BOOzy Brunch 2016

For the third year in a row, I threw a BOOzy brunch to celebrate the High Holy Day, aka Halloween. It's the only party I throw all year, for a few reasons: it's a lot of work to throw a party, I go waaaayyyy overboard on everything, and Halloween is really the only holiday worth celebrating (if I had to pick just one).

I hosted a few Halloween parties when I lived back in Ohio, and some spooky treats are staples by now—spiderweb deviled eggs, mummy hot dogs, salsa-and-cream-cheese dip that looks like puke but tastes like heaven and loads of creepy desserts. This year my showstopper was a meat skeleton, an idea that I fell in love with the minute I saw it on Pinterest. My wonderful dude found the perfect skeleton for $9.99 at Walgreens (true love!) and my partner-in-snacks, Francesca, expertly arranged the meats ("Do you have any art direction?" "Just make it gross, I trust you.")

Some new additions to the repertoire this year included a (vile) veggie tray, "eye of newt" cake pops, Jell-OoOOo shots (in tiny cauldrons!) and jack (cheese and bean) o'lantern quesadillas. The only time of year when I really scour Pinterest is Halloween, but my favorite source for spooky snack ideas is still the Queen of All Things, Martha Stewart. I used to obsessively collect her magazines—the Halloween issues especially—and while Pinterest is very hit-or-miss (see the Jell-O worm debacle of '14), a Martha idea is always solid.

I probably own enough macabre everyday decor that I needn't buy a single Halloween decoration, but that didn't stop me from buying approximately every single thing in the Halloween department of Target this year. When I moved to New York I sold almost all of my decorations, which was heartbreaking, but rebuilding my collection has been fun.

My dude and I dressed up as Beetlejuice and Lydia Deetz, which was pretty easy to pull off with my own wardrobe and allowed me to play with my long flowing locks all night long—it's funny how much difference a wig makes, especially when people are so used to seeing me with short hair. I've probably said this about every one of my Halloween parties, but I dare say this one was the best yet—there's only 365 days left 'til next Halloween!

Past BOOzy Brunches: 2014 | 2015

Salem, Massachusetts

After successfully Halloween-ing in Sleepy Hollow for the past three years, my friends and I (the Halloween All-Star Team) decided that we were ready to tackle Salem. I'd been to Salem once, in August of 2007, but I was eager to go back. We stopped along the way to pay our respects to Lizzie Borden, and visit some Hocus Pocus filming locations, and in the end we spent about one and a half days exploring Salem.

Salem is known best as "Witch City," because of the notorious happenings in Salem Village (present-day Danvers) circa 1692. 19 people were hanged after refusing to confess to charges of witchcraft, and one man—Giles Corey—was pressed to death. It's a little strange for a town to embrace a shameful past to the point of celebrating the very thing that caused the panic—witchcraft and witches—but most of the witch hoopla feels so far removed from the historical event.

The Witch House is the only surviving structure with any real ties to the Witch Trials—Judge Corwin lived and worked out of the house—and it was definitely a solid marketing move to name it such. Even without the witch connection, I would have loved the house—I have never seen a black house that I didn't love. In fact, Salem is full of the most adorable colonial-era homes with dark siding and colorful trim, and I defy you to find a more perfectly spooky style of house.

 If the Salem Witch Trials had never happened or things had turned out differently, maybe Salem would be known as "Hawthorne City" after its most famous literary resident. After c

onquering

The House of the Seven Gables

, I was excited to tour its namesake house, which also includes a tour of Hawthorne's birth house, which was moved onto the property to save it from demolition.

Salem on any October weekend is a bit of a madhouse, and we eschewed any ticketed tour until Monday, when things emptied out slightly. There are definitely parallels to Roswell in that both towns' identities are based around events in their pasts that have morphed over time into cheesy tourist destinations. I actually thought that Salem was a bit light on witch-themed things, even if we saw witch patches on policemen, witch emblems on firetrucks and every year the high school graduates a whole new class of "Salem Witches."

Salem: Hocus Pocus

Unlike a lot of people my age, I don't recall seeing Hocus Pocus until I was solidly an adult. My childhood Halloween go-to was another 1993 classic, Double Double, Toil and Trouble starring the Olsen twins (fun fact: Nightmare Before Christmas was also released in '93, completing the Holy Trinity of Halloween films). But once I saw Hocus Pocus it immediately became a fall tradition, and I love it more and more with each viewing. A lot of movies don't actually film in the cities in which they are supposed to take place, and while not every scene was filmed on location (and certainly not in October), the major sites are easily accessible.

Our first stop was Old Burial Hill Cemetery, located just south of Salem in Marblehead, Massachusetts. Old Burial Hill is the location of Max's after-school run-in with the 90s personified, Jay and Ernie Ice. We found some of the tombstones glimpsed in the movie, but even if you're not a fan, Old Burial Hill is definitely worth a stop. It's one of the most beautiful cemeteries I've ever seen, and it's so full of wonderful tombstones that it deserves a full post. There are other cemetery scenes in the movie, but those took place on a soundstage, which can't possibly compete with the real beauty of Old Burial Hill.

