Decorating for Halloween has become as popular as Christmas decorating.
Ghosts greet us on early morning walks through our neighbor.
Jack-o-lanterns light our way in the late afternoon.
Where we used to live we saw witches crashed into trees and giant spiders in spidery webs crawling in yards. There were spook houses and ghost tours, which could be truly frightening for younger children…and some adults (this one included).
In the 1900s, Halloween wasn’t so much about scary, scary things like zombies and gruesome headless monsters, tombstones and skeletons.
Back then, crepe paper pumpkins, plastic candy containers, painted tin noisemakers, and paper lanterns were the items of choice. Not many of these items are around today because people used them and then threw them away.
Last week, I dug out my vintage decorations. A few things from my childhood Halloween days that weren’t thrown out.
Does anyone recognize the gauze mask or the paper-mache jack-o-lantern?
The black cats are old bulletin board posters like those that I remember from grade school. The pumpkins are constructed from honeycomb tissue.
To see other vintage Halloween collectibles, check out Kovels’ Pinterest page here.
Wonder what might be a future collectible? Kovels suggests these:
- Special holiday bottles and cans like Crush soda’s new Halloween flavors, Gruesome Grape, Spooky Strawberry, and Orange Ogre. Look for other limited edition plastic bottles with scary faces.
- Plastic candy containers either reproductions of 1950s and ’60s figures and jack-o-lanterns or contemporary plastic decorations with good design.
- Zombies and vampires. Look for plastic, rubber, or resin decorations like the zombie-hand candleholder.
- Jewelry. Charm bracelets with pumpkins, bats, and black cats; jointed skeleton earrings decorated with rhinestones and spider rings.
- Motion, or voice, activated figures that light up or emit scary sounds and music. Look for pumpkin men, witches, vampires, black cats, body parts like crawly hands.
- Paper or plastic masks, costumes, treat bags, and dolls.
Stores are packed with spooky décor options. Soon you’ll find Halloween items at reduced prices.
There are some good buys to had and, if you don’t throw the items away, you might have some vintage collectibles like mine in twenty-five years.
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