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Home Decor

2024 Halloween Shopping

2024 Halloween Shopping

Happy Halloween shopping 2024! For over two decades now, the Halloween shopping season has been my main time for household and clothing purchases. Each year, I love to shop around to find interesting new items that fit my home’s spooky look, while also being of a decent quality and serving a useful purpose. While I do a lot of shopping at local & small businesses, it is still fun to keep up my tradition of seeing what the big box stores have to offer as well.

So many items out there are made for pure decoration, or have been slowing degrading in quality and will not last longer than a few weeks of heavy usage. There are, however, some highlights that truly stand out from the crowd each season . I have compiled a list below of my personal wish list items for this year’s Halloween haul.

Every late July/early August I stock up on hand soap from Bath & Body Works to last throughout the year. They always have a wonderful variety of Halloween & Autumn scents I adore. As my household began to switch over to more eco-friendly solutions, however, the amount of excess plastic from all these soap dispensers was concerning. I did not want to miss out on my favorite scents, but I did want to find better solutions for the environment.

This year Bath & Body Works delivered with Hand Soap Refills of popular Fall favorites. Scents include: Vampire Blood, Afternoon Apple Picking, Sweater Weather, Sweet Cinnamon Pumpkin, Leaves, White Pumpkin, and more. Each container is equivelent to about three of the standard foaming hand soap plastic bottles – saving quite a lot of plastic! These can be used with any standard foaming hand soap container. Bath & Body Works also has a variety of dispensers in Halloween, Autumn, and normal people year-round designs.

Now that I have switched to the refillable foaming soap, I need a fitting dispenser to add to my home’s décor. Bath & Body Works’ Owl Gentle Foaming Soap Dispenser is the perfect addition to my vintage Halloween kitchen. While they do have some more direct Halloween options, like a Cthulu-inspired haunted house, black cat, and stack of pumpkins, I like that this was a little more subtle and fit with the look of vintage Halloween postcards. 

One other pro tip with any of the Bath & Body Works dispensers – the push top is the same as the ones that come on the standard foaming soaps. If you love the base, but want a different spout, save one of the spouts from your non-reusable bottles and switch it out. 

These items may not be new to the market for 2024, but they are high up on my list of things to look for while I am out and about. Instead of going through oodles of paper liners, these reusable silicone skull-shaped cups can be a better alternative. 

They are 3.5″ x 3.25″ x 2.75″, oven save up to 450 degrees Fahrenheit, and microwave, freezer, and dishwasher safe. 

One of my favorite appetizers to make for my movie nights and parties is a charcuterie board. This white marble ghost-shaped board is sure to make any spread pop. At 13″ x 14.5″ x 0.5″, it is a nice size for a cheese board spread. 

I have also seen some similar boards at local Home Goods stores in the $20-$30 range. They seem to be a little more of a budget-friendly solution, but you have to be lucky to snag one!

I admit, this piece is not one of the functional items I typically seek out, but it is one of the few purely decorative items I have fawned over in recent years. It is quite tempting to clear off a shelf in my horror movie-themed living room to add this to. I enjoy the reference to “The Blob” (one of the only horror movies to really terrify me), as well as many of the other horror nods throughout.  

The building lights up via three AA batteries or A/C adaptor. At only 10.24″ x 7.28″ x 5.91″, it is not too unwieldly for one’s mantle. 

While Halloween merchandise has been hitting the shelves earlier and earlier each year, I seem to find less and less that I actually need to bring into my home. I highly recommend instead of shopping the big box stores, go out and find amazing small businesses and independent creators to support. They offer Halloween products year-round and often have superior quality to most of the cheap items being sold in national chains. 

Nevertheless, it is still fun to see so much spooky while running my day-to-day errands. 

What cool items have you found this year? Share your haul pictures with me on Facebook, Twitter, and/or Instagram

2024 Halloween Shopping

Happy Halloween shopping 2024! For over two decades now, the Halloween shopping season has been my main time for household and clothing purchases. Each year, I love to shop around

Read More »

57 Ghosts

Take part in a spirited séance aboard the historic – and haunted – Queen Mary with 57 Ghosts. From Master Magician and Apparitionist Aiden Sinclair, this 90-minute immersive experience takes

Read More »
Categories
Home Decor

2021 Halloween Shopping

2021 Halloween Shopping

The 2021 Halloween Shopping season has been unlike any other. Firstly, we are still in a pandemic (closer to the tail end than last year, but it is still complicating things).

