There was a time when I took a Clark Griswold-style approach to Halloween decorating. I made certain it wasn't possible to stand anywhere in the house facing any direction without seeing something orange or dead. Eventually, things like parenthood and an unpredictable freelance life changed all of that, and truth be told, I didn't really miss it at the time.
Through the years I reintroduced some seasonal spooky touches to the household, and only a few caused my son to run from the room in horrified tears. A handful of decorating traditions have fallen into place now, including an October first decking of the halls. So on Wednesday I replaced the lunchboxes on my kitchen shelves with plastic Jack-O-lanterns, and set up the haunted house centerpiece on the table. Wait a minute, photos would make this so much better. So here you go, I put the ghost and his sister in the front porch window...
And re-hung the first Halloween decorations that I ever owned...
And found a place for the classic jointed skeleton... 
On any other year I would be about done by that point. But this year I tried something else for the first time— a Halloween mood table. The concept started on a web site called X-Entertainment (Now it's DinosaurDracula.com). The first HMT (as I call them) was conceived in 2007 when Matt, who runs the site, haphazardly threw some scary stuff together in a desperate attempt to reclaim the Halloween spirit during a year when life "threw [him] a few curve balls." It became an annual practice, (this year's can be seen here.) and in the process the concept caught on, inspiring dozens, if not hundreds of others to create their own. Now you can count me among those inspired, behold my 2014 Halloween Mood Table!...
Included in Matt's tips is the admonishment not to over think things. I found this incredibly freeing, especially in contrast to a Christmas tree where I struggle to achieve equal ornament distribution, or I have to pull the whole thing apart because I've clustered too many lights in one spot. I did spend quite a while digging up the elements for the table, but when it came to assembly it went together pretty quickly.
The excavation process was actually a lot of fun, again in contrast to facing the sea of Christmas boxes and the broken, lost, and burnt-out disappointments within. My goal was to use stuff from storage, and objects that have been been banished to the back of my toy shelves so that my structure would seem almost new.
Here are some close-up shots. In keeping with the casual, carefree nature of the Mood Table, I'm going to resist the urge to caption them.
You say you want to see it once again from a slight diagonal angle? But that's hardly different from the photos I've already shown you! Oh, well, you're the boss...
Now that
it's in place, it really has given the season a jolt. It felt great to get excessive once again. It's the embodiment
of Halloween taking up physical space in my house, and it can't be ignored. Best of all, it absolutely does alter the mood. Like most any time, these weeks are not
free of troubles, far from it. But I found value in making the time to do
something celebratory. The act of putting
it up was an unexpectedly festive event. It was an evening of spooky records,
digging through boxes, and trips to the garage. As my son looked on
he said more than once, "It's just so beautiful."
10 comments:
I'm putting up my own Halloween decorations today, but they can never equal the shrine of awesomeness that I have witnessed here. I humbly lay the Halloween crown at your feet. My next step is filling my mp3 player with "Frankie Stein & His Ghouls," "Sounds to Make You Shiver," "Ghoul-a-Rama," "Spook Party" and others! I'm already sad we only have 28 days left!
You have to caption one thing -- what is the yellow head with the red-stuck out eye? A bank? I could probably name everything on that table (aside from the generics) but that one mystifies me and I'm too lazy to do a reverse image search!
Jody- Thank you. And I'll bet you could put together something pretty amazing from your household materials.
I actually listed to "Spook Party" on repeat while constructing the table, and it was perfect! Oct. 1st is when the Halloween mp3 dump goes into my itunes including all that you mentioned.
Brian- That is a werewolf flashlight topper I got about 10 years ago. It is the epitome of charming. There is also a Frankenstein one sitting on the light-up haunted house.
Saw this on twitter, but I'm glad I loaded up the full entry. The dark picture is just awesome. One of our traditions is to pick up Halloween household items at Target on November 1st. They stay up all year. We have a skull cookie jar and soap dispenser in the kitchen, as well as some spooky owl LED lights.
I a.)Love the Mummy mask b).Have the Telco Creature c)Wore the Creature costume to kindergarten in 1973 and d)Thank you for a great post. Matt's mood table idea really seems to be taking off!
That is one of the most wonderful things I've ever seen. I need to step up my decorating, clearly.
Great post, and great display, Kirk. I typically put up all my in house decorations on September 29, but for the past two years didn't do anything, which felt okay to me, but not to my kids, or even, surprisingly, my wife. Mostly, it's just that after our last move, it seems like a lot of work to dig them out from where they wound up located in our cramped basement. I do have a couple things out right now, and maybe I'll surprise my family by actually digging out more.
Kris- Thanks! I love the post holiday buying too. Somehow I always forget all about the stuff until I'm packing the next year and it's such a nice surprise.
Melissa- Thank you! I'm glad you found it motivational. :)
John- And thank you! I know that feeling. If something that's supposed to be fun feels like work then I see no point in doing it. Although if you're doing it for the family knowing they'll be excited then I could see that putting some of the fun back.
Brian I missed replying to you! Your adjectives are great: Love, Have, and Wore. You are truly one of my people.
This is quite the howler, old bean!
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