Five Fun Halloween Things to Do Right Now

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A lot of people claim that the most wonderful time of year is the Christmas season. I can see why, it's very picturesque, families are gathered together, there are giant Christmas trees and decorations everywhere, and all the other items that come along with the Holiday season.

That's all fine and good.

For me, the most wonderful time of the year is the Halloween season!

It's the time of year where fun is in the air at all times. Spooky and creepy decor adorns the seasonal aisles, everything you can think of seems to get a pumpkin spice treatment, farm markets become destination attractions for hayrides and pumpkin patches, the nighttime features all manner of haunted attractions coming out of the woodwork and horror movies on TV. Plus the nights get cooler which means perfect time hangout around a campfire and tell spooky stories.

For me, the spooky season starts on September 1st and runs all the way through October 31st. From now until then, I'll be mixing in some Halloween and fall related posts along with the usual fare. Tomorrow will be featuring some Topps Fright Flicks cards.

Now, with it being still partly the summer and all, some stores may not have their spooky selections out yet, but to pass the time, here's five fun Halloween-y things you can do right now!

Image credit: Wikipedia

1) Read a scary book. I've been getting back into reading a lot over this year and I've read quite my share of books ... everything from Harry Potter to 19th century baseball. The books I've enjoyed reading the most though are horror novels. There's all kinds of good horror books and novels out there, you just have to know where to look. Classic Stephen King like Carrie, The Shining, or Pet Sematary are good places to start. So take some time, stop by your local library, and grab a book.

2) Play an online Halloween Game. This is simple but effective. There's a site I found online called Halloween Mountain and it has a handful of weird games to get you in the Halloween mood. I dare you to spend less than 30 minutes here playing these games and they're very addictive very fast.

Image credit: Wikipedia

3) Watch something spooky. October is the prime time for horror movies on TV, especially with AMC TV's "Fearfest" during the second half of the month. But you don't need to go down the horror movie rabbit hole to enjoy something with a bit of Halloween flair. If movies are your thing, there are the Goosebumps films with Jack Black, the old Addams Family movies from the 90s, and one of my favorites Sleepy Hollow from 1999. If TV is more your style, don't forget It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown, any of the Bob's Burgers Halloween themed episodes, and there's also a fun Halloween themed episode from The Cleveland Show where Junior is dressed up like a giant pancake.

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4) Do some Halloween activities. My six year old son has a bunch of coloring books. A lot of them are not Halloween themed but that kind of leads me to my point. Go the books section at your local Target, Walmart, or Meijer and find yourself some Halloween coloring books. It might seem a little awkward to purchase some kids coloring books for yourself but believe me when I tell you, not only will it get you into the Halloween spirit right away, it will also relieve some stress. Better yet, download and print free coloring sheets from the internet! Don't forget the crayons!

Image credit: Tumblr

5) Take a spooky road trip. The leaves may not be changing colors just yet but still I encourage you to take a Halloween road trip. Before you go out driving though, you have to stop and get your favorite fall beverage (I'm talking to you pumpkin spice latte) to accompany you. Then, go out and explore. Drive through and around areas you're not familiar with, take roads through giant stalks of corn, drive through little towns in the middle of nowhere, stop and walk a weird nature trail through strange woods. Just make sure you don't get stuck somewhere and end up dealing with the Children of the Corn.

From now until Halloween is over, I'm going to try to stuff myself with as much Halloween cheer as possible. If it comes in the form of spooky trading cards, Reese's peanut butter pumpkins, plastic trick-or-treat pails, cartoon witches, horror movies, or corn mazes, then so be it!

Halfway to Halloween

For those of you who have been regular readers of mine for a while, you know that my favorite season is fall and Halloween. Sure, Christmas is great and all but Halloween is the only time of year where you can load up your front lawn with spooky and macabre decorations, find a horror movie on nearly every channel, head to festivals and load up on apple cider, among other things. Heck, back in 2016, I did my own mini-"Halloween Countdown" of sorts where for two months I featured posts about nothing else but Halloween and fall related material.

