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Halloween a treat for decorators, retailers

By ELIZABETH BETTENDORF
Published October 6, 2006

The other day I was listening to my favorite jazz musician, Patricia Barber, sing The Falling Leaves and it made me think about fall in places where the leaves actually change color by early October.

I've always thought of fall as its own season, unofficially book-ended by Labor Day and Thanksgiving, but otherwise unblemished by major holidays.

But the other day I was browsing in the garden center of my neighborhood big-box retailer when I noticed, or I should say really noticed, something for the first time:

Halloween is now a major holiday.

Or, at the very least, a decorating high-holiday replete with its own door wreaths, cocktail napkins, serving platters, scented candles and its own patio party lights shaped like eyeballs, spiders, witch hats and skeletons.

Serious lawn ornaments with a Halloween theme stood guard at the entrance to the garden center, including a life-size, all-weather witch and a selection of large bats to be hung upside down, I assumed, from the porch rafters. Stone-like columns and skulls were swaddled in pinkish-purple lights, the holiday's unofficial theme color, second only to bright orange.

More accessories awaited, including garden pumpkins and cats and girly-girl witches attached to votive candle holders on plant stakes.

Inside, the selection of Halloween home accessories was even more astonishing: black trellises with orange lights, gargoyle statues, black crows, black feather wreaths, black candelabra, miniature haunted houses, grapevine pumpkins, and a talking skeleton that stood as tall as a grown woman.

What gives?

Whatever happened to regular Halloween, the one-night-stand event of the not-so-distant past, when a carved pumpkin and a bowl of Milk Duds for trick-or-treaters were the only accessories you needed?

I asked myself this question as I debated over jack-o'-lantern cocktail napkins at the grocery store the other day.

I asked myself the same question last night as I considered running back to the store and buying a grapevine pumpkin twined in miniature white lights.

I asked myself this as I watched a woman in front of me at a craft store buy the mother lode of Halloween decorations, including floral arrangements and a porch flag.

In search of answers I called an expert.

Her name is Val Harding.

Harding and her husband, David, own Val's Basket Warehouse, a family-owned "Home Depot of home decor" as Val likes to joke, at 3920 Gunn Highway in Carrollwood. Their large, warehouse-style store is loaded with Halloween decorations that have been selling briskly this season thanks, in part, to the hurricane-free weather and slightly cooler temperatures.

"Oh, you should see us," Val raved. "We have everything for Halloween, more than ever before."

By that, she means a full line of pumpkin items, garlands, centerpieces, wreaths and floral sprays. They've stocked ghosts you can hang in the trees, paper pumpkin lanterns, velvet treat bags, faux grave markers and wooden signs that proclaim all kinds of funny Halloween-isms like "The Witch is in, the Witch is out."

Val explained that Halloween has made a transition to a major decorating holiday in the past three years: "It's very recent," she said.

She attributes the phenomenon to the fact that it's a nonreligious holiday and can be celebrated by people of all faiths

"People don't really decorate as much at Easter," she said.

In Tampa, she's noticed that attractions such as Busch Gardens make a big deal out of Halloween, probably prompting people to think about it more.

But in her heart of hearts she also believes that people just like any excuse to decorate their homes.

"I don't know exactly why it happened, but it did, and I'm grateful," she said. "It really is amazing."

Me, I'm wondering whether my one humble door decoration - a simple, bow-tied skeleton - will be enough to celebrate this high-holiday of home decorating.

Naw.

I'm going back to the store soon to buy that grapevine pumpkin and a string of Halloween patio lights.

Personally, I like the ones shaped like eyeballs, though the witch hats are a nice touch, too.

Elizabeth Bettendorf can be reached at ebettendorf@hotmail.com.

[Last modified October 5, 2006, 06:42:18]