Brian and I had moved into a bigger place over the summer (right before haunt season, what a fiasco!) So we’d had no time for the housewarming party, we were barely unpacked before we had to get to work for the 2003 season. With time so pressed, we would skip the housewarming party and we would have everyone over for Christmas…. but Halloween grew closer, and we would enter our house after a night at the haunts and found it a little sad that nary a pumpkin, skeleton or spiderweb graced our humble abode. We’d just had no time.

  
So while at work, a little tickle started inside my brain… maybe we COULD have a “Nightmare Before Christmas Party.” So I emailed Brian (cautiously, almost certain that he would think I had finally stripped that last gear) and said “What do you think about combining Halloween & Christmas into one big party… kind of “Nightmare Before Christmas?” He was right there with me, so the race was on!

  That night, the email went out to all of our friends “warning them” they would receive an invitation for this party, and that costumes would be required. I provided a list of local Halloween Shops. This gave them a week before Halloween to shop if they wanted to get out to the stores. We weren’t really TOO worried tho, because among that list was Capas, a local theatrical / costume store that could provide costumes year round. (As a matter of fact, that morning, running out in the SNOW for some last minute party stuff, we ran into 2 of our guests there! We had a chance to chat with the owner who was telling us about “someone in the area is having a Nightmare Before Christmas Party” which made us laugh, “That’s Us!!”).

  We finished up the Halloween season, jotting down ideas as they came to us, and cleaning up on post Halloween bargains as the “Halloween Adventure” and “Spirit” stores prepared to close up shop for the year. (There IS something to be said about having your party off season….)

  The official invitations went out not long after… and the big Dr. Suess fan that I am, the poem explaining the whole thing came naturally. Midway in the planning, we moved from the “Nightmare Before Christmas” party to the “Haunted Holidays” party because it was too confusing for some, they thought it was strictly based on the movie, and not just a combination of our two favorite holidays.

  So how do people react when you tell them that they need to dress up to come to your party in early December? Well, a few thought it was just too bizarre, and a few “wussed out” but I have to give them credit, the majority of our friends embraced the idea and had a good time with it. We thought most of them would.

  Already deciding that this just MIGHT be a yearly event , I needed to find some sort of favor to mark the occasion for each year… the obvious choice would be to do a “Christmas” ornament and for this first year, I knew what I wanted to do! The man eating poinsettia plants that decked the haunted halls of Disneyland’s Haunted Mansion!!! (After it had been taken over by Jack!). So, off to AC Moore to buy the stuff for my prototype and once it worked, I was painting little (Feed ME!) Seymore heads for the next week…

  Decorating was a lot of fun… all that was Christmas got a little of the macabre, and all that was “Halloween-y” got a dusting of Christmas cheer. Black cats were tangled in Christmas lights….ghostly carolers adorned the mantle, the tree was decked with pumpkins, and skulls & spiders (oh my!). Twinkly mini lights were replaced with black lights. “The kids” (Frank & Wolf) were dressed in their jammies and santa hats and sat by the tree reading their Little Golden Books of “Twas the Night Before Christmas.”
The day of the party, we got snow. To make it worse, they warned of snow all weekend, so we emailed everyone again that morning that the party was still on! Please come! I have too much food to eat if you don’t! Bring a change of clothes and change here (or crash here if need be)! And the snow didn’t stop many… the party went on and was a success… and we thank our friends for being such good sports and playing along, we’re looking forward to doing it again THIS December.