For Halloween nuts like myself, the end of April marks the un-official "halfway to Halloween" point and, judging by early indications, it'll be one for the record books with Lemax already announcing their "Spooky Town" decorations for the season and an October release date for the new film in the Halloween series already set. Hopefully this trend continues. Oh, what I wouldn't give for Burger King to bring back the Halloween Whopper.

Anyway, for those of you like me who can't get enough of the season, here are a four Halloween things you can do right now to mark the halfway to Halloween point and celebrate accordingly.

1. Watch a horror movie.

This is pretty much a given. Every Halloween season should be filled with as many good horror films as possible, anything from the classic Universal monsters like Dracula, The Mummy, Creature from the Black Lagoon, etc to old school slashers like Michael Myers, Freddy, and Jason. Heck, even throw Ash from Evil Dead in there for some fun! If you're new to this world, a good entry point would be The Fog from 1980, which is a really under appreciated John Carpenter thriller. After that, then maybe check out the original Dracula with Bela Lugosi, George A. Romero's classic Night of the Living Dead or the original Halloween from 1978. If you're not into horror movies, it's all good too. I won't judge.

2. Listen to Art Bell

Friday the 13th was a sad day. That's the day when the long time narrator of the night, Art Bell, passed away. Way back when I used to work late nights and would be driving home in the late night/early morning hours, Coast to Coast AM was there with me working Friday and Saturday nights mostly it was typically Art Bell hosting. I joined the party late when it came to Coast to Coast AM, as by that time (2003), George Noory had taken over as the primary host. To me, those were the best days of C2C, with Noory, Bell, and the amazing Ian Punnett. On my long drives home, that show was there with me. I listened to all of Art's internet projects, including his ill-fated six week run on Sirius XM in 2013 and his return in 2015 with Midnight in the Desert, with great joy as it took me back to that time in my life. So, if you're into UFOs, science, aliens, crpytozoology, ghosts, the paranomal, and anything else in the realm of the unexplained, I recommend checking out the free U7 Radio stream of classic Art Bell content that runs 24/7.

3. Watch a Bob's Burgers Halloween episode.

I'll admit it, when Bob's Burgers first debuted I didn't like it. I though the whole show was annoying and Bob was the only decent character in the whole thing. Now, it's one of my favorite shows on TV and their holiday themed shows are especially awesome. They've done some killer Christmas and Thanksgiving-themed episodes but every year, when I see their Halloween episode on the schedule, I get excited because they know absolutely how to do Halloween right and the best one they ever did was episode 3 from season 6 called "The Hauntening" as the whole plot of the show it to somehow scare Louise as she mentioned that she'd never been scared by anything ever. Sure, they've done other Halloween episodes and most of them quite good such as "Fort Night", "Full Bars", and the most recent one called "Tina and the Real Ghost" but none of them are as good as "The Hauntening".

4. Begin reading a creepy novel.

Most of my reading can be found in the realm of sports history and while I do crack open a novel from time to time, it has to be from an author I know I like, such as Elmore Leonard. A few years ago, I rewatched The Exorcist from 1973 when it was on Netflix and I forgot exactly how violent and frightening the movie was. Suffice to say, I felt at that time that I needed to read the book. I found it at the local library and tore into it immediately. When I finished it a few weeks later, what I read was more terrifying than the movie. So, of course, I went and found Legion, the follow up book and while it borders more on on being a religious crime thriller than a horror novel, there is a decent amount of the supernatural thrown in. Starting a creepy or horror novel now would be ... well .... a novel idea as if you find a good one, it'll start leading you down the rabbit hole of other works and that will keep you well in tune until fall actually arrives.