Secondly, there have been severe shipping delays on merchandise. Retailers such as Spirit Halloween, Target, and more are seeing increased delays on products due to port closures and slow container processing times. These port delays due to issues surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic have a ripple effect and are compounded by ground-shipping logistics once the items have arrived in the U.S. This has resulted in items hitting store shelves sometimes much later than expected. Affected items include animatronics, decor, and fog machines. 

Lastly, due to many people being unable to celebrate Halloween to the fullest last year, there is an increased demand to participate in the holiday this year. Poll after poll have shown that a majority of Americans plan to celebrate Halloween 2021 – and they want to buy more decor, candy, and other supplies. More shoppers are competing to buy the few items that made it to shelves!

Despite all the issues, I still managed to find a few items worth trying to snag before they disappear!

2021 Halloween Shopping Highlights

While many items from last year have returned for 2021, here are some new highlights for this season:

Images from Michaels.com

The green and off-white colors of this skull welcome sign are a wonderful change of pace from the normal black and orange Halloween color scheme. The vine-like pattern behind the skull adds a touch of whimsy. This sign will be the perfect addition to my home! The only detail to note is that the sign is a little large at 28” x 15.4”, so it may not fit easily above a doorway if you have lower ceilings.

DCWV makes some of the best Halloween scrapbook paper designs currently on the market. This year’s lineup at Joann is another smash hit. “Halloween Town” is a fun and bright pack with bold colors. “Haunted Harvest” features floral prints rich burgundy and moss colors. “VoooDooo” mixes purples, blacks, off-whites, golds, and greys with skulls, spiders, and voodoo occult images. “Halloween Party” is the perfect fit for a light and girly project – with its peach colors, flowers, and cutesy images.

Image from Kohls.com

As an owner of these pajamas in a different style from last year, I can say that they are in fact extremely comfortable. I love the new designs available for 2021 – Halloween characters in frames on a black background; pumpkins and fluffy black cats; and ghosts, cats, and pumpkins. Each set includes a top and matching pants with an elastic waistband.

Image from SpiritHalloween.com

Ever since I was a kid, I have loved buying new journals to write stories, poems, and ideas in. Absolutely anything one can imagine can be put to the blank pages. This Trick ‘R Treat journal looks so cute and would be a great way to flaunt my love for Halloween & horror. I also like that it has the built-in strap to keep the pages closed when not in use.

These glasses may be a little more fall themed than Halloween, but you have to admit, their cold, black eyes are pretty creepy! Each double old-fashioned glass has a unique owl design that is cut and polished by hand and then hand-painted by Turkish artisans. They have a 3” diameter and are 3.75” high with a 10.5-oz capacity.

If you like these, Williams Sonoma also sells hand towels, plates, and a tablecloth to match.

While the pickings were a little slimmer this year, it is still fun to go out and hunt for cool items. What did you find?

Share your haul pictures with me on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram!

2024 Halloween Shopping

Happy Halloween shopping 2024! For over two decades now, the Halloween shopping season has been my main time for household and clothing purchases. Each year, I love to shop around

Read More »

57 Ghosts

Take part in a spirited séance aboard the historic – and haunted – Queen Mary with 57 Ghosts. From Master Magician and Apparitionist Aiden Sinclair, this 90-minute immersive experience takes

Read More »
Categories
Home Decor Lifestyle

Home Decorating – Haunted House Style

Home Decorating – Haunted House Style

An old saying states, “The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree”. I could not have become such a dedicated mistress of macabre without the influence of my father. He introduced me to my first horror film before I can even remember, and by the time I was four began a horror/sci-fi/fantasy movie collection with me. Growing up, we would go to every horror convention within a three hour radius of our hometown and would drive up to seven hours to go to haunted houses during October. He was always a fan of outlandish haunted house style decorating.

When I visited home this past December, he gleefully showed me his creepy graveyard scene he set up in the soon-to-be kitchen of his new house. Since it was all torn up and waiting to be remodeled, the space served as a perfect home for his growing collection of gravestones, ghouls, and other ghastly guests. Who says you can’t celebrate Halloween year-round?

2024 Halloween Shopping

Happy Halloween shopping 2024! For over two decades now, the Halloween shopping season has been my main time for household and clothing purchases. Each year, I love to shop around

Read More »

57 Ghosts

Take part in a spirited séance aboard the historic – and haunted – Queen Mary with 57 Ghosts. From Master Magician and Apparitionist Aiden Sinclair, this 90-minute immersive experience takes

Read More »