Merry Halloween! That salutation sounds a little strange to us in modern times, but it was often used in Hallowe’en days of old. Antique postcards and vintage Halloween ephemera depict the sweetest and merry Halloween characters. Today I will be showing you how I keep my Halloween decor light and merry too!

What constitutes a “Happy Halloween” or “Merry Halloween?” For some, Halloween is a time to embrace evil, dark, and sinister things. A few folks pull serious pranks and use the day as an excuse for mayhem instead of merriment. Others embrace even darker things which should not even be discussed  (Ephesians 5:11-13) For more on this subject see my post Halloween: Celebrate or Participate?

For most people however, it’s all about the candy, fun costumes, and nostalgia! We vintage decorators have lots of fun with Halloween. I love how my friend Debra at Common Ground blog explained in a recent post that most of us don’t “celebrate” Halloween, but we do enjoy remembering fun traditions and collecting nostalgic treasures associated with happy memories.

Who recalls these fun vintage cupcake and cake toppers? They are back from the days when no one was allergic to gluten, dairy or peanuts! Homeroom moms could surprise the class with cupcakes topped with little black cats and funny happy Jack-0-Lantern men without fear of lawsuits! Those were the days! I scored a bag of these little treasures for a quarter at a yard sale a few years back and I just love them. I can still taste the gluten and dairy butter cream frosting now!

I primarily love to decorate for Halloween by creating elegant and hauntingly beautiful decor as I shared in my previous posts. The rest of my Halloween decor is very merry and set up with kids in mind. I like to keep it funny and lighthearted!

Skeletons may signify death, and I don’t want to celebrate that at all. But, skeletons can be down right hilarious when dressed in silly ways and put in all kinds of funny scenarios. These fun scenes delight trick-or-treaters instead of scaring them. There is enough fear in the world! The kids are going to come trick-or-treating anyway, so I see it as a chance to make them happy and to bring joy, laughter and light to the night! Ms. Beatrice Bones is a prime example. She gets a new look every year. This year is all about buffalo plaid in home decor, textiles and fashion, so she is rockin’ her big stylish buffalo plaid and burlap bow!

She also pulled out her vintage creepy shawl and blingy brooch for a special luncheon with her super stylish best friend, Gertie the gardening witch!

Sure, witches are associated with dark magic. But a few years ago Gertie got a bewitching makeover and turned from her wicked ways! Now she uses all her magic in the garden where she truly has a green thumb!  Last year she had the most spectacular mums and black petunias which you simply must check out here!

This year she was all about the purple and green autumn kale, green pumpkins and purple succulents. Love her style!

She even color coordinated her eye makeup and nails to match her purple garden theme. Flawless! Unlike most witches, Gertie prefers her big, white, fluffy “Shabby Tabby” over creepy, scrawny black cats! She keeps her well fed with rats (hey, it’s nature)!

These gals are certainly keeping a Merry Halloween with their little luncheon! They each brought a favorite Rae Dunn mug to enjoy a strong brew!

Gertie is so stylish and such a good decorator! Everything looks so pretty-creepy! These gals are ready to give all the trick-or treaters a delight instead of a fright. I can’t wait to see the kid’s reactions!

I just loved Gertie’s purple and green decor so much I was inspired to use the color scheme inside by styling a little Halloween tablescape!

I have a green thumb too, but no amount of garden magic could produce the purple roses and succulents like Gertie grew! Luckily the Dollar Tree had some in stock. The green moss and vintage tarnished silver plate pieces combined with succulents is hauntingly beautiful too!

This whole vignette was also inspired by a very old Frankenstein book that my husband brought home from the library discard pile at the school where he works. Awesome score hubby!

I had completely forgotten about this old picture of little Frankie until I was looking for something else in the Halloween tote. How perfect for this vignette! I have also been loving the little green and white striped gourds the past couple of years They are bright and fun!

I think they work great for styling displays in early fall, when late summer herbs are still green and early fall flowers are lush. Here is how I had used them in my kitchen which I shared in my early fall home tour.

With a few simple changes I have reworked my wooden round tray display for Halloween.

A stack of pretty black and white transferware is a perfect base for some little twisted treats and rotten sweets!

A few years ago I made some cute Halloween witch brooms using vintage whisk brooms, Halloween tags and altered embellishments.

