Bat Jiggler

 I've found a plethora of these bat jigglers over the years.  They seem to be one of the most common Halloween decorations.  And I can't resist them.

Honeycomb Pumpkin

My earliest memories of honeycomb holiday decorations are of the Hallmark Thanksgiving Turkey my mom would put out as a centerpiece on our dining room table.  My sister and I would fight over who got to assemble it.  We didn't have any Halloween decorations outside of my own drawings and school art projects.

It wouldn't be until as an adult I began collecting vintage Halloween I would discover how many different honeycomb Halloween decorations were produced.  I'll be showing some of those I found over the past year in upcoming posts.  Today, we'll start with the old reliable pumpkin.  "25" is stamped on this particular pumpkin reflecting the original price of a quarter.

Fosta Funglasses

 I found a pair of Fosta Funglasses back in 2015 and blogged about them during that year's Countdown to Halloween.

This past summer, I found this pair sitting amongst a bucket of modern Halloween decorations.  It was late in the day and I was surprised no one had discovered them.

Witch Diecut with (some) Crepe Hair

Another die cut from the lot I bought at this estate sale is this Beistle witch.  She probably dates from the 1960's.  

She too suffers from the years with creases and hair loss.  Pretty much like myself.

Like Finding a Pumpkin in a Haystack

Way back in 2010 when I began this blog, one of my earliest posts was about some Halloween-related finds (posted exactly 11 years ago).  This was back before I participated in the Countdown to Halloween or even knew it existed (actually, I'm not sure how many years it's been around).  Anyway, way back then, I blogged about a Jack O' Lantern blow mold.  This year, I found another just like it.

Mystical Mazes

For a while when I was in high school, I was obsessed with mazes.  Not life-sized ones like those corn mazes that are all the rage this time of year; the smaller ones on paper.  I even created my own during Social Studies class (when I should have been paying attention).

This book published by Xerox in 1977 offers a ghoulish assortment of mazes just right for this time of year.  Have fun...and don't get lost!

Hallmark -- When You Scare Enough to Send the Very Best

Next to latex masks, the other Halloween disguise I longed for was the packaged Halloween makeup that was sold at stores like Ben Franklin and Venture (a local discount department store).  I imagined myself as a vampire, layered in white pancake makeup, black circles under my eyes, hair dyed black with a widow's peak, fangs in place and blood dripping down my mouth. Unfortunately, I couldn't afford the specialty makeup and only had access to my mother's excess makeup.  That meant I had to make do with foundation powder, eyeliner and lipstick.  One year, I attempted a werewolf with that assortment.  Trust me, it didn't work.

My memories of Halloween makeup are of the vast varieties of Imagineering props, blood and makeup.

Who knew that in the 1980's, card company Hallmark dabbled in Halloween makeup?  Well, I didn't.

I'm pretty sure these two wouldn't have looked out of place on any day of the year in the 1980's.