Sam Saves Halloween!

Happy Halloween! What a long, long road to get to the darkest night of the year. This time of year certainly helps raise my spirits and this was especially needed now. Very few people decorated this year and my best guess is that they didn't want to invite little hands to their front door. But we refused to go dark. Halloween is more than just candy and trick 'r treating, and we wanted to ensure that our neighborhood had at least one gleaming house of horror. 

After debating how to hand out candy safely, all the experts said to avoid it. I made the brutal decision to declare: Sorry, No Candy. While this benefits our own household safety, it was really more for the kids and families that congregate in-front of our house every year. Last year we handed out candy to 423 trick 'r treaters, and each was accompanied by at least 2 parents or friends with each trick 'r treater so we estimated at least 1200 people on our driveway Halloween night. Even if we get a fraction of those this year, it's still too many people to try to socially distance and ensure they wear masks. We have to think of everyone's safety so we put up signs all month long. 

Our theme this year was "Sam Saves Halloween." Sam is the little trickster demon from the movie Trick 'r Treat who ensures that the rules of Halloween are obeyed – with deadly force if necessary. He has come to our house to unpack Halloween storage boxes and help Halloween come alive at our house. Take a look at some of my pictures and find more on my Halloween site: SenorScaryHalloween.com.

I hope you have a scary and SAFE Halloween!

P.S. Midday on Friday, October 30 while I as giving a presentation on Dia de los Muertos, I received notice that I won the "Most Original" prize for the City of Santa Clara's Halloween Home Decorating contest! Woohoo! I'm so excited and honored to be recognized for my passion project, and grateful to the Santa Clara Cultural Committee. It will be a happy Halloween indeed.