Katie Pumpkinhead’s Pumpkin Patch

  What is a calendar, anyway? It’s just a series of tiny little paper boxes, but people treat them as if they are of the utmost importance.  It’s become almost a joke, among most people that you know. Everyone always asking what your plans are for whichever holiday, and you replying that you don’t really care what you do; it’s just another day. You’ve come to sort of lean into it, in almost a Wednesday Addams-ish type way, but you know that very few people would actually understand how you really feel. New Year’s is probably the holiday that baffles you most of all. People act as though midnight, as December thirty-first turns into January first, is some sort of magical transition time when suddenly, everything changes. Yet every year, January comes, and most things stay the same. Life can change, or stay the same, for that matter, no matter what the calendar says. Nothing is guaranteed to change just because it’s midnight on January first, or guaranteed to not change just bec...

 If you know me at all, especially around Instagram, you probably already know that I’m obsessed with the movie Trick ‘r Treat, and its iconic character, Sam.  The movie has really gained popularity over the last few years, especially since Spirit Halloween started selling merchandise, but what you may not know about Trick ‘r Treat, is that it got off to a bit of a rough start. Originally planned for 2007, the movie wasn’t officially released until 2009, direct to DVD save for a few screenings here and there. I recall seeing a little blurb about it in a pamphlet about new movies that we used to get with video rentals at the grocery store. This was probably some time in early 2007. Not much was said about the movie in that pamphlet, I can’t recall if there was even any kind of picture or logo included with it, but being a Halloween movie, I instantly became excited to see it. Halloween 2007 passed, with no signs of Trick ‘r Treat being released, and after awhile, I kind of just...

It was evident from the age of four that she wasn’t like the other children. Other children believed in things like fairies and unicorns and Santa Claus.  Other children’s favorite holiday was Christmas. At one point, in school, someone had decided to take a ‘favorite holidays’ survey to make a pie chart. It backfired in the poor child’s face; everyone chose Christmas. She did, too, not wanting to be the 1%. But it was a lie. It was always a lie. From the first time she trick-or-treated, she felt something. At first she wrote it off as the atmosphere of the evening. That was how you were supposed to feel on Halloween, was it not? Some kind of strange magic in the air? As if someone, or some thing, or some combination of the two, was watching you? Oddly enough, it didn’t scare her. She was afraid of many things, which is why it always baffled people as to why her favorite holiday was Halloween, if she chose to tell them so. But this presence that she felt, every Halloween night, was...

It seems like the last of the “real” pumpkins around the Patch is about to leave us for the big pumpkin patch in the sky. I am always sad to see them go, despite probably having enough “fake” pumpkins to fill the local farms’ patches, but I must say, they had a terrific run this year.  I thought we could take this time to look back on some of our “real” pumpkins’ best moments through the year. As you can see, it’s always exciting for the residents of the Patch to find a new pumpkin. Either that, or our little ghost friend here is wondering how in the world he’s supposed to carry this one in addition to the three he already has.  A family photo of our dear Pumpkids (and Pendergast the ghost poppet, all of these made by TheBeastPeddler) and most of the pumpkins, taken shortly after returning from Sleepy Hollow. These sorts of photoshoots make post-Halloween depression a little less debilitating.  Another little photoshoot from shortly after Sleepy Hol...

This may come as a shock, but my second-favorite holiday is, and always has been, Valentine’s Day. It’s one of those things I could never really explain. As a child, I loved seeing the decorations, looking at the cute things for sale,  receiving little cards from classmates that otherwise wouldn’t give me a second thought, and, possibly above all else, trying to make sentences out of the little conversation heart candies. I’d spend countless hours at the kitchen table, trying to make a love note that said something like “Hey You. Let’s Kiss. Be Mine. Love You.” Terribly romantic stuff, I know. As I got older, it became sort of the “in thing” to hate Valentine’s Day, especially if you were single, but even at the loneliest points in my life, I could never bring myself to do such a thing. I don’t think I ever saw the holiday as being exclusively about romantic love. For me it was always about just love and happiness in general. Be it romantic love, friendship, family, a pet,...

Once upon a time, there was a girl who loved pumpkins. Not all pumpkins can last forever, though. So there came a day when one of her pumpkins started to rot. Luckily, the girl had a beloved sister. Maybe they weren’t connected by blood, but they were bonded together by mutual understanding and acceptance. Her sister carved the pumpkin into a tiny jack o’lantern for the girl and all of her spooky Halloween friends. “Where did the pumpkin go?” Little Horus the ghost asked one night. Calling upon Sam to come and investigate.  “Something ate him!” said Sam. “A raccoon, most likely. I do hope it was a nice meal.” “And now” said Sam “I have a nice hat!”