Halloween

Halloween is a big thing in the US - according to the National Retail Federation, it is now the second-largest commercial holiday, just behind Christmas. In 2019, adults spent an estimated US $8.8 billion on costumes, candy, decorations, etc.

When I moved to the UK, Halloween wasn't a big deal (you couldn't even find carving pumpkins) so I gradually lost interest. However, for ten years I hosted an annual pumpkin carving party, inviting friends to make a mess on the deck. (I didn't do anything in 1993 and 1994, 2001 we were on a cruise and I don't have any photos from 2002. In 2005, Dawn moved to Pennsylvania to start the B&B restoration and I don't think I held a party that year. I moved to Pennsylvania in July 2006 and unexpectedly moved back to LA on Halloween that same year. I may have hosted something in my downtown apartment in 2007, but I can't find any photos. Then I moved to the UK in May 2008.

1992

1995

1996

  

1997

1998

1999

2000

2001

2003

2004

I moved to New Zealand in September 2014 and tried to do something with the kids, but they weren't really into it and we had to use food pumpkins, so it just felt wasteful. In 2015 we had an international student staying with us and she'd never carved a pumpkin before so we did it one more time.

2014

2015

I keep talking about growing my own pumpkins but I tried that once and they weren't ready by the end of October, so not only did I have to buy pumpkins but then I had a bunch of pumpkins left over! (I actually carved them to create the 2003 invite, so it wasn't a total loss.)