There's always a bunch more Halloween stuff you can do like listen to Halloween music, watch It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown and other wacky stuff and I could've added more to this list but I'm already getting super wordy in an article that wasn't supposed to be very wordy. However, I've just given you four awesome things to do to keep those Halloween blues at bay until right around the end of August/beginning of September when the Halloween season officially kicks off.

Happy October

I'll be honest, September was the absolute pits. Between nearly losing my job and as I currently write this my wife has been in the hospital since last Thursday in downtown Cincinnati with low potassium levels. We're all hopeful that she'll be able to get released tomorrow sometime as she's shown major progress since Thursday night. Because of all this, I've barely been able to enjoy the first part of the Halloween season at all.

That being said, I'm glad to see September disappear for another year and now October, my favorite month of the year, is officially upon us! It's the month of baseball playoffs and the start of hockey season. On the Halloween front, it's the month of monster movies, Halloween parties, pumpkin carving, fall festivals, and trick-or-treating! I'm really going to try to stuff everything Halloween I can into this month.

One seasonal candy I did have the chance to try amidst all the September chaos was the Cookies and Scream M&Ms available at Target. Now, if this bag doesn't ... ahem, scream ... Halloween then I don't know what does. It's dark, it's purple, and you've got Red absolutely terrified of something. 

The M&Ms themselves are shaped just like any other M&M. Some of them are coated in a white dust, some aren't. That's no design flaw, they're just supposed to be like that as it helps with the flavor. Speaking of which, these take just like anything you would find in a cookies and cream ice cream. Between my wife and I, we polished off a whole bag of these in an afternoon, they're that good. So, if you find yourself at a Target, I recommend picking these up.

On the card front, I've got a hanger box of Heritage High Numbers, a random value box of 2009 Upper Deck, a jumbo pack of O-Pee-Chee hockey, and a trade pack I got last week all coming up later this month once my wife gets back home from the hospital and things get back to normal somewhat.

2017 Halloween Mood Display

The last three weeks have really put a damper on my Halloween enjoyment due to the stress of not knowing if I would have a job come the end of October. At the end of last week though, that stress finally went away as I was offered a new position in my current department and it would be considered a promotion. That instantly helped my mood and this weekend I've felt like I can finally get back to my Halloween enjoyment ... and with that enjoyment comes the annual Halloween Mood Display!

If you've been following this blog for any amount of time, you know how this works. Every year I take the mantle between my living room and kitchen and load it up with miscellaneous Halloween/fall stuff. It really helps lift my spirits (no pun intended) when I've had a long day a work or if I just need something to stare at blankly for a few minutes. This year I went for a simplistic theme, completely different from the pop culture-esque stuff from years past.

Here it is ...

Behold! This year's Halloween Mood Display! Let's explore from left to right ...

First, we have a partially burnt Trick or Treat flavored (is that even the right word?) candle from Yankee Candle. The smell of candy corn and buttercream is completely gone but the ambience when it's burning and the lights are off is really cool. Plus, how can you not have a candle with the name "Trick or Treat" in a Halloween display?

Next is the Mysterious Mansion from this year's Lemax Spooky Town collection. I bought this piece at an early fall season sale at Michaels when they were running a 40% off promotion back in mid-August. I wasn't too impressed with the selection this year but this was the best of the lot. Plus, the damn thing makes noise!!

The orange trees, bone bridge, and creepy road sign were picked up at Michaels last year and are just little accent pieces to accompany the larger buildings. I've deemed this light up pumpkin simply "Great Pumpkin".

Here's last year's major addition, the Spooky Town Gas N' Ghoul. While it doesn't have all the bells and whistles of its counterpart, it's still a very fine piece because of all the detail involved.

Finally, we have another buttercream candle from Bed, Bath, and Beyond in an awesome black jar that says "Eat, Drink & Be Scary". Certainly those are great words to live by during the Halloween season. Also, there's a Zombie Kenny Funko figure and a Charlie Brown Halloween themed piece.

