My Heart Belongs To Valloween//October 136th, 2025

Ah, Valentine's Day.

When I started this blog, just five years ago, I always felt like it was so weird to talk about how Valentine's Day was my second-favorite holiday.

Honestly, I felt like it was a strange thing to say in general, as I had for most of my life.

I was never the romantic type. I wasn't a little girl who dreamed of my wedding day or anything like that...I honestly didn't even tend to get crushes all that often. The other girls thought it was weird or that I was hiding something when they'd ask the age-old question, "Who do you like?" and I never had an answer.

Yet somehow, I was also the little girl whose heart leapt when the pink-and-red explosion of Valentine's Day started making its way into the world. The Cupid silhouettes, the punny cards, and especially the little anthropomorphic heart people, all held a special place in my heart, only rivaled by the space permanently occupied by the pumpkins and ghosts and skeletons of Halloween. I could never explain it. I still can't.

But I definitely don't think it's all that weird anymore.

I've spoken every year since I've had this blog about the creepiness of certain vintage valentines. A great many of them feature ghosts and skeletons, and could honestly be confused for Halloween cards if you don't know what you're looking at.

And some were just downright creepy without even trying to be.

There seems to be a recurring theme of veiled threats in some vintage valentines that's not unlike a note a killer in a horror film would leave.

And, while a lot of this stuff would never fly these days, I think it's safe to say that Valentine's Day has become connected to spookiness once again.

It started with those "let's get rid of Valentine's Day and replace it with second Halloween" memes. I hated those memes and eventually had to make a couple of posts on social media asking well-meaning friends to please stop sending them to me as, yes, weird as it sounds, I actually have no desire to replace Valentine's Day.

(Halloween in February would never work, anyway.)

Over time, though, rather than replacing Valentine's Day, Halloween has very clearly begun to merge with it.

I can't even tell you how happy it makes me feel to find spooky things in the Valentine's Day section of stores like Walmart and Walgreens nowadays. Ghosts and skeletons are now a part of the celebration once again, along with horror merchandise of all kinds.

A haul of mine from earlier in the season. Not all spooky, I know, but I do enjoy Valentine's decor of all kinds.

There has also been a trend started of spooky yet romantic, or romance-adjacent, movies coming out around this time. Last year brought us the super-fun Lisa Frankenstein, which I've come to think of as the quintessential Valloween film, and this year brings us Heart Eyes, along with Companion, which I think also counts. Seeing so many things being specifically aimed at the spooky community this time of year, truly makes my heart soar, and makes me feel like maybe my weird obsession with Valentine's Day, was never truly all that weird after all. It seems as if there's always been a connection between the spooky and the cute...and it seems to have started out even spookier!

Whatever your plans are for the holiday, stay spooky, my friends!

Pumpkin Guts: Devil’s Night//October 277th, 2024

I was recently given the opportunity to check out a new, independent Halloween short film called Pumpkin Guts: Devil’s Night. (Picture from IMDb) I first became aware of this film through the Instagram page , and to say I absolutely knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that I’d love it, would be an understatement. I can always tell when a piece of media is truly going to radiate Halloween, in the way that will transport me through whatever month we’re currently in (in this case, probably the most disgusting July on record) and into Halloween night itself. When I was offered early access to this short film, I could not have been more honored. Even though I’ve built up somewhat of a following within the Halloween community, it still amazes me every day that people finally truly see and feel what I’m trying to create; that my love of Halloween finally means something and brings some joy and comfort to others like myself, and that anyone, especially a filmmaker, would trust me ...

Here’s Where The Story Ends//October 337th, 2020

Everyone has moments in their life when they feel like giving up. That feeling of “This is never going to happen, so why keep trying?” Sometimes it relates to a thing that would be trivial to anyone else, sometimes it’s about something more life-altering. But, we’ve all been there. I have moments of discouragement with this blog. Times I’ve told myself, “No one cares”, or “No one will read this”, etc., but I continue on, for the joy of it. And sometimes, something amazing happens. If you haven’t read my previous post, Have You Seen This Pumpkin? , I would strongly suggest doing so before continuing on with this story. The short version is, I saw a pumpkin in someone’s window when I was twelve years old, and have spent the last twenty-one years trying to find it for myself. When I published that post, I wasn’t expecting much of a response. I was really just hoping to hear someone say, “Yes, my family had this pumpkin when I was a kid!” Or “I once saw this in a neighbor’...

How The Halloween Community Saved My Life//October 226th, 2024

In 2018, I thought I was dying. It wasn't a health scare, at least not a physical one. I was losing myself. 2018 was a truly transitional time for me. At the time, I was living with my parents, along with my boyfriend at the time, who I'd been with for over a decade. They say you never know what the next day is going to bring, and April 2018 was proof of that. Around the middle of the month, I made the decision to end my relationship, for several reasons, one being complicated feelings I had for someone else. I was in the process of figuring all of that out, when, not more than a week later, my father abruptly decided it was time to retire, put the house up for sale, and move to Florida. I don't do well with change on a good day. But dealing with all of this at once was rough. I was facing a breakup, a possible new relationship, and suddenly potential homelessness, all at once. (If you know me at all, you'll understand that moving to Florida was never a con...

Katie Pumpkinhead’s Pumpkin Patch

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