Not far from the cemetery, just after you cross into Salem is Max and Dani's house. Located at 10 Ocean Avenue, the house is instantly recognizable by it's cupola and looks pretty much exactly the same today. It's in a good location to stop and take a quick photo, and we weren't the only millennials fans doing so. It's also pretty much my dream house—despite the tourist traffic—and I can't think of anything better than tying some cornstalks to the porch and nestling into the cupola with a good book.

Speaking of houses, Allison's house is right in Salem proper, next to the Witch House. The Ropes Mansion—the house's proper name—is currently owned by the Peabody Essex Museum. It was only a slightly less popular selfie-stick spot than Max and Dani's house, and you can tour the inside, although only the exterior was used in the movie.

The Old Town Hall is the site of the epic Halloween party in which Better Midler sings "I Put A Spell on You" while doing just that. While there were no parties happening while we were there, it has public restrooms which is a big deal when you're a tourist (and even when you're not).

The only other major filming location that we weren't able to visit was the Sanderson's sisters' cottage, located in Salem Pioneer Village. The village doesn't hold regular hours in October, and all of their events were sold out when we checked—I suppose this means another Salem trip is in the cards.

See also: Home Alone 2: Lost in New York

BOOzy Brunch 2015

On Saturday I threw my fourth Halloween party—my second since moving to New York, and my second time having a daytime BOOzy brunch. It was my first time dressing in costume for Halloween since I've moved to New York, but I had been planning this particular costume pretty much since the day I arrived. I've also moved since last year, so it was my first party thrown in my Brooklyn apartment.

I no longer have a fireplace to fill with pumpkins (so sad), but I brought back some of my favorite spooky treats like eyeball cupcakes, spiderweb eggs and the drunk pumpkin—who managed to make some of my guests so queasy that they wouldn't go near the dip.

True to its name, this brunch was definitely boozy with most people BYOB'ing (or BYO-mimosa-ing). If drinks aren't your forte (*raises hand*) I definitely recommend this approach when throwing a party. Alcohol is expensive and can be very hit-or-miss. People have such varying tastes, and they'll never be disappointed if they bring what they like to share. Francesca definitely won the mimosa game with her beautiful, dangerously delicious and easy-to-make candy corn-inspired drink—I see it becoming a staple at all of my future Halloween parties.

I think the reason I love Halloween so much is that it combines and rewards people for being two things: weird and creative. For at least one month out of the year it's an actual asset to be both of those things—it's ok to be into cemeteries, to hang ghost paintings on your refrigerator and wrap your door in caution tape.

It's also acceptable to wear a giant ice cream cone on your head and walk through the streets of New York with all of the other people who are just as crazy as you, and some who are even more so—only 363 days until Halloween!

More Halloween parties: 2014 | 2011 | 2009

Sleepy Hollow, 2015

We recently went on our third annual day trip to the village of Sleepy Hollow—formerly known as North Tarrytown—which is located about an hour north of the city in the Hudson River Valley. Although Washington Irving published his classic short story The Legend of Sleepy Hollow in 1820, North Tarrytown didn't officially adopt the name until 1996.

The village is very small, but they definitely embrace its association with Halloween, and have fully adopted the headless horseman as their village mascot. He appears on everything from the street signs to the fire trucks, sanitation vehicles and police badges—even the high school football team is called the Horsemen.

We started off the day by seeing the Chagall and Matisse windows at Union Church, which is located in the picturesque neighborhood of Pocantico Hills, northeast of Sleepy Hollow. Photos aren't allowed inside of the church, but it's definitely worth the trek (we took Uber) to see the incredible glasswork by two insanely-talented artists. The Matisse window is widely believed to be his last work and Union Church is one of only three places in the US to see Chagall glass.

We wandered around taking in—and taking photos with—the festive sights, drank pumpkin beers and hot cider, took a lantern tour of Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, were scared and impressed walking through the creepy Horseman's Hollow and I came away with a floaty pen featuring the headless horseman—this is Halloween.

More Sleepy Hollow: The Great Jack 'O Lantern Blaze | Lyndhurst | Sunnyside + Kykuit | Sleepy Hollow Cemetery

The Great Jack 'O Lantern Blaze

Last year was my first time going to the Great Jack O' Lantern Blaze at Van Cortlandt Manor near Tarrytown/Sleepy Hollow, NY. I loved it so much that a few months ago we bought tickets and planned a return trip. After touring Lyndhurst in the morning, we hung around Sleepy Hollow until it was time to go to the Blaze—tickets really do sell fast, and 9:30pm was the only time slot available even a few months in advance.

It turned out to be a great time to go—we had just enough time to see everything before it closed at 11pm and there were hardly any children (aka ruiners of all events). Since I knew what to expect this year it might have been slightly less impressive than my first time, but it was still totally worth the price of admission.