So, there you have it, this year's Halloween Mood Display. I challenge you to build your own and get out there and make it the best Halloween season you can!

You've Got Mail #68: Night Owl Cards

Photo: Wikipedia

As anyone who followed this blog last fall knows, I'm a big fan of Halloween. As such, today is the official "halfway to Halloween" point on the calendar. The official name for this is Walpurgis Night, which is a celebration observed in Germany, Sweden, The Netherlands, Czech Republic and other countries in that region to usher in the start of summer. This night is said to be the final time witches and other evildoers to cause havoc before spring woke up the land. To ward off evil spirits, citizens would burn bonfires, sprinkle holy water, and put blessed palm leaf in their homes. 

While the card blogging world does not have and evil spirits (at least none that I know of), there is a resident nocturnal creature we all know and love as Night Owl. Last Monday a nice little package showed up on my doorstep from the Owl and as usual, it was stuffed with some pretty neat cards.

As I mentioned, Walpurgis Night is a time to celebrate the start of summer. However, in these parts, the start of summer the beginning of baseball season. When I saw that this card was in Opening Day, I knew I had to have it. Luckily, Night Owl was nice enough to throw it in. 

Speaking of evil things, I used to think minis were evil and I would immediately throw them into the discard pile. However, my stance has definitely changed on them and I'm building up as many of them as I can. These definitely helped bulk up my stockpile.

Of course, any trading package coming my way includes Reds cards and these are definitely ones I didn't have. These are from the 2006 Topps release, of which I opened a pack recently for my ongoing "Back Packs" series, a look at which will be coming up shortly.

There was also a good amount of miscellaneous stuff thrown in from another Eckersley card for my collection, to some Bengals cards, and even a completey random Jake "The Snake" Roberts card, of which I will not complain.

The majority of the package though was loaded up with these 2015 All-Star Update cards. I still need to add my want list for these to the blog but there were about 14 cards included in the package that I needed. I'm getting close to halfway on completing the run of these in 2015 Update and these additions were much appreciated. 

A big thanks to Night Owl for sending over these cards and helping ward off any evil spirits that will hopefully stay away all through baseball season.

A Halloween Road Trip

Last weekend, the family and I, along with my mom, took a road trip up to Akron to visit my aunt and uncle. My aunt planned a full day for us with shopping, cookie baking, pumpkin carving, and a bunch of other fall/Halloween fun. Once we arrived and unloaded everything, we all split off and decided to meet back up for lunch in a few hours. My wife took my son off with my mom and my aunt as they headed out to the mall. As for my uncle and me, he offered to take me to the local card shops in Medina and Cuyahoga Falls. So after everyone left for the mall, we headed over to Medina.

I've mentioned the Medina card shop before way back in one of my early posts but the place isn't very organized. They've got old packs mixed in the same box as new packs and charge the same price for said old packs as they would for new packs. The owner claimed it was because he was "short on counter space" as he gazed about the shop with little to no eye contact being made as we chatted. I looked at some singles but there wasn't much in the way of digging to be had so I settled on the above packs, two packs of 2016 Update and two packs of 2015-16 SP Authentic, which I'll crack open in a future article.

Our second stop of two was over 30 minutes away in Cuyahoga Falls, which is a little town off the beaten path. There, after winding through some residential areas and along the edge of the Cuyahoga Valley National Park, we found All-Pro Sports Cards in a tiny shopping center. The place was the complete 180 of the shop in Medina. Everything was laid out neatly and organized, had college football going on the TV, and was very clean. The one downside was that they didn't sell stuff by the pack. I asked why and was told that the majority of their sales are based on boxes, with only base products (like Series 1 and 2) being packed out. I looked around and my uncle and I talked about a 1909-11 T206 Frank Schulte card we saw in the case. Making a final lap around the shop, it was then I discovered a giant pile of junk wax stuff hiding behind a Harrison Ford standee. The prices were a little steep but then I saw the box of 1993-94 Donruss Hockey pictured above. I asked how much, and the owner thought and said "eh, ten bucks". Sold! I paid for the box, and my uncle and I headed off to meet up with everyone else for lunch at a local pizza place back towards the house.

