While Halloween has always been my favorite holiday, my family doesn’t really celebrate beyond the mandatory hand out candy, kids wear costumes, watch Hocus Pocus type of thing. So, no, I’ve never had a haunted house or family costumes or any special traditions. After moving out and in with The Captain, I was determined to slowly gather my own Halloween decorations—even if I can’t afford anything crazy awesome quite yet. This year I found some nice little additions to my growing collection, and I’d like to share some of them with you.

First off, I’ve got my awesome mugs from TJ Maxx—each of them costing under $5—and I love to use the bigger ones for scrambles or soups and the ‘Scream for Caffeine’ one for hot chocolate or double the amount of coffee I drink. Then I’ve got plastic containers that we’ve been using for all of the candy we bought for M’s birthday/Halloween. They’re pretty cute and useful, and I could imagine them one day being full of crayons.

As already semi-displayed, I’m a huge lover of candles and I’ve got few from Bath & Body Works: Cranberry Woods, Berry Pumpkin Strudel, and Pumpkin Cupcake. The latter was the candle I lit after I finished painting The Captain and my first room at the Haus. It will always remind me of the excitement of being on my own for the first time and making a home out of four walls any way I wanted. Next we’ve got my beautiful skull lantern from Michael’s and M’s glass pumpkin that she won at a game night in September. The glow from the votive within the lantern is pretty great and it makes for some spooky romance whenever I use it.

This year is the 50^th anniversary of the Charlie Brown Halloween special and when I saw this gorgeous snow globe at CVS I knew I had to have it. Instead of snowflakes there’re bats and it plays “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice.” There was another option with Charlie Brown instead of Snoopy, but this was my favorite. And, of course, you’ve got to have a little pumpkin to go with the ‘great’ one. The Captain and I picked up these three pie pumpkins at Winco for each of us plus M, and we’re going to carve some beautiful faces into them on Halloween.

Next, we have the adorable Funko Mopeez that I picked up at Target. I was so tempted to get all five of the horror icons, but had to settle for just Ghostface and Jason. Still, they’re pretty damn cute and I love them. I’m hoping that I’ll collect more over time and expand my horror figures, but they’re a good start. Lastly, we have this beautiful table piece that The Captain’s grandmother quilted. I’m tempted to frame it or make it so it could never be damaged in any way. I’m so grateful to have loving family members who can make some amazing things by hand.

We may not have too much in the way of Halloween décor, but what we do have makes me feel happy that my favorite holiday has some pretty awesome merchandise. Over time maybe I’ll expand to tea towels, creepy wreaths, hanging skeletons, and replica haunted houses. Until then I’ll enjoy my bits and pieces of spookiness.