Christmas in October

Every Christmas I go Christmas light looking with my family. It's a tradition that started when my mom was pregnant with my brother. The story goes that we loaded up Mrs. Burban the Suburban with a few close family friends (who still go with us!), Mouser and Fafard (my childhood dogs) me, my mom and my dad. Before the tour my dad stocked up on all manner of Christmas themed CDs and cycled them through as we drove around Dallas critiquing the different light displays. Throughout the years that have been favorites like the fire tree, the birthday present house, basically every decorated house on Swiss Ave. and the crazy Christmas house that has a huge display along with a million billion lights...

I am proud to say I have never missed our evening of Christmas friend. The group has grown, and the tradition has changed a little bit, but not that much. Now anywhere from 8-12 of us get together, listen to some of the worst Christmas music I've ever heard (Ugh, no more Mariah Carey! Please!) and comment on the different house decoration (while I think large white lights are classic, others continue to argue that it looks too much like Vegas, some things never change). It's a great experience. 

I'm sure you're scratching your head. It's October. And I live in New Orleans. So how does this even apply?

Well, New Orleans treats Halloween the way everywhere else treats Christmas. These people take Halloween very seriously. So in keeping with the light looking tradition, I am going to take you on a virtual tour of the Halloween decoration I have discovered the past couple of weeks in the Crescent City.

This house takes Halloween pretty seriously. Lots of giant spiders frequent this address. I appreciate that the ample use of spiderwebs covering not only the actual building, but also the fence surrounding the property.

Clearly kids live in this house. Just look at the pumpkin caution tape! And the whimsical wreath on the door. Again, lots of cob webs, but they seem to be placed rather precariously. Perhaps by an energetic 8 year old?

I like to think of this one as the frat Halloween. Not those crazy frat guys who go way over the top, but the really... efficient ones. All you need to do is steal three city caution cones, paint them with a white tip and yellow bottom. Voila! Candy corn on the balcony. Easy and basically free. You go frat boys!

There were some other decorations, but the skeleton rock star gets special attention. Look at him! What a badass Halloween skeleton.This house definitely belongs to some people who didn't want to go broke, but wanted to join in on the Halloween fun.

Finally, the king of all Halloween Houses. This masterpiece is on St.Charles (aka where all the really rich people live) and not only is it spooky, it's funny! You can't tell in the picture, but all of the skeleton are a play on words. Lots of puns. On the one hand I'm impressed with the creativity of the titles, however the fact that they probably just paid someone to do it for them detracts from their overall score. The level of commitment just isn't the same when you haven't physically put the thing together.

These are just the houses I took the time to snap pictures of. This weekend the Krewe of Halloween is having a parade, I'll be there fully costumed. Might as well get into the spirit, am I right? Happy Haunting everyone!