I didn’t always love Halloween. In fact, I never even decorated my house until tiny human feet were constantly running around it. I hated the idea of dressing up. It always seemed like so much work. Who fits into those costumes anyway? They’re made to either mimic a tent or fit a Barbie. I couldn’t stand the sight of blood or gore. I didn’t watch scary movies. I wouldn’t step foot in a haunted house.
But alas, my husband loved Halloween and I loved my husband. In 2007 we decorated the outside of our house for the very first time and a Byrne family tradition was born. Our two-year-old son was visibly in awe of the decorations. Watching little ones muster up the courage to walk to our front door was priceless. The day after Halloween we went shopping and bought more decorations for the following year because, well, clearance sales. Oh, and we had become addicts of the best kind.
We hosted our first pre-trick-or-treat party in 2008 and the party grew bigger year after year. In 2012 my husband thought it would be fun to create a haunted house in our garage. He was right! Looking back, I don’t think that first one was remotely scary, but working on it as a family was a blast!
In 2013 we took Halloween to an entirely different level. A friend of ours knew another family who was also crazy about the holiday. Fortunately for us, their kids had outgrown their professional-grade decorations, so they had decided to sell them. Naturally, we bought every gruesome and gory thing they had. Meet George and some of our other creepy friends.
The upgraded decorations made the haunted house insane! You can check it out in the video below…
Since my husband no longer needed any of his old, non-mechanical decorations for the haunted house, I decided to decorate the inside of our house for the first time. And when I say decorate, I mean I out cobwebs, jack-o-lanterns, candles, spiders, and ghosts EVERYWHERE. Just like that, our little pre-trick-or-treat party evolved into back-to-back Halloween parties on Friday and Saturday night with hundreds of costumed guests.
Every year we went to great lengths trying to out-do the previous year. As a family, we would brainstorm what we could do to make both the party and haunted house better. We had everything – cartoon characters, fire eaters, magicians, snake charmers, ice luges, Zombie Dogs, fortune tellers, clowns, Thriller dancers, stilt walkers, a pumpkin patch, gourmet chefs, and live haunted house actors. We tried it all and had the time of our lives watching our vision come to fruition each year.
2015 was the first year we did themed family costumes and we never looked back. We liked the coordinating costumes so much, they even made appearances in a our Christmas cards.
In 2017 we decided to take a year off. No haunted house. No parties. We only decorated the front of the house and dressed up as a family. It was AWESOME!!! I even took my kids trick-or-treating for the first time. Sometimes, you just need a break – even from the activities and traditions you love.
This year we are creating a mini haunt in our courtyard and are serving made-to-order cotton candy on glow wands. The boys still love getting the Halloween decorations out and putting them on display for the neighborhood. We couldn’t exactly agree on a family costume this year, but we will all be dressing up in Byrne fashion.
I LOVE Halloween now. It’s what we like to call our accidental family tradition and the season wouldn’t be complete without celebrating it. Halloween brings our family together every year without the obligations and stress of other holidays. There is no expectation to visit relatives, give gifts, make cookies, wrap presents, buy flowers, make cakes, or stuff stockings. It’s okay if you burn the food or it looks gross – the creepier the better. The best part, though, may be that on Halloween, it is socially acceptable to go out in public dressed as your favorite super (s)hero.