After lunch, we all got back to the house and sugar cookie baking commenced in the kitchen. As you can see in the picture above, my aunt and my son had their aprons were ready to get their baking on. My mom and my wife helped as well. I'm not one for baking things so I let everyone else have at it while my uncle and I abstained and watched TV.

Here's the final product of the sugar cookies. I must say, they were just as good as I remember them being. After the cookies, we all took a quick rest before the pumpkin carving.

For the jack-o-lantern, we all picked out a design from online, just something simple, and my uncle went to work on it with a knife and power tools, all while narrating what he was doing. After the initial carving was done, it was spray painted gold so it wouldn't rot before Halloween. Here's the finished product.

An Indians jack-o-lantern! As much as I want to root for the Cubs in the World Series, I really can't since the Indians are involved and they're one of my favorite teams.

For dinner, we picked up burgers and fries from the local drive-in chain, Swensons. Let me tell you, if you've never had Swensons and you find yourself in the Akron area, get it! I got their trademark burger, the Galley Boy, and it was one of the best burgers I've ever had. The thing that makes it unique it that it's got two different special sauces on it, one with a barbecue sauce base and another with a tarter sauce base. You wouldn't think that would work but it does. The fries were so-so but with a little salt they livened up a bit.

After dinner, we all settled in an had planned on watching scary movies all night but we decided to flip back and forth between the Ohio State game and the Cubs/Dodgers game. Everyone except my uncle and I fell asleep but we stayed up long enough to say we saw the Cubs win the pennant. The next morning, there was a small, quick breakfast of eggs and toast and the family and I hit the road soon thereafter for the three hour drive back home.

Caramel Apple Pop Tarts

Whoever thought these would be easy to find was sadly mistaken. Every time I thought I had a lead on them, it proved to be false. One day, I found them by chance while I was out at the local Kroger store. It was there a whole giant shelf of them was available. Excitedly, I grabbed one box and put in in the cart with all my other groceries. Bringing them home, they sat in the pantry for about a week before I remembered I had them. I grabbed a few packs of them and took them to work for a quick breakfast.

Here they are out of their silvery foil prison and sitting on my desk at work. My box must have been thrashed around a bit during shipping and the pop tarts themselves weren't solid like they normally are, they were cracked. That's fine though as I usually break apart my pop tarts when I eat them. 

Since there was no toaster handy, I ate them as they were. I'm not normally a fan of apple flavored stuff but these were pretty good. I couldn't really taste any caramel but they were pretty heavy on the apple, to the point where I though these were some sort of apple pie flavor. The green squiggle didn't really bring anything to the party, neither did the frosting. 

These seem to be a Kroger exclusive flavor so if you have one near you, go see if you can find them as they are definitely worth a try. If not, I guess there's always eBay if you're desperate.

Halloween Lunchables

I don't normally buy Lunchables except to use as a quick lunch for my three year old son on occasion but when I saw these for a buck each as part of a promo deal at the local grocery story, I couldn't pass it up. The Lunchables I've had in the past aren't good, but they're not really bad either, so I don't have high hopes for these.

I have a great fondness for dirt cake. When I was a kid, one of my great aunts would always make a dirt cake when she would have family gatherings. That's the dirt cake I remember, Oreos and chocolate pudding mixed it with some Cool-Whip. This tastes nothing like that. The idea here to to take the gummy worms and dip them in the frosting and crushed cookies, therefore giving them the look like they had crawled through the dirt. The gummy worms are stiff and rigid, the "frosting" was basically nothing but an inedible glob, and the crushed cookies definitely had that generic Oreo taste. I can see why this was only a dollar. 

