Welcome back, everyone! It’s fall, my favorite time of the year! If you know me, you know how much I love fall. The beautiful leaves, scary movies, and all things apple and pumpkin! I thought I would share my favorite things to do, make, and watch during this wonderfully spooky time of the year!
Spooky, Fall movies to see:
First, I want to go through all of my favorite movies to watch this time of year. I love snuggling up on a cool evening with popcorn, some Reese’s pumpkins, and a good movie.
Hocus Pocus: In my opinion the BEST movie to watch during the fall season. Kid-friendly, but still humorous and a feel-good flick for all. My favorite Halloween tradition! 🎃
The Nightmare Before Christmas: For anyone who has not seen a Tim Burton film, I highly recommend this dark stop-motion musical. One of my all-time favorites, voiced by Danny Elfman and Catherine O’Hara, as Jack Skellington and Sally.
Rocky Horror Picture Show: An adult only movie, filled with musical numbers and a million questions. Best to watch with your friend or significant other, who have no clue what they are getting themselves into!
Corpse Bride: Another one of Tim Burton’s stop motion spooky musicals. About Victor Van Dort, a groom who finds himself married to a corpse bride and living in the underworld. Voiced by the classic Tim Burton duo, Johnny Depp and Helene Bonham Carter.
Beetlejuice: Yet, another Tim Burton film. As you can see there is a pattern here. One, I’m a huge Tim Burton fan, and two, his movies are spooky and great to watch this time of year! Highly recommend this classic with Winona Ryder, Catherine O’Hara, and Michael Keaton as the infamous Beetlejuice! Also, now a musical, give the soundtrack a listen if you’re in a spooky mood!
Halloween: The classic slasher movie starring Jamie Lee Curtis as the girl who had me yelling at the tv for doing everything wrong, but somehow she survives… which led to 10 more “Halloween” movies.
Us: Not for the feign of the heart. This Jordan Peele thriller will have you questioning everything. From what would happen if your inverted doppelganger found you? To just how?
Scream: Another classic slasher horror film with an opening scene I should have expected, but was still surprised about! Check out the inappropriate parody film, “Scary Movie” if you’re not a fan of horror movies.
The Blair Witch Project: The first time I watched this I knew it wasn’t real, but I was questioning that thought the whole time. It’s a documentary type movie that will make you never want to go into the woods at night.
Halloweentown: Another “old Disney” classic set in my dream town, where it’s Halloween year-round with witches, warlocks, and more!
The Shining: Not a “Halloween” movie, but this psychological thriller will put you right in the spooky mood. Definitely made me rethink ever going into a hedge maze again.
Honorable Mentions: Creep, Friday the 13th, As Above So Below, Get Out, Hereditary, Frankeenweenie, Goosebumps, Casper, A Nightmare on Elm Street, The Conjuring, The Silence of the Lambs, Carrie, Psycho, and the list goes on and on.
Apples, pumpkins, and more!
One of the best things I look forward to each fall is apple picking, but what I enjoy even more is baking this time of year. I look forward to the apple favorites: apple crisp/pie, apple cider donuts, and hot apple cider. Along with all of my pumpkin favorites: pumpkin pie, pumpkin bread/muffins, and pumpkin spice tea, which I just discovered this year and it’s delicious! Check out Stash Tea Company for their Decaf Pumpkin Spice black tea (not sponsored), best with almond milk and sugar. So far this year I have been able to make apple spiced cupcakes with cream cheese frosting, apple crisp, and pumpkin chocolate chip bread. I am very much a homemade type of baking gal, but the boxed pumpkin quick bread by Pillsbury (not sponsored) is almost just as good as homemade and I highly recommend.
Another fall staple of mine is foliage drives, hikes, and walks. I am fortunate to live in an area with vibrant foliage and beautiful hiking trails. I love to take my dog for a walk on a cool morning, hearing the crunching of the leaves and looking at the beauty around me. During foliage drives, I find it is great to take the non-hectic backroads, listen to a podcast about ghost stories, and see the changing of the colors on the trees.
The Best Day of the Year ~ Halloween!
