Katie Pumpkinhead’s Pumpkin Patch

Here we stand, at the edge of summer. It's that time of year again, when seasonal depression kicks in and the only consolation is the promise of Halloween soon hitting store shelves. This year, more retailers seem to be getting into the spirit of "Summerween", offering actual spooky themed summer merchandise, particularly bedding. I've seen sheets and pillows from TJMaxx , and blankets from Walmart . It's not a motif that I, personally, can really get into, but I'm happy that it exists. Nothing makes me happier than seeing the normalization of being spooky all year round. I'd like to think that soon it will be commonplace for a sheet ghost or skeleton to pop up on different holiday decor throughout the year. Valloween has already caught on, and Summerween seems to be the new thing, so why not Creepmas, Springoween, etc.? I have always said that for me, personally, Halloween is just my style, and is no different to me than it is for other people that decora...

 Something that's made me very happy this year is the fact that the entire Halloween community and then some seems to be in agreement that the "official" start of what the layman refers to as "spooky season" is July 5th.  Naturally, Summer Summers of Summerville and her insufferable squad of swamp ass advocates are up in arms about it. Here's a comment from a post I made acknowledging the "midnight on July 4th" kickoff: My response was simply that I choose to do what makes me happy regardless of the calendar date. Summer Summers' rep clearly had no good answer for that that wouldn't have made her sound like a compete (swamp)asshole, and so the conversation came to an end, with a few comments from fellow "pumpkinheads" along the way. I'm not dwelling on this one Negative Nancy by any stretch of the imagination, but this and other comments I've been hearing have made me want to talk about why a July 5th kickoff to the layman...

 I have a lot of pet peeves when it comes to how people act on social media.  But my biggest is probably the people that seek out accounts dedicated to fall and Halloween, and then basically try to police them about what month it is. I honestly hate living in such a calendar-driven society. The fact that people think they should or shouldn't act a certain way because of a square drawn onto a piece of paper is ludicrous to me. What you can do on most "holidays", you can do on literally any other day of the year. And if you happen to love and look forward to one of those holidays, why shouldn't you be able to keep that alive even when the calendar has moved onto its next meaningless little box?  I was thinking about it this morning, and Halloween is actually the only holiday where people would look at you funny if you did its main celebratory pastime, trick-or-treating, any other time of the year. Every other holiday could literally be celebrated whenever. Big family di...

 A few days ago, I made a post on Instagram talking about how my summer depression made an event I had been looking forward to attending, difficult for me. (You can find the original post  here .) The next morning, I started getting a barrage of direct messages from someone who was completely flabbergasted, and seemingly downright offended  that a person could experience any sort of negative emotion during wonderful  summer. This was, as you can imagine, a very irritating experience for me. I do not appreciate anyone invalidating anyone else, especially as it relates to mental health struggles. As a result, I started posting a little more about the summer strain of Seasonal Affective Disorder (also known as SAD) and have since been receiving very positive responses, particularly from people that have been feeling this way for years but were never able to put a name to it before. Raising this awareness has brought me a lot of joy over the past few days, and so I thoug...

 Memorial Day has passed on the Gregorian calendar. Halloween is now less than 150 days away. Soon, we will start seeing decor in stores, and feel the shifts in the air as more and more people start to think about  and plan out their Halloweens.  But, sadly, there is another thing that happens during this time of the calendar year. The inexplicable species known as “summer people” come out of the woodwork and start whining that autumn people should “STOP RUSHING THE SEASONS!!!!” , as if it’s some horrible crime not to enjoy sweltering hot weather and blinding sun. As if it’s a crime to enjoy and look forward to something that takes a long and painful year to make its way back to us. No one, not even those inexplicable summer folk, should have to feel like like they’re in the wrong for looking forward to something. Throughout my entire life, autumn and Halloween have been my salvation. There are probably many things that I wouldn’t have made it through, if it hadn’t been f...

  Summer is the angry flame of a million discarded Jack O'Lanterns.   So many of us wither and die, but there are many of us that survive.  Perhaps 'survive' is too strong of a word, but we continue to exist. Rotting. Fading. But holding on for the promise of a new October.  The wait is long and hard as we waste away on porches or in abandoned woods. We know our time will come again, but it never seems to get here.  We relish in what we can find in the interim; the little scraps we can salvage. The cold, ghostly silence of winter. The spring breeze that's not too much warmer than fall's, if you close your eyes.  But by summer, we are tired. We have grown weary of waiting, and we're tired of the pain that the change of seasons continues to bring. It is but a single step away. So close we can taste it. So near we can almost smell the air.  The heat is excruciating; the sun beating down upon us as if trying to force us into some type of submission. Is ev...

 Today is National Watermelon Day! I may not be much of a summer ghoul, (and by “not much” I mean “not even the slightest bit) but I have always enjoyed watermelon. It’s probably my favorite fruit/fruity flavor.  Back in 2015, thinking about how watermelon-flavored treats tend to become a big thing in the summer months, I tweeted this: Though I can’t find the proof of it now, (It was hard enough to dig up the actual tweet!) this tweet got quite a bit of a response, at least compared to what I was used to at the time. It was like I somehow had shown a light on something people hadn’t realized before.  It’s true, though, if you really think about it. Both watermelons and pumpkins appear in big bins in the stores at the beginning of their respective seasons, and are bought up by everyone until said season has passed. Both also somewhat represent the official “flavor” of their season, heavily featured in different foods and drinks that are often bypassed once the season is ov...