Katie Pumpkinhead’s Pumpkin Patch

If you know me at all, you probably know: It’s never too early for Halloween is the hill I will die on. January 3rd, April 22nd, August 12th, November 1st itself…It doesn’t matter. To me, spooky is not a season. But a strange trend I’m starting to notice this year is, even within the Halloween community itself, even among the most avid lovers of Halloween, I’m seeing posts that basically state, in so many words, “I love Halloween, but it’s too early.”  Huh? Now, I understand that for some people, it may not feel as special when treated as a year-round thing, and that is a perfectly valid way to feel. In fact, one reason it took me until my mid-twenties to start leaving my Halloween decor up all year round was because I was afraid Halloween would lose something if I tried to quell that longing by surrounding myself with it for too long before or too late after. I’m in no way trying to shade or gatekeep against those that love Halloween but find more magic in keeping it seasonal. The...

 Something I’ve been seeing a lot this year around the Halloween community, possibly more than any other year, has been talk of consumerism, how much money spent on Halloween is too much, whether collecting is really that important or if it’s somehow required to truly be a part of the community, etc. I’m in no way trying to copy anyone else who’s already spoken on this subject, but I thought I would chime in and share my thoughts, as it is something I definitely think about. Now, I’ve always been relatively fortunate when it comes to how much money I have to spend on Halloween goodies. As a child, I often received money for my birthday, September 8th, at the height of the shopping season, at least as I knew it back then. No, it wasn’t enough to collect the way I do now, but it was enough to make me happy, and you also could get a lot more for a lot less back then. I didn’t necessarily stop to think about my “hauls”, but I knew even at a young age that there was nothing I’d rat...

 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 know I’m late to the party on this one, but I finally got around to watching the movie M3gan . Now, as you can probably tell from  my intense hatred of AHS Death Valley , I am not a person who enjoys the blending of sci-fi with horror. I understand that the two genres can be adjacent, but I rarely like the outcome of mixing the two things. However, as someone who used to avidly collect dolls, and also grew up during what was probably the initial big uprising of interactive toys, M3gan spoke to me.  Honestly, there’s not much I can really say about the plot of the movie that the trailer doesn’t get into. A young girl, Cady, (I have to ask, what is with this spelling of my name in the media? I’ve never met a “Cady” in reality yet it seems like “Katie” is just too basic to use for a fictional character these days. Is it meant to be short for Cadence, or something? Or are you less likely to be asked if it's short for something if it's spelled this way?) is involved in a ca...

 If I'm known for anything, it is probably the fact that I try to hold onto Halloween, keep the spirit alive, and spread that spooky joy, all year long, no matter what the calendar says. Halloween is such a part of me that I've long-since stopped thinking of it as simply being a "season". It's just...what I like. Who I am. To me, hanging Halloween decorations year round is no different than if I chose to decorate in the motif of any favorite color or animal or aesthetic. Some people like a woodland theme, some people, gourd help them, like a beach theme...I just prefer vintage Halloween party meets twisted pumpkin patch.  Sadly, it didn't always occur to me that I could celebrate Halloween all year round if I wanted. I truly don't know if it was a fear of being thought of as "weird" in my younger years (though I'm not sure by whom as it's not like I ever had classmates come over, and my childhood best friend was always into witchy stuff) ...

 It's time for another round of 90s Kid Halloween Nostalgia! Sometimes it saddens me that today's kids will likely never know the true magic of Saturday morning cartoons. There was something about that feeling of waking up, maybe earlier than we should have been on a day off, but wanting to make the most of our day, knowing we had two full days of freedom ahead of us. Somehow the cartoon blocks felt like a celebration. As if Saturday was a weekly holiday and Saturday morning cartoons were the party we were always invited to, or the special we waited for with bated breath.  Some of my fondest memories of my childhood weekends are of losing myself in those cartoons for several hours. My favorite block of all was the  One Saturday Morning  block on ABC, run by Disney. It premiered just after I turned ten, and it immediately became a weekly fixture in my life, with me counting down the days until it came back around, and begging my parents not to plan any outings until t...

  It’s truly a strange feeling to look at something and think “I can’t wait to watch you die.” But yet, as the Gregorian months of April and May drone on, propelling us closer to summer with every passing hour, as the leaves emerge and everything becomes an endless sea of green, lightly peppered with other colors that seem manufactured even if they aren’t, that is all I can think. I can’t wait to watch them die. Green leaves are so boring. And the world is so green in the spring. It seems like the decor of a minimalist, married to one color scheme, clean but blah . And I am anything but a minimalist. I don't understand why spring and summer are considered so beautiful; why they make people seem to feel so alive.  I can't wait to watch them die. As I look up at the thick, green leaves, remembering a restaurant I frequented as a child that was built to look like a rainforest, I start to picture them in all sorts of vibrant hues of orange, yellow, red, even brown. I can't wait...