Hi, I’m Joanne. Wanna be spooked? – Halloween Pop Up

Every year for Halloween I decorate my house up to give the children in the area a spookily good fright and night.

My Halloween pop up

“Every town has an Elm Street” and annually on Halloween my street, well my house turns into one as “We all go a little mad sometimes”.

Treats and cakes

The night before I stuff the treat bags with sweets (baby bags and child bags), make boo-tiful creepy looking cakes with my mum and my sister Emma makes many eerie eyeball pop cakes. You can order designer cakes from her via Cakes Makes Memories.

Plus this year La di da Sweet Treats also provided me with some of their devilishly delicious crunch chocolate covered Oreos which were decorated with brains, fingers and skulls. See my other blog about La di da Sweet Treats via clicking here.

Prep

Early morning me, my husband Jason and my friend Paul we start to decorate the house up with ghoulish ghouls, creepy crawlies, skeletons, witches, etc to give the trick a treaters a fright “Be afraid… Be very afraid” plus “It’s Halloween, everyone’s entitled to one good scare”. 4 hours later time to dress up this year I decided to dress as a murdering nurse and Jason my husband wore LED gloves and mask from the Purge movie but he liked to call himself LED man.

The ghouls are out and terror is starting

The voice from my friend who is dressed as a skeleton shouts out at 4.30pm “They’re here!” and then all hell breaks loose. The grim reaper starts flapping his wings and talking, the bat starts squarting and flapping, the witch cackles, spiders scurry, zombies come alive, foggy mist creeps everywhere and the ghost comes out jumping and blood-curdling screams coming from everywhere giving the children all a hair-raising fright and making some cowardly ones run off in terror making their nightmares come true. Am I evil? maybe. Plus some scary and fun video projections being projected on the main window showing clips such as zombies attacking people to dance videos such as Thriller to get those bones in anyone’s body moving.

This years new features is the animated grave zombie that moves his head back and forth murmuring away, lights galore from images of ghouls floating everywhere over the house walls and speckled moving lights on the floor along with a plain plastic black crow as we are supporting wildlife after all.

Selfie area

We even had a selfie area which involved having your photo with a skeleton (fake) on a bench which if you were brave enough you could sit with and have a selfie along with props from a lit up boo sign to a brain, as everyone loves a selfie!

Most Halloween products are from Grandin Road, 99p Store, Costco and Sainsbury’s.

Fentimans

I also enjoyed a Fentimans Lemon Shandy during the night as they are the best drinks for any occasion.

End of night

When the clock strikes 8pm it is now time to pack up which is the worst moment for me as I can’t tell the fake spiders from the real in the dark “It’s Alive! It’s Alive!” and I hate spiders. Worst moments for Jason and Paul is getting down the fake cobweb as they literally get tangled up in it, haha (evil laugh from me).

The night went down a storm with all the kids in the neighbourhood loving it. Everyone was dressed up in full glory from witches to zombies. Even people from out of the neighbourhood come visiting furthest being from Maidstone (45 mins drive away). Even one child called Faye created a homemade card for me to say thank you which I thought was so sweet. So I had to post a pic on here of it.

This year in total we had 95 kids come knocking for their annual cakes, sweets and scares. A tad lower than last year of 120 but then again Halloween did fall on a school night (Tuesday) this year. Everyone had a spookily good time though even the dogs.

This years charity I supported the Kent Wildlife Trust

Plus this year for my annual scary pop up I decided to help raise funds for the charity Kent Wildlife Trust. Why you ask as I love animals and I live opposite a woods full of wildlife.

Kent Wildlife Trust set up back in 1958 and are a leading conservation organisation covering the whole of Kent and Medway, dedicated to protecting wildlife and wild habitats.

There vision to ensure that 30% of Kent and Medway (land and sea) is managed to create a healthy place for wildlife to flourish.

With there mission to work with many people to help restore, save, and enhance the our natural heritage.

I made around £50 at the end of the night.

Plus did you spot which quotes was from which films throughout my blog?

• Poltergeist (1982): “They’re here!”
• Psycho (1960): “We all go a little mad sometimes.”
• The Fly (1986) (Ronnie): “Be afraid… Be very afraid.”
• Frankenstein (1931): “It’s Alive! It’s Alive!”
• Freddy’s Dead: The Final Nightmare (1991): “Every town has an Elm Street.”
• Halloween (1978): “It’s Halloween, everyone’s entitled to one good scare.

Just for fun

Did you know these interesting facts about Halloween:
• The first Jack O’Lanterns were actually made from turnips.
• The word “witch” comes from the Old English wicce, meaning “wise woman.” In fact, wiccan were highly respected people at one time. According to popular belief, witches held one of their two main meetings, or sabbats, on Halloween night.
• Samhainophobia is the fear of Halloween.
• The owl is a popular Halloween image. In Medieval Europe, owls were thought to be witches, and to hear an owl’s call meant someone was about to die.
• According to tradition, if a person wears his or her clothes inside out and then walks backwards on Halloween, he or she will see a witch at midnight.

Jokes:
• What does a skeleton order at a restaurant? (Spare ribs)
• What do you call a witch in the desert? (A sandwitch)
• What kind of streets do zombies like the best? (Dead ends)
• Who does Dracula get letters from? (His fang club)
• What do you call someone who puts poison in a person’s corn flakes? (A cereal killer)
• Why can’t Witches have babies? (Because their husbands have crystal balls)