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'Tis the season

on a love of fall & Halloween

By Josey PickeringPublished 2 years ago 3 min read
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'Tis the season
Photo by Clint Patterson on Unsplash

I cannot honestly tell you where my love of fall and especially Halloween comes from. There isn't a particular memory or moment that sparked the love, but many fused together to only cement the adoration. I can fondly remember my mom making my costumes when I was tiny, from Tinkerbell to a Black Cat to Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz. I remember my parents taking me out each year to gather a massive candy haul, and I remember being old enough to go walk around our neighborhood myself and take my little brother with me. I never tired of Trick or Treating, and even growing older I still longed to go door to door and have my own costume fashion show of sorts. Today, I still dress up every single year, and sometimes in multiple costumes. Halloween is the time of year when anyone can be someone else and just have fun. As a kid I had frequent nightmares, but it didn't stop me from watching movies like Beetlejuice repeatedly at three years old. I would watch Hocus Pocus & Halloweentown in the spring with no regrets as it gave me a taste of the season I love most. As I got older, my costumes also got a little more obscure as times. In junior high, I was Drusilla from Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and one time I was even Xena. I'm autistic, so Halloween itself became a fixation for me that still burns strong to this day.

Through the years, Halloween has become my light at the end of the tunnel. Even when I go through a tough time the months before, I make many memories to make up for the tough stuff in the fall. A reward for getting through the previous eight months. I find more and more people like me, who keep Halloween decor in their home all year and don't wait until October to watch Nightmare Before Christmas or Hocus Pocus. I see them out in about in a Trick R' Treat shirt and holding a pumpkin purse in the middle of winter and I know I've found a kindred soul. Whilst pumpkin spice may seem basic and overdone to some, to us autumnal souls, it’s a sign of things to come. It's usually around early august with pumpkin printed things begin to pop up, and by the first week of September, I'm dancing in the Halloween aisles at Target in sheer joy. For the past few years I've even started compiling 31 Horror films each year for every day of October, and to help other people find something creepy to watch. I find so much joy in September & October, because it feels like every era of myself comes together in a shared love of the season.

Halloween time to me is orange, purple, green and black. It's spooky, scary skeletons. It’s fog machines and Spirit Halloween. It’s cheap waxy chocolate wrapped in foil. It’s apple cider and homemade donuts. It's multiple visit to Halloween Horror Nights. It's corn mazes and hay bales. It's staying up late with my love watching scary movies. It's carving pumpkins and roasting the seeds to snack on later. In the middle of October, on the 13th, it's a day to remember my father on his birthday. Amidst the pumpkins and scarecrows, there's a place for me to find my father again every year and find time to celebrate him. Halloweentime & fall aren't just seasons for me, it's a feeling like returning to your childhood home for a few times every year. It's a place where I find solace, no matter how spooky it may seem to some outsiders. I'm at home when the leaves turn orange and the nights grow longer.

pop culture
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About the Creator

Josey Pickering

Autistic, non-binary, queer horror nerd with a lot to say.

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