Katie Pumpkinhead’s Pumpkin Patch

 The recent release of this year's McDonald's Boo Buckets has me thinking a lot about my childhood Halloweens, and how McDonald's played a very pivotal role pretty much until adulthood for me.  We had some of the old buckets in our home from before I was even born. My grandfather was an avid collector of anything and everything that he thought could be of value, or at least of amusement to future children of the family, so I often wound up with things like that. The buckets were actually some of my favorite toys from a very young age, likely my earliest Halloween memories.  As I got older, though, the collecting gene passed onto me. I always hoped to complete a McDonald's toy collection and Halloween was, of course, always a priority. When the costumed McNuggets came out, that first year I managed to collect all but the pumpkin, which was, of course, the one I'd wanted most. I have a distinct memory of going to McDonald's one night, in the final days before Hall...

 I was inspired yet again today, by one of my 31 Shots of Halloween pictures on  Instagram , to share a fun Halloween memory from my childhood. Surely we all remember the Halloween Happy Meal pails that McDonald’s released in the late 80s/early-to-mid 90s, right?  Monster Creations  recently designed the bag on the right, and I had to get a picture of it with my authentic McDonald’s McBoo pail. It’s almost as if the little pails that were so iconic throughout so many of our childhoods, grew up with us. McDonald’s pails were among the first items in my little childhood Halloween collection. I believe my parents may have even had a few around from before I was born, or at the very least, before I was old enough to truly appreciate them. As I got a little older, they became some of my favorite “toys”, particularly McBoo here, and a witch that I named “Katta”. I played with them like any doll or stuffed animal, especially as Halloween neared.  One year, though, I ca...