The stretch from November 1 to April 30 for those who live the Halloween lifestyle year-round is positively grueling. Now it's time to get in shape for the upcoming season of Halloween product hunting in stores and online, pouring through social media posts for news on sales, conventions and undiscovered merchants, and reading through blogs to get up-to-the-minute trend reports, and new ideas for celebrating Halloween. You can practically smell the pumpkin spice wafting in the air!
The Halloween retail season which normally seems to commence around July 5 got an early start today. To celebrate Halfway to Halloween, HomeDepot.com put their popular 12-foot skeletons on sale today. But snooze and lose. Only a few hours later, a rumored 5000 units were sold out. Even AtmosFX, leader of digital decorations, got in the game with 25% off their Halloween videos (through May 9). I have a feeling that more retailers will jump on the Halfway bandwagon in the years to come.
For home haunters, today is also the first alarm to start building props for the season. Like so many haunters, I start with a very elaborate plan for a big, wicked display. Then the summer heat sets in and zaps my productivity. As the year progresses, those big plans get edited down as material availability dwindles, costs rise, and time runs short. I decided a few year ago that to fully enjoy October, my build must be 100% complete by September 30. It's mostly worked and have enjoyed a full 31 days of Halloween fun.
Happy Halfway to Halloween!