Taking the Stress Out of Holiday Decorating

EEK! It’s that time of year when everything starts to get super busy! Although the pressure is on me to tackle lots of small projects, attend (and sometimes even plan) several events like holidays, birthdays, costume parties etc., I seem to thrive. I think that keeping busy helps me stay out of the slump of seasonal depression that we can all easily fall into. As the nights grow darker, we start to turn inward physically into our homes and mentally into our own thoughts. I think that is one of the reasons why I love to decorate for the fall and winter holidays. Having my space as festive and cozy as possible allows me to live in the moment, and celebrate whatever is coming my way. 

One of my favorite Halloween traditions is not just decorating though, but making the act of decorating an event of its own. In the past, Mom and I found that we would struggle to get our homes decorated to our liking. Either there was not enough available time, or not enough help. So, we devised a plan to help each other be more accountable by helping decorate each other’s houses. 

In order to maximize the time enjoying our decorations on display, we decided that we should put them up as early as possible, without being an annoyance to our neighbors, of course. This year, October 1st landed on a Saturday, so we chose that as our “decorating day,” and as you know, we are planner girls, so we planned that date about a month in advance and marked our calendars. It all starts with that planning ahead factor. We picked the date and time, then the rest fell into place accordingly, but not without a little extra effort to plan and be prepared. 

Prepping for holiday decorating doesn’t have to be a huge fiasco, but the better prepared you are, the quicker you can get your decorations up, and then you can move on to your scary movies or whatever activities you like to do in October. In September, I plan and schedule to do some fall house cleaning, sort of like spring cleaning but in the fall. I put away anything that is too summer-like and pack away any decorations that would be in the way. I have a huge Scentsy collection so I pack away my summer warmers and my summer scented wax. I give the house a good dusting, sweeping, and decluttering. I have my decorations packed up in the garage, so I will bring those into the living room as well. If there are any decorations that I want to buy, I go ahead and purchase those in advance so that they are in hand on the day we decorate. Get out any tools that you might need also. Be sure to have things like hammer and nails, adhesive hooks, tape, scissors, a step ladder, extension cords and batteries handy for those decorations that need it. I found myself making several trips out to the garage for tools and such, and I could have saved my energy by getting it all rounded up beforehand. 

This year we started off around 10 AM. It's really not a big ordeal; I didn’t have drinks and snacks ,or music like I would have for any other party, but I am not afraid to entertain that thought for next year. I think some spooky Halloween music would have been fun and inspiring, similar to how Christmas music gets you into the holiday spirit while decorating the Christmas tree. Even without the motivational soundtrack, we were able to work through four tubs of decorations in a timely manner. My fall and Halloween decorations were mixed in together, so it took a little bit of sorting. We used my dining room table as an unloading station and we determined which decorations were going out for Halloween, and what would stay in the box until November 1st. From there we could pick up one item and agree on what was going where. I think we had everything decorated inside and out in about an hour and a half. We took a lunch break and then drove to Cindy’s house to put up her decorations following the same method. 

I am really glad that we started decorating this way; it really takes some of the burden off, and removes some of the decision fatigue by having someone else provide their input and ideas. I also find that it is just another added bonus to get to spend quality time with my mom and Reyna and whoever else might be helping. 

Starting Two New Halloween Traditions

I hope you’ve enjoyed our week of Halloween traditions; I know we’ve enjoyed sharing our fun with you. Sometimes, I think just talking about how much we love the holidays makes us even more excited, as we are inspired to add more traditions when we hear about all the fun things that others do. I know I’m always inspired to do more because everything just adds to the fun!

On the podcast, we talked about our favorite "Halloween" movies, and I made no secret of the fact that I am not a fan of horror flicks. But, while we were talking about it, we started listing off a lot of non-scary movies, as well as some old horror favorites that I grew up with that may have been "scary" at the time, and it inspired me to make my own custom list of movies for Halloween. Do note, however, that some of these movies do lean toward the scary or at least disturbing, so watch at your own risk!

Download the PDF

Another fall tradition I’ve been inspired to try this year is a month-long “October” mini scrapbook album. I’m a huge fan of several social media influencers like Dearly Dee, Traci Reed, Krystal Iduñate, and Ashley Horton, who all do October/Halloween themed albums, so, when Ali Edwards announced a new Halloween-themed kit, I knew I had to give it a go.

