Halloween Nostalgia
Halloween is my favorite holiday and always has been, so when I think back on the last few years I feel pretty sad. What happened to Halloween? The iconic colors and symbols, the art of dressing up or going around to see decorations, handing out candy, going to parties or haunted houses. It seems like when I finally got old enough to do more for Halloween, it kind of died. The decor available to buy in stores is pink or beige in color, what happened to the bright colors of orange, green, and purple? The classic orange and black? Nothing is scary, it’s tacky and cheap, the only thing that seems to decorate lawns are inflatable decorations or lights on houses. Sometimes I see people show off their decorations online and I love the people that go all out…I mean I love fall decor too, it’s comfortable and warm, but it seems to be more popular than the scary and spooky. Companies and advertisers seem to get lazier and lazier each year with Halloween too, the only one still going is Spirit Halloween and it’s so expensive!
Also what happened to Trick or Treating? What is up with this “Trunk or Treat” crap? Isn’t that sending the wrong message to kids? Shouldn’t you be walking around for hours to earn the pounds of candy you gathered? I get having “Trunk or Treat” for kids who live out in the boonies, but at that point if you're driving to a parking lot, just find a rich or populated neighborhood. I would love to buy the fun candy and hand it out during Halloween, but not enough people go out in costume or at all. I don’t know, I guess I just miss the feeling of Halloween when I was a kid, and I feel like it’s slowly dying out each year...
Monstober on Disney Channel:
Monstober, which was previously named Hauntober Fest, was Disney Channel’s version of a Halloween marathon during the month of October. This was a period of time where the network/company would show Original Halloween movies, already existing franchises with monster themes, and specially created Halloween themed episodes. Many of these episodes would take inspiration from already famous and cultural classics like Ghostbusters, the Shining, and others, using the characters from the shows and making it more “family friendly”. Commercial breaks would include special songs, commentary, or shorts from various Disney artists as well, one of the most popular and memorable being China Anne McClain's “Calling All the Monsters”.
I remember being so excited for October every year, looking forward to Monstober, and getting to hear “Calling All the Monsters” constantly. I think I just liked seeing the Disney Channel Original movies, and watching to see how many easter eggs they could get into each episode. I especially looked forward to crossover episodes between different shows and getting to see characters interact with each other. It was a time of creativity and silliness in their shows with an undeniably memorable catchphrase to boot. It used to be a topic of conversation in school and I feel like it hasn’t held the same sense of enjoyment since switching to streaming and losing such iconic shows on the network…which is quite unfortunate.
