Halloween Decorations

The kids and I started decorating for Halloween today.  There is not anything scary in our Halloween. Ghosts, yes, pumpkins abound.  Witches as well. But not ghoulish.  No dripping blood, scary monsters, none of that.  Partly this is because that would terrify my kids.  Partly that is because that is not my belief system.  I believe that yes, the veil between our worlds thins on that night, but it is not a night of terror but of warm remembrance.

Remembrance is in our decorations as well.  If I had photographed all our decorations I'd use up all the memory in Blogger! LOL  We really have a kabillion.  Many many made by kids.  Many passed down through the years.  In the picture above, that little wax pumpkin used to be part of Halloween when I was little.  My mom would put a birthday candle in each one (there used to be 6, this is the only one left) and they were at our dinner places on Halloween supper.

 The plastic pumpkin and cat on the far right came to our decorations when I was a teen. I used to light it and decorate my bedroom with it.  The small pumpkin next to that was a gift from a friend as an adult.  The pumpkin far left was (are you ready for this?)  my mom's when she was a child!

 This guy is the lone remaining paper decoration from my mom's dance studio back in the 50's.  There used to be many paper ones and my sister and I would decorate our play room with them.  Years of kids and tape took its eventual toll on all but one.

But look!  Last year a retailer came out wtih these miniatures of those same patterns.  I think they were supposed to be cards. But we punched holes in them, made a garland and they hang in our dining room  (or will when I hang it up tomorrow!)

We love Halloween--heck we love everything to celebrate!  I love the stories that come out when the decorations are unearthed.  I love the ooohs and aahs as favorites re-appear. (there are silly things too like ghosts we made out of contact paper with our faces.  There was high drama till we found "ghost KC" this afternoon!  All the other family ghosts had been unearthed and he thought his was lost.

Decorating as a family does more than make the house festive--or at least change up the clutter! LOL  It makes memories, establishes traditions, builds stories for us to all remember in hard times.