty years ago. I’m ever thankful that holiday decorations tend to stick around longer than other home goods. They become part of tradition and turn into family heirlooms. There are dedicated Halloween storage bins in garages and basements across the county. That’s likely why this year didn’t disappoint in that area.

Thrifting

Thrift stores are such a unique experience; a marathon of drudging through discarded, depressing objects in hopes of finding the proverbial gems. It’s a numbers game. I make near-daily walkthroughs only to buy something about one in every fifty visits. But when it hits, it can truly be a proverbial jackpot. This year hasn’t yielded any white whales yet, but one of my local thrift stores had an inordinate stockpile of Halloween stuff that they’ve been rolling out for weeks, so there have been enough little finds to liven up my season. The best was probably a Telco battery operated Creature from the Black Lagoon for four bucks that I lifted off the clerk’s cart before it was shelved. There’s no picture here because I gave it to a spooky-loving friend. (I already own two.)

Among my favorite finds is this Con-tact paper from 1991. I relate to the original owner in that I’m not sure what to do with it, but I bought it anyway.

 

I’m particularly fond of this treat bucket from 1986 labeled Myrle’s Original that I got for fifty cents. It was covered in flecks of green paint and other gunk, but to my surprise it cleaned up great, so now it feels well-earned. 

 

It’s the sort of thing that begs me to consider its entire history, from production design to the day I bought it. I imagine someone at a drafting table in the mid ‘80s, poring over a book of clip art. They pause upon seeing a skeleton in a tuxedo. (And who originated that?) Tux-skeleton became the star of the bucket, while the spider and web were necessary to fill the space. The choice of typeface is perfect. I wonder if this container was ever used during trick-or-treating. Its utilitarian value likely ensured its survival in someone's garage all these decades. It sure came in handy when they wanted to paint something green. 

Then in this year of two thousand twenty-four, why was it finally time to let it go? The owner’s age? A move? Or just a thorough spring cleaning? Then it was my turn to become its keeper. I restored it, and now I get to honor and preserve it on the same internet that’s used by all the world’s governments and religions. After I typed all that, I spent a half hour on archive.org trying to find the clip art book where the skeleton came from, but no luck. Myrle’s (whatever that is) used the same skeleton in 1998 bearing a different message, and in color!

 

 The Curated Secondary Market

The region where I live has a wide selection of flea markets and antique shops, but this area doesn’t have the history, the economy, or the taste of places like, the northeast for example. The standard Pennsylvania junk shop is like a museum in my eyes. Many of my local flea markets are only slightly better than thrift stores. Most of the products are just marked-up thrift store finds. But that doesn’t stop me from frequenting them. This next item came from a northeastern flea market, and I actually got two years ago on a trip to VHS Fest, but I shamefully forgot to put out for Halloween until now. That slanted, dripping typography has such a sense of gleeful urgency. I can barely handle it! And I think the ghost has a tongue!

 

There is a category of Halloween items that I’ve long admired, but only recently got into. It’s the 1980s and 90s battery operated imports that I would usually see in drug stores and oddball shops, as opposed to the major retailers. They are decidedly off-brand, though Halloween doesn’t really have too many name brands. They often have poorly translated English, and the packaging usually shows a picture of the product in a monochromatic void.

 

I never bought these back in the day because I assumed they were poorly made and short-lived, plus they could be relatively expensive. But they are truly wonderful, and my appreciation has snowballed over time. So a couple years ago I picked up this Vincent the talking skull, and this “Wizard” candy container at a cool second hand toy shop. Both of them still work great, contradicting my theory about their quality.

 

 

The very name of this product seems to be mistranslated, and the instructions are poetic.

“…IT WOULD HAVE THE HAT OPENED

SLOWLY WITH HORROR

LAUGHT & GRINNING

LIGHTING EYES

ALL ACTIONS STOP PLAYING

UPON THE HAT BE COVERED”

 

Finding these two in the wild was an anomaly so this year, I turned to eBay after seeing a post from Trash Witch that clued me into the existence of the Pumpkin Monster! I found an auction for significantly less than the rest of the other high dollar listings, and bought it.

 

How I love the fact that the three figures all seem to be copied from other Halloween decorations of the time. (I may be reaching on the witch, but she's from the same Eureka line as the skeleton and she's got those same little symbols on her hat.)

 

 

Ebay

Sure, we all know about eBay, but let’s take a moment to appreciate this. 

I discovered an obscure Halloween item while sitting on my couch in the middle of the night as I half-watched some horror movie. It’s possible it wasn’t even sold within a hundred mile radius of my small town. But I was able to instantly go shopping at a dream store that isn’t bound by time or place. There I located a pumpkin monster of my own that still functions. It’s like I reached across the decades to grab it off the shelf of some arcane drug store. This type of translation has only been available to humanity for a couple of decades.

Fueled by this experience and my frothy greed, I searched for more lesser known Halloween stuff in this vein. I found the Boo Bunch creepy walkers from 1993. Once Heddy the pumpkin guy arrived, I noticed that he was branded specifically for K-mart and my heart turned into a warm puddle. 

 

There is one other way to obtain amazing Halloween goods that is superior to them all. Occasionally friends have gifted me wonderful items. Like this Living Skull key chain that my friend Eddie Guevera gave me years ago. It falls squarely into this ‘no brand’ type of stuff. I adore it and its blood-splattered grid. “When put it in your palm it will murmur with terrible sound & gleam in eyes.” Oh, that is the stuff.

Now that all of these items are hung, shelved, displayed, lit-up and full of batteries, I believe I’m prepared to venture into the heart of October. Stay tuned!