Once again, this year the unusual is more unusual than ever. Last year, we missed the regular "school-parade-and-party-neighborhood-trick-or-treating" because we were in Disney. If you ever have the chance to go during the fall, I strongly recommend you buy tickets for the "Mickey's Not-So-Scary Halloween Party." Everyone goes in costumes, the characters are all over hosting special events, the parades and fireworks are awesome, and they do have trick-or-treating. I saved the bags they give you, they were one of the best things of the night! To me anyway.
This year, the Northeast got pounded by a very early nor'easter that left power lines and trees down all over the place, worse than during Irene in the late summer. Basically, because the leaves are still on the trees, the wet, heavy snow on top made things worse than they'd usually be. I heard and saw several large tree branches, and in some cases actual trees, snap under the weight. Schools are closed, and all celebrations are, at the moment, cancelled. We will trick-or-treat, but we'll be done way before dusk because it's more dangerous than usual at night this year. Can't see those dratted power lines, never mind the melting snow will ice up over the roads and sidewalks.
Nevertheless, this is a particularly fun time for me anyway. I love all sorts of creatures of the night, and this is their season! The creepier and scarier something is, the more I like it. Not the gory, in-your-face, blood & guts scary, but the sort that leaves everything a bit blurred, letting your imagination take over. Nothing can be more frightening than what you imagine it to be. Like the creaking of your house, the heat flaring on. Normal sounds, unless you're alone, at night, and you can't quite make out what that shadow is in the corner. A wisp of wind outside suddenly becomes ominous, and you find yourself huddled in a comfy chair, with every damn light in the house blazing!
I remember having Halloween sleepovers with my friends in grade school, and we'd always turn out the lights, tell scary stories, make each other do things like "Bloody Mary" in the darkened bathroom, or playing with a Ouija board, where nothing would happen, but we'd end up scaring ourselves silly despite the fact we'd imagined all of it. Or had we? Needless to say, the reason we didn't sleep all night wasn't because we were chatting.
What are some of your favorite Halloween traditions? Do you carve pumpkins, go to a costume party, sit around telling scary stories? Let me know, and you can win a copy of any one of my books. With vampires and magic, they're perfect kinky reading for the season. And in the same spirit, here's a couple of my favorite scariest magic folk, in pumpkin form:
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