The Most Wonderful Time of the Year...

I know it's still September, but it's never too early to prepare for Halloween.

I think it's safe to say that it's my favorite holiday - there's no pressure (basically it's all bonus points once you go beyond answering the door with a bag of candy), and there's a whole lot opportunity for creative crafty goodness.

In the past we just put up our display on the big day (previously blogged about here and here), but that's really a lot of work for just a couple hours of theater. This year we're thinking about celebrating throughout the Halloween season, which I've decided is about a week long (significantly more festive than a single evening, but nothing like the ridiculously drawn out multi-month holiday of Christmas). I've also decided that Halloween is a holiday that's wasted on children. Sure it warms my heart to see youngsters weeping at the foot of my driveway in fear of what lies ahead, but that's canceled out by the annoyance of teenage boys trying to have "relations" with our Vampira mannequin. Additionally, the wee ones may be cute, but their ignorance of 1950s B-movies is so very trying.

In light of this, we're planning on throwing a grown-up Halloween bash on the preceding weekend. This way we can serve glowing cocktails (mix a black light with some gin & tonic, shake and serve) and display a sci-fi electrical transombobulator or two (Tesla coil, anyone?) with far less fear of lawsuits. Brainstorming is currently underway for decorations, music, food and drink (I love the brainstorming part because it's all about the fun ideas with none of the hard work!).

My latest obsession is the relatively recent revival of the Doctor Who series. I always liked the theme song of the original series, but would quickly get bored and wander off once the show started. Not so with this newer incarnation. Christopher Eccleston's portrayal of the Ninth Doctor sucked me in and pretty much had me either giggling or weeping every time he was onscreen. Part of the reason I've been absent from my blog is my Doctor Who love, which consists of not only watching the episodes, but also reading the 20+ page recaps on Television Without Pity, and then following that up with a viewing of Doctor Who Confidential. Then I had to mourn for several days when #9 died. I do try to be thorough.

Anyway, Doctor Who will be the theme. Throughout its life, the show has had a great retro look that I love (art deco cybermen, 1950s call boxes, fabulous Victorian foppery, and much steampunk goodness), it works well with the alien and mad-scientist themes from previous years that we'll be building on, plus it easily lends itself to the warm costumes that are necessary in New England that time of year (nothing says toasty warm like a Doc #4 muffler). An added bonus is that now I have an excuse to make my very own TARDIS!