Again, a little humor makes for a merry Halloween!

This particular broom with a skeleton, vintage ribbon, an old watch face and a funny tag is my all time favorite!

“She had one to many skeletons in her closet!” 

I have already shared how I have had fun with Rae Dunn for Halloween! This year I did a big Halloween Rae Dunn giveaway on Instagram to celebrate reaching 4K followers (on Friday, Nov. 3rd there will be a Thanksgiving Rae Dunn giveaway to celebrate reaching 5k followers)! I gave away almost all the Halloween pieces I had, but I kept this little spooky cat. Unlike Gertie, I do prefer the little scrawny, creepy, funny black cats for Halloween decor!

Spooky.

Nah… it’s merry Halloween fun! These little figures are part of just a handful of favorite store bought Halloween pieces I have kept for many years. I really enjoy primitive style Halloween decorations too.

A few years ago I got rid of about 12 large totes of Halloween decorations. Now I only have one large tote of indoor decorations I keep in the basement and one large tote in the garage for outdoor decor. It sure does make it a lot easier to decorate and clean up!

These Jim Shore Halloween pieces are a few of “store bought” Halloween decorations I really love, only they weren’t even store bought! All four pieces were an “instacollection” I scored super cheap at a yard sale a few years back.

I passed on a few more Jim Shore Halloween pieces a couple of weeks ago and now you must know I am having the “What was I thinking!” regret! Oh well, there will be more…right? Anyway, it’s not like I don’t have enough Halloween. Even being down to one tote, there are still things I didn’t use this year and the house definitely has enough Halloween decor to feel merry and festive.

In the family room I keep a few vintage Halloween blow molds and a basket of Halloween books and games for the little ones to enjoy.

My mantel and fireplace do have a few traditional and vintage Halloween touches that are a little creepy, but still fun and merry! I am working on redoing the fireplace tile, so I set a little table and big antique picture in front of the big scary mess and decorated it with fun vintage and vintage-inspired Halloween decorations. This summer I found the little stove at a yard sale and I thought it would be a great prop for Halloween and winter vignettes. I love the reddish-orange flames for Halloween!

The clown noise maker is by far the creepiest thing I think! I have been trying for years to score some antique Halloween toys and noisemakers! The clown is the closest I have come. It definitely works for Halloween though. I also like to get creative using things I already have around the house, like the old pool ball and black croquet ball, and a 13 card from an vintage Flinch card game. Mixing every day and vintage found treasures with traditional decor is now my favorite way to decorate for all holidays and I will probably buy less and less commercial decorations in the years to come.

Oh I almost forgot I did find these fun toys several years ago! They are classic movie monster characters in the style of army men. I have had a hard time finding out much about them. They are possibly from the 1960’s and maybe part of a cereal mail-in giveaway.  If any of you know more about them I would love to hear from you. No matter where they came from, they are still serving their original purpose of fun! A few years ago I had set up the monsters in a specific Halloween vignette but I came back later to find this scene my son had “creatively styled!” Too funny!

At least what I do have that is creepy could be considered, “pretty creepy,” like this owl! Just look at those beautiful eyes! Oh and I love my vintage  orange tinsel and reproduction postcard garland which makes “A Merry Halloween” mantel decoration.

This Frenchy vintage owl postcard pillow is also “pretty creepy.”

I even think a cloche of mini skulls is sort of hauntingly beautiful too!

Absolutely no tarot or fortune telling cards allowed in our home…but a vintage card game of Flinch or even Uno is a possibility for a Halloween get together!

Actually…Uno usually ends in a ridiculous argument involving the rules of wild cards, so maybe no Uno after all if we want to keep a Merry Halloween!

Well it is so hard to believe that this post wraps up Halloween 2017! I truly hope you have enjoyed the Hauntingly Beautiful Decor  ,The Hauntingly Beautiful Decor blog hop, and the other Halloween posts I have shared this season.

On Halloween we will feature the top posts from the party, so please do stop by for one last merry Halloween hurrah!

In case you missed it, you can find all the links to the Halloween blog hop here:

Not only do I wish you a Happy Halloween, and a Merry Halloween, why, I even wish you a JOLLY Halloween!

If something scares you and you want to run, remember it’s only Hallowe’en fun!

Amber

     A Stroll Through Life