The Almanac
Halloween How-To Guides
Long-form, tested instructions for the hands-on parts of the season: carving a lantern that glows, icing cookies that hold their lines, and hosting a night that runs itself.
The Paper Cabinet
Beistle Halloween Cutouts
A guide to Beistle Halloween cutouts: vintage black cats, witches and skeletons, maker's marks, originals versus reproductions, buying and paper care.
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The Glowing Porch
Vintage Halloween Blow Molds
Identify vintage Halloween blow molds by Empire, General Foam, Union Products and Poloron: pumpkin, ghost and cat figures, condition, safe lighting and storage.
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The Carving Bench
Pumpkin Carving Techniques
Step-by-step pumpkin carving techniques: choosing and prepping a pumpkin, classic knife cuts, stencil transfer, relief etching, and how to keep a jack-o'-lantern from rotting.
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The Icing Table
Halloween Cookie & Cupcake Decorating
Halloween cookie and cupcake decorating techniques: royal icing consistency, flooding and wet-on-wet marbling, buttercream swirls, ghost and spiderweb designs, and easy ideas for children.
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The Host's Notebook
Halloween Party Tips & Tricks
Halloween party planning tips: a four-week timeline, atmosphere and lighting tricks, classic party games for adults and children, easy food and drink strategy, and how to keep trick-or-treaters happy.
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The Costume Trunk
Vintage Halloween Costumes
How to make vintage Halloween costumes from the 1920s to the 1950s: crepe-paper witches, bedsheet ghosts, flapper and pin-up looks, cardboard masks, and thrifted retro outfits you can assemble in an evening.
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The Almanac
Halloween Traditions & Their Origins
Where Halloween traditions come from and how to keep them: Samhain bonfires, turnip lanterns, souling and trick-or-treating, apple bobbing, costumes and divination games, with dates and practical instructions.
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The Séance Room
Are Ghosts Real? Classic Ghost Myths Explained
Are ghosts real? What the evidence actually shows, the types of ghosts in folklore, how to investigate a haunting sensibly, and the most famous ghost stories ever told.
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The Cat Almanac
Halloween Cats: Black Cats, Orange Cats & Their History
Why cats belong to Halloween: the medieval origins of black cat superstition, what orange tabbies mean in folklore, the vintage postcard cat, and how to keep every cat safe on October 31.
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The Field Watch
Scarecrows: History, Meaning & Halloween
The full history of scarecrows — ancient Egyptian and Greek field guardians, medieval bird-scarers, Japanese kakashi, American harvest figures — and how the straw man became a Halloween icon. Plus how to build a vintage-style scarecrow.
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The Black Flock
Crows & Ravens: Folklore, Omens & Halloween
Why crows and ravens haunt Halloween: Celtic war goddesses, Norse Odin's ravens, the Tower of London legend, plague birds and Poe's Raven — plus what a murder of crows really is and how smart these birds actually are.
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The Candy Countdown
Halloween Candy: The Countdown, the Classics & Why Candy at All
A countdown of the best Halloween candy of all time, the vintage sweets that started it all — candy corn, molasses kisses, wax lips — and the real history of why Halloween became a candy holiday.
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90s Halloween Decorations: A Retro Decorating Guide
Recreate a 1990s Halloween: glowing blow-mold pumpkins, honeycomb paper centerpieces, window clings, glow sticks, paper bats and the perfect retro movie-night setup.
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Vintage Halloween Collectibles: Beistle, Blow Molds & Antique Finds
A collector's guide to vintage Halloween: Beistle die-cuts, German pulp lanterns, tin noisemakers, blow molds and hard-plastic figures — how to identify, date, price and care for them.
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The Party Line
Retro Halloween Party: Playlist, Snacks, Invites & Photo Booth
Throw a vintage Halloween party: a retro playlist, old-fashioned snacks and punch, letterpress-style invitations, parlour games and a homemade photo booth backdrop.
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From the Old Cookbook
Vintage Halloween Recipes: Old-Fashioned Treats, 1920s-1960s
Old-fashioned Halloween treats from the 1920s to the 1960s: popcorn balls, molasses taffy, caramel apples, molasses cookies, spiced cider and party punch, with period methods explained.
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The Uncanny Files
Why Vintage Halloween Costumes Look So Scary
Why old Halloween photographs unsettle us: homemade cloth masks, the uncanny valley, sepia decay, unsmiling portraiture and the ritual roots of disguise — plus what actually makes a costume 'vintage'.
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The Decade Files
Halloween Through the Decades: 1940s to the 2000s
What Halloween actually looked like decade by decade in America: wartime rationing in the 1940s, Ben Cooper masks in the 1950s, UNICEF boxes in the 1960s, wrapped candy in the 1970s, VHS horror and mall trick-or-treating in the 80s, animatronics in the 90s, and inflatables in the early 2000s.
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The Old Almanac
Halloween Superstitions and Their Origins
Where Halloween's most enduring superstitions actually come from: black cats crossing your path, broken mirrors, guttering candles, spilled salt, walking under ladders and peeling an apple to see the future.
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The Field Guide
The Most Haunted Places in America
A curated tour of America's most famous haunted sites, from Gettysburg's battlefields to the Winchester Mystery House, with the real history behind each legend and what visitors report today.
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The Collector's Desk
Vintage Halloween Postcards: A Collector's Guide
A collector's guide to golden-age Halloween postcards from 1900 to 1920: the artists and publishers who defined the look, how to date a card, and what drives value today.
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