Joyful Rant: Baubles and Trinkets and Knick-knacks, Oh My!

Mind control marketing

So, orange is really not even a color I particularly like, except in October for some reason. When the stores start setting up those enticing displays of pumpkin, witch and ghost related trinkets some uncontrollable chemical reaction goes off in my brain and I start to fill my cart. Granted, these displays start showing up now in August. I saw Halloween stuff out in the stores before school supplies this year! And I so virtuously avoided buying anything .....at first. I would resist and then send victory pictures to Lacey, my number one addiction counselor (see earlier blog post "A Problem with Pumpkins"). She would dutifully congratulate me: "Yay, Mommy!" or "I'm so proud of you." And I would smirk that virtuous smirk all the while knowing I wasn't fooling anyone. But I don't think I broke down and bought anything this year until mid-September at least! Now that's restraint!

OMG

So anyway, as a result of years of this cart filling, I've now filled a large house with Halloween baubles and knick-knacks galore. And I have to admit that I'm not some creative genius who has arranged artful groupings of carefully selected pieces around in strategic places to create pleasing holiday visuals for the eyes. No, it's just stuff. Everywhere. I've packed away all the normal things I usually have out during the rest of the year on counters and shelves and tables to make room. It's kind of like a store. In a house.

To be clear, we have particular preferences for our Halloween stuff. We like the smiling pumpkins and the not too scary witches, the white, friendly ghosts and the dancing skeletons. Not the scary stuff, ugly monsters, skulls, bloody anything or anything with scars. And nothing too angry looking. That's right, we keep the Happy in Halloween in our house! The older two kids were never really into the too-scary and Zoe still clings to me in Party City during the season. So we keep it light.

We especially love Halloween sno-globes and picture frames and candles, oh! the candles, all those delicious fall scents: pumpkin, cinnamon, cider, apples, berries, nutmeg, hazelnut, caramel, rum and all the vanillas. Also, any decoration that dances is good. Here are a few fun pictures of the current decor. Inside decor, that is - outside to be highlighted in a future post. As a new neighbor that I just met at National Night Out told me, "I know what house you live in, it's the one with all that Halloween stuff." (This from a man who puts a giant spider in his front yard.)