After having the dirt cake flavor, I had low expectations for this one. This one is a simple s'mores dip with graham cracker flavored sticks, chocolate chips, and a marshmallow creme the color of buffalo sauce. Talk about a complete 180! This was really, really good! The graham sticks tasted exactly like you would imagine, the marshmallow creme was a little thick but the orange hue gives it a nice Halloween-ish vibe, and the chocolate chips were good, albeit generic. I'd definitely grab this one again if I see it again before Halloween. My son wouldn't go near the other one but this one, he loved it as seen in the picture below.

Thanks for reading about these Halloween lunchables/snacks. Only two more weeks until Halloween and there's a bunch more stuff coming up soon. Get out there and enjoy what's left of the Halloween season!

The 2014 Halloween Special

The 2014 (and final) Halloween Special!

Here it is, the final Halloween special that I filmed with my friend Brian and Tim. On this special, my wife actually joins in the fun with a bizarre baking segment. There is also some Halloween hot sauces, Tim making a homemade knight costume, Palmers chocolate, Halloween lunchables, and lots more. While I was editing this, I had a feeling it would be the last one so the intro is a nice highlight reel of fun stuff from years past set to creepy music.

I really hope everyone has enjoyed these videos I've put up this past week. It was a blast sharing them with you and a fun way for me to kick off October. There's still a ton more Halloween fun to come this month!

The 2013 Halloween Special

The 2013 Halloween Special!

This is the next to last Halloween special my friends and I filmed. In this episode, there's the return of Creepy Crawlers, Tim doing arts and crafts, more Kool-Aid Ghoul Aid, new Jones Soda flavors, and tons more stuff. Enjoy the video!

The 2008 Halloween Special

The 2008 Halloween Special!

Today let's head back to 2008 for the second Halloween special that my friends and I did. As with all the specials, they're hosted by my friends Tim and Brian (since I'm most decidedly camera shy). On this special we looked at a lot of decorations, candy, and a pretty awesome electronic face ripping statue. This special also contains of the best intros we ever shot. Enjoy the video!

Crazy Halloween Junk Food

I'll have to admit, September has pretty much been a blur. Between work kicking my butt and being busy nearly every weekend, I had precious little time to write. Fear not though, since it's now officially fall it's really time to embrace the season ... and by embrace the season I mean gorge myself on Halloween junk food. These items have no relationship to each other whatsoever other than the fact that I couldn't get enough out of them for a full fledged article.

Hostess Scary Cakes

Yes! These are back for another year. Sure, they're just the basic Hostess cupcake any other time of the year, but not in the fall. In the fall, they are "Scary Cakes" with S'cream filling. If these aren't a sign that the Halloween season is in full force then I don't know what is. The box design this year is great with a spooky design that just grabs you. The icing on the cupcake has that standard Hostess squiggle design but the frosting is orange! Name another time of year you'll find a cupcake with orange icing! Now, if you've had a Hostess cupcake before, you know what this tastes like, however I think it has just a little bit better flavor and taste because it has a Halloween style. Put some of these out along with a cold glass of cider for the Great Pumpkin when he comes and your Halloween will be that much better.

Pepperidge Farm Pumpkin Cheesecake Cookies

I've always looked at Pepperidge Farm stuff from afar, it being more expensive than your normal Chips Ahoy or Oreo cookie pack. I've gotten a few of their products before and haven't been too terribly impressed which is mostly the reason I stray away from them (the other being cost). These were one of the first "fall" products I saw in the stores, so I grabbed it. The package design is very bright as has a design of falling leaves on the top. Opening these, I couldn't discern any particular smell so I just hoped they wouldn't be horrible. Well, they weren't horrible, but they weren't great either. The chunks you see picture in the cookie on the package are cheesecake flavored chunks. The cookie itself had a slight sort of gingerbread-y flavor to it. I can't say I can recommend these but you could do a whole lot worse.