What I look forward to the most about fall is Halloween! As a kid, I loved dressing up in costumes and trick-or-treating with friends. Now, as an adult, I still love dressing up, but now I buy candy when it goes on sale the day after Halloween! Especially Reese’s pumpkins, which in my opinion are so much better than regular Reese’s cups. Just a tip for any other yearly Reese’s pumpkin consumers, I’ve found that you should buy individually wrapped ones because if you buy a big bag of them, they seem smaller and less peanut buttery.
My love of Halloween stemmed from the years of my dad showing me his appreciation of the spookiest day of the year. We carved pumpkins, watched scary movies, and have collected unique and scary decorations over the years. Growing up my dad always decorated our porch into a haunted room with a creepy tv and sometimes a murder scene. I would always say goodnight to him the night before Halloween knowing when I woke up in the morning there would be a spooky scene to see! Now, I have taken over the decorating, not so much a spooky room, but a spooky yard with tombstones, pumpkin heads, and fabric witches. I always look forward to carrying out our Halloween traditions every year!
Halloween episodes from some feel-good shows:
Gilmore Girls: Season 6, Episode 7, “21 is the Loneliest Number.” Honestly, there are many Fall episodes to make you feel cozy, but this is the only true “Halloween” episode.
Friends: Season 8, Episode 6, “The One with the Halloween Party”
The Office: Season 2, Episode 5, “Halloween”; Season 5, Episode 6, “Employee Transfer”; Season 7, Episode 6, “Costume Contest”; Season 8, Episode 5, “Spooked”; Season 9, Episode 5, “Here Comes Treble”
Brooklyn Nine-Nine: Season 1, Episode 6, “Halloween”; Season 2, Episode 4, “Halloween II”; Season 3, Episode 5, “Halloween III”; Season 4, Episode 5, “Halloween IV”; Season 5, Episode 4, “HalloVeen”; Season 6, Episode 16, “Cinco de Mayo”; Season 7, Episode 11, “Valloweaster”
Community: Season 1, Episode 7, “Introduction to Statistics”; Season 2, Episode 6, “Epidemiology”; Season 3, Episode 5, “Horror Fiction in Seven Spooky Steps”; Season 4, Episode 2, “Paranormal Parentage”
How I Met Your Mother: Season 1, Episode 6, “Slutty Pumpkin”
Psych: These are the “Halloween” type episodes that I enjoy the most. Season 2, Episode 16, “Shawn (and Gus) of the Dead”; Season 3, Episode 15, “Tuesday the 17th”; Season 4, Episode 8, “Let’s Get Hairy”; Season 5, Episode 11, “In Plain Fright”; Season 6, Episode 11, “Heeeeere’s Lassie”; Season 7, Episode 5, “100 Clues”; Season 8, Episode 9, “A Nightmare on State Street”
New Girl: Season 2, Episode 6, “Halloween”
Spooky Book Recommendations:
Out of everything I enjoy doing in the fall, what I look forward to the most is cozying up in a soft sweater, reading a spooky book, and lighting my favorite candle on a chilly fall day.
Asylum Series: by Madeleine Roux – A creepy photo-illustrated young adult series about spending a summer prep course at an old asylum, which had been converted into dorm rooms. I have only read the first book in the series, but based on that book I still recommend it!
It: by Stephen King – A long disturbing read set in a small Maine town about seven teenagers and a promise they would have to keep twenty-eight years later. Warning: don’t read late at night or by yourself.
The Nightmare Before Christmas: by Tim Burton – The illustrated story of how the people of Halloween Town take over Christmas. Just as amazing as the stop-motion musical!
The Melancholy Death of Oyster Boy and Other Stories: by Tim Burton – A book of illustrated poems with Burton’s classic dark humor.
Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children Series: by Ransom Riggs – I have only read the first three books in the series, but it’s another young adult series with mysterious illustrations of the characters. Set in the past and the present the book shows you what life would be like if you truly were peculiar.
House of Leaves: by Mark Z. Danielewski – An adult only read that is not for all, but worth it, if you take the time. A suspensefully heavy book that is narrated and told through footnotes, manuscripts, and appendixes that in the end will keep you up at night.
I’m so happy I could share what I enjoy about fall with you! I hope I recommended something new for you to try or maybe reminded you of something you used to do!
Happy fall and I hope you watch a spooky movie and enjoy the colors around you!
Be safe and take care,
Renée