Part of the Ali Edwards Halloween kit.

I’ll be the first to admit that I need another project like I need another hole in my head. I am already way behind on my Project Life album, and I still haven’t finished my little camping traveler’s notebook from last year, nor my 2020 planner journal, to name just a few. But, much like the draw of my beloved December Daily project each year, I just couldn’t resist taking on another “quick” album. So, here I am, with a handful of printed photos and a lot of scrappin’ supplies, trying to find some time to work on a project that I just know will be super cute if I can ever get it done. Hopefully, I can find some time this weekend.

In the meantime, here is what I’ve completed so far (not much!), and if you’re interested in a project like this, even if it’s just to look at the inspiring work of others, be sure to check out those influencers I mentioned above, and tell me what you think in the comments below.

Halloween Traditions

Hey everyone! It’s my favorite time of year! Spooky Season! This week on the podcast we are talking about Halloween traditions and the things we like to do every year on Halloween. I am in a transitional place in my life, but I want to talk about some of the new traditions I have started over the past few years as well as some of the traditions that I have kept from my childhood.

Pumpkin Carvings by Jason and I

Halloween Decorations

Checking out the decorations at Michael's

I know a lot of people like to decorate for Halloween, and I am no exception. It excites me when the first Halloween decorations hit the shelf at the end of July/beginning of August. I typically like to hit up the décor sections early in the season and I like to hit them up again the day after Halloween. This, of course, was a tradition that I shared with my mom in the past. She always liked to prepare for the coming holidays early. I, however, keep my house decorated in a spooky aesthetic all year round. So, I keep two types of Halloween decorations: the ones I only pull out in October, such as fake cobwebs and spooky lights, and the ones I keep up all year, like my collection of gothic literature decorations.

31 Nights of Horror

Every October, like many horror fans, I TRY to achieve the near impossible (for someone with very little time), and that is to watch 31 horror or spooky movies in October. There really are no rules to this challenge other than you have to watch 31 horror (or, spooky if you don’t like horror) movies in October. Some bloggers even go so far as to create a daily theme for this challenge. Like this one from Horror Hound.

Every year, I fail miserably at this due to poor planning and not taking this challenge as seriously as other people do. I have only made it through ten movies this year. Aside from that, I like to go to the movies and watch at least one horror movie at the movies, and I have stuck to this tradition every year including in 2020 when most movie theaters were shut down and movies were going direct to streaming. This year, I saw Barbarian in the theater. The movie is about a woman, Tess, who books a remote home in Detroit to stay at while she attends a job interview only to find that it was double booked by an awkwardly creepy man named Keith. Tess ultimately decides to share the booking with Keith because the weather was horrible and there were no available hotels in the area.

Local Fall/Halloween Festivals

Pumpkin Nights with Jason

This is a new tradition that Jason and I started last year and continued this year during October. Last year, we went to Frights’n Lights in Frisco, which is a fall festival held every weekend in October that displays hundreds of horror icon lanterns and movie character carved pumpkins. The festival also boasts the largest trick-or-treat trail in Texas. This year, we decided to take a similar route and attend Pumpkin Nights in Arlington. Pumpkin Nights is a fall festival held every weekend in October that displays a trail of events and photo opportunities made almost completely out of pumpkin lanterns. The event also hosts a variety of activities such as shopping, a food truck park, and a playground for kids and adults.

Matching Pajamas

New PJs with Christen

This is also a new tradition that Christen and I mentioned on the podcast. Last year, I attended a slumber party that was thrown for Reyna at the beginning of October 2021 and I decided to stay the night to watch horror movies. Christen, the girls, and I went on a late-night run to Walmart for snacks and ended up in the pajama section. We bought matching nightshirts and wore them while we watched horror movies all night. We had so much fun shopping together, we decided we needed to do it again in the future. A couple of weeks ago, Reyna had her October slumber party and we ended up at Walmart in the pajama section again. We bought another set of matching nightshirts and ended the night watching horror movies, thus adding a new Halloween tradition.

Whether it is a new tradition or an old tradition, Halloween will always be my favorite holiday. I want to hear from our readers. Do you have any fun Halloween traditions? How long have you kept these traditions? Are there any new things you’d like to try this year? Please comment below.

A Dragon made of Pumpkins at Pumpkin Nights