Count Chocula Cereal Bars

Speaking of doing a whole lot worse, I found these on a display at the grocery store lumped in with all the Halloween cereals (side note: review of the cereals coming soon) and though they looked interesting. The box has a very cartoonish  vibe to it, probably to appeal to kids or fans of the Count Chocula cereal. I had the cereal itself before I had this so I had a pretty good idea of what to expect. Well, everything I expected went right out the window when I bit into it. It's got a very processed and marshmallow heavy taste and has the consistency of cardboard. The chocolate looks and tastes incredibly fake and it's very heavy on the artificial sweetener. I tried to offer part of the bar to my 3-year old son and he promptly screamed and ran away. Even if kids are running from this, that should tell you something.

Hi-C Ecto Cooler

This was all the rage back in the summertime when the new Ghostbusters movie came out in July. People were looking high and low and grocery retailers big and small just so they could get a nostalgic taste of their childhood. I didn't find any in my area until mid-August, just before the movie left theaters. That didn't stop me though, I grabbed a bunch of the 10-box packs. It tastes just like I remember it, very citrusy with orange and tangerine. You better believe that when I found more of these at the store, I loaded up. There's no telling if this is back for good or if stores are just going through what stock they have left. One thing is for sure though, this is the perfect drink to have on a fall night when you're staying up late to watch a Pumpkinhead marathon.

The Most Amazing Halloween Aisle Ever

This caused quite the stir on my Twitter page over the weekend. Of all the retail establishments I've been to so far this season, this one aisle at my local grocery store is by far the absolute best of all of them. As I said on Twitter, this aisle take me right back to a 1992, perhaps somewhere in a corner drug store. This particular grocery store looks like it hasn't been updated since then either, with outdated lettering atop all the different departments and old tile floors that seem to be the original floor. This was the only good picture I could get as the store was busy and I had to take this somewhat sneakily so the guy at the meat counter wouldn't give me a suspicious look. Anyway, let's take a look at some of the highlights of this ...

This is one of the best M&M displays I've ever seen with Red dressed as a vampire and surrounded by mountains and mountains of M&Ms. I would wager a guess that when the store is closed he swims in these bags like Scrooge McDuck swims in money. I mean, just look at the mounds and mounds of candy that surrounds him, wouldn't you be in heaven too? Also, not to be forgotten in this shot are the giant cauldrons, presumably to be used for some sort of witchcraft shenanigans or to be used as a Halloween candy bowl. The possibilities are endless!

Towards the back of the display, we have a scarecrow and a crazy tree sprouting all sorts of candy. The scarecrow is your typical cutesy fall fare for those who want to play it straight. That's not really my style. I like the crazy Halloween candy tree. Also, if you look very closely in the back you can see  part of an old school circular department store rack covered with costumes. Very 1980s-ish.

These look like they're supposed to be ghosts. I'm down with that. What is the white stuff they put on them, was it paint of some sort? This looks like a crazy high school arts and crafts project and I can so dig that.

It's the trick or treat monster and he's coming to steal all your candy! Not really, but this sign is really, really cool. The monster kind of that that reaction like Tweek on South Park does, like he's perpetually petrified. Also, what is that coming out of his left side? Is it a bolt? An arm?

You can't have a retail Halloween display without and inflatable graveyard scene that nearly touches the ceiling.

There are more inflatables and a lamp post that I very nearly bought as it was listed at 20% off the sticker price. Also, any store that has so much Halloween candy that they have to sort it into big bags and monster bags, is tops in my book.

The thing that makes it for me is while this aisle may look clean, it's also meant to be messy, which brings me back to my drug store analogy as all drug store Halloween aisles were always a bit unkempt. This one aisle takes everything that is awesome about the Halloween season and packages it neatly in one semi-neat ball that doesn't take itself too seriously.

Thank you grocery story Halloween aisle. Thank you for being you.