Secret Reaper Begins

Ah, ’tis the season!  The nights are just beginning to get a bit cooler, no matter what the daytime temperatures were.  That familiar feeling is in the air.  Fall is coming.

Autumn is, by far, my favorite time of the year.  I love the colors, the smells, the energy.  Something about it just feels so comfortable.  I feel at home.

A Trick or Treater’s POV, Halloween 2011

Of course, what is fall without Halloween?  It is the grand celebration of the season!  (Don’t get me wrong, I love food, so Thanksgiving is definitely a close second.  I just love ghosts and goblins more!)

So, what is a celebration without a few gifts?  I’m a member of Halloween Forum, and every year they have a gift exchange similar to the Secret Santas most of us participated in in our youth.  On the forum it’s called a much more appropriate “Secret Reaper.”  If interested, you sign up, and then anxiously await your victim.

Once assigned, you begin the delicious process of plotting and scheming and perfecting your gift.  Whether it’s store-bought or handmade, a lot of thought goes into it.  The price limit for this is $20, so handmade and second-hand items do go farther.  We all want to give the best(and most unique) gift that we can within those constraints, and it’s difficult to stay within that limit.  We don’t want to disappoint our dear victim, and give them something that they cannot use.

Witchy Workbench, Halloween 2012
This includes a few gifts from my own Reapers

Us Halloween fanatics, we’re a misunderstood group.  Within the Forum, we’re among like-minded people.  We may not all have the same tastes, but we all understand each other.  We all love this holiday, this maligned celebration.  And we anticipate it with as much eagerness and joy as many anticipate Christmas.

I have fond memories of dressing up and carving Jack-o-lanterns, and decorating with tissue paper ghosts and construction paper pumpkins.  My mom always dressed up, and had as much fun as all of the kids did.  As an adult, I still dress up, and decorate my home, inside and out.  I have a cemetery in my front lawn, and different themed rooms throughout the house.  We throw a party every year.  I hope to give my children the same fond memories of the season as I have.  I want them to feel the same way about it as I do.  If they don’t, that’s fine.  I just don’t want them to have a poor view of it, I want them to remember it as a fun time during their childhood(Not that they’ll really be able to forget it, as I’ll likely still be decorating long after they’ve moved out!).

I love chocolate, candy corn, and cider as much as the next person, but I love sharing my holiday that much more.  That’s what Secret Reaper boils down to.  Sharing your love and inspiration of the season with another.

Our home in Alaska, Halloween 2010

And with that, folks, I’m off to the craft store!  It is time to create!