My Halloween: Pandora’s Pen

Five questions asked over a glowing Jack o’Lantern, under an Autumn moon obscured by passing clouds…in between mouthfuls of candy corn…inked with Pandora’s Pen…

Why is Halloween important to you?

There’s a certain type of magic unleashed into the spiced autumn air of late-October. Children sense it and relish in its mysterious chill, but many adults tend to turn their noses up at it, thinking they are too old for Halloween. But it is truly the one time of the year when lovers of the macabre are allowed to embrace their true selves and roam free among the normal people of the world. Halloween is important to me because the atmosphere allows me to feel right at home and to try and show others the magic of fall.

Describe your ideal Halloween.

My ideal Halloween lasts the entire month of October (and preferably some of September, too) because the magic of Halloween is hard to capture in a single day. I will do a marathon of all the best Halloween-themed movies, read plenty of Halloween stories, and listen to the right music to gear up. Then I’ll decorate the house, create my costume, and carve pumpkins.

As a kid, nothing could beat the pumpkin farms where we went on hayrides, ate elephant ears, and examined the best pumpkins. As we near the day, only the best haunted houses are in store. Finally, as Halloween arrives, I’ll witness the spectacle of costumed children trick-or-treating and throw a party with Halloween-themed food and drinks… and who knows, maybe a ghost or two will show up…

What Halloween collectibles do you cherish, or hate, or both?

One Halloween quite a few years ago, my mother (who is just as much a fanatic as I am) bought a 2-ft tall poseable skeleton who we named Benny. But after Halloween that year, we couldn’t find any space in our cluttered basement to store him, so we left him out sitting beside the fireplace. A stuffed turkey ended up in his lap for Thanksgiving; he donned a Santa hat for Christmas; the Fourth of July gave him an American flag bandana. Even now we keep him out year-round as part of the family, and he recently wore a paper top-hat and tie for my sister’s engagement party.

When was your very first Halloween, the one where you really knew it was Halloween, and how was it?

My first Halloween, I was too young to recall, but I distinctly remember my kindergarten or first-grade Halloween where we dressed up for school and paraded down the hallways. The other girls wore Dorothy’s ruby red shoes and princess dresses. Me? I went as a skeleton, complete with full-body bone suit and painted face. I knew then that there was something different about me, and that afternoon as I reluctantly put on a heavy denim jacket and raced over the dead leaves with the neighborhood kids as we went house to house, I knew that this was truly Halloween.

What’s the one Halloween question you want to be asked and what’s your answer?

Q: I think I’ve lost the magic of Halloween since growing up. What can I do to get it back?

A: There are so many things you can do, and I’ll tell you all of them on Pandora’s Pen’s Halloween Countdown.