Although there were some repeats, there was still a lot of brand new things to see, including a few Washington Irving displays (the Headless Horseman throwing his pumpkin head was great) and a fun 10th birthday cake to celebrate the Blaze's tenth year.

I'm sad that October is coming to an end, but I can't say that I didn't pack a ton of fall delights into the past 31 days. It's definitely my favorite month, and now that it's over I'll just go back to being that creepy coworker who wears skull socks and talks about cemeteries all year long.

BOOzy Brunch

When I moved into my new apartment back in August, I knew I eventually wanted to have a housewarming party. I also decided that I wanted to have a Halloween party, so I decided to combine them into what I called a 'BOO'zy Brunch last Sunday afternoon. My new place is much larger than my last one, and it's so wonderful to be able to finally have more than one person over at a time. I threw two epic Halloween parties back when I lived in Ohio and it's my very favorite holiday to celebrate. I love the aesthetic of Halloween—skulls, bones, orange, black, spiderwebs and pumpkins everywhere.

I told everyone to bring a drink of their choosing, and I took care of all of the food. I made spooky spiderweb deviled eggs, breadstick bones, Jello worms, clementine pumpkins, hot dog mummies, ladies' fingers, graveyard and monster cupcakes and the most delicious (and simple, and disgusting-looking) salsa dip.

Probably the biggest hit on the table was the pumpkin who had clearly partied a little too hard. It took me only a few minutes to carve, a few more minutes to mix the salsa dip (thanks Francesca!) and it looked great. Every time I made the dip in the past, someone would comment that it looked like vomit, so when I saw a pumpkin puking up guacamole I knew I had the perfect substitute (am I the only person on the planet who doesn't like guacamole?)

The Jello worms, however, were a new addition to my Halloween repertoire, the thing I was most excited about, and a complete failure. From start to finish they were the most frustrating and most time consuming thing I made, with the least return on my investment. I am no stranger to kitchen failures but the worms were definitely the most mind-bogglingly disastrous thing I've ever attempted. In the end they looked ok, but of course no one ate them (does anyone really like Jello?) so I crossed them off my list as quickly as I had added them.

This was the first party I threw since moving to New York so my domestic Martha Stewart-y side is a little out of practice but it was nice to be able to share so many Halloweeny delights with all the people I love the most.

If I had to choose my very favorite thing about the party (besides all of the lovely company!) it would have to be my fireplace full of pumpkins. I saw the idea on Pinterest and realized I had the exact same fireplace that was shown in the example—non-functioning and already painted black. All I had to do was make two trips to the grocery store with my old-lady shopping cart, carry them up two flights of stairs and hope they didn't decompose by party time. A week and a half later they are still making me happy, even if I'm slightly terrified to touch them in case they really are rotting—my party might be over, but I'm not ready to say goodbye to Halloween just yet.

Lyndhurst

On Saturday three of my friends and I went to Sleepy Hollow/Tarrytown for a day filled with fall delights. We had gone last year for the first time, and loved it so we knew we'd be back. One thing we didn't do last year was tour Lyndhurst, "one of America’s finest Gothic Revival mansions," so it was our first stop this year.

Lyndhurst was designed in 1838 by Alexander Jackson Davis and had five different owners from three different prominent families before it became part of the National Historic Trust for Preservation in 1961. The mansion is furnished with original furniture/décor from all five owners so the inside is just as interesting and historic as the outside.

Of course since it's October, the mansion was also decorated for Halloween, which I would usually be annoyed about if it didn't naturally fit so well with the gothic architecture and if I didn't love Halloween as much as I do.

There were tombstones out front, ghouls in the trees and spiderwebs on everything. They even had a few pieces of mourning wear on display, and one very awesome example of Victorian memorial hair art (when asked if anyone knew what it was made from, I was the only one to very enthusiastically—and totally embarrassingly—yell out, "HAIR!"). 

The grounds of the estate are worth a visit alone. Before we even took the house tour we saw the bones of the nation's first steel-framed conservatory, a shingle-style, stand-alone bowling alley, Jay Gould's footbridge—over the railroad tracks and down to the river—that he used to board his boat, a rose garden, a children's playhouse bigger than most New York studio apartments and sweeping views of the Hudson river.

Lyndhurst was also used for the filming of two Dark Shadows movies in the '70s, which I have never seen but I will definitely be tracking down soon. I dream of one day owning a real-life haunted mansion that I can fill with taxidermy and curiosities and clones of Mozart (my cat)—I wouldn't mind having my own bowling alley either.

Coney Island: October

This weekend my friend JMP was in town from Ohio. While brainstorming potential adventures, I discovered that she'd never been to Coney Island. I confirmed that the parks were still open and when I read that they would be decorated for Halloween I knew we had to go. I've lost count of how many times I've been to Coney Island, but it's just so endlessly photogenic that I find so many new and interesting things every time I go.

The biggest difference between this trip and all the others is that it's no longer summer, so Coney Island wasn't crowded. Not as desolate as I kind of expected, but a lot of the rides were sitting empty. Since the worst part about most places to me is the other people, I loved being able to get up close to the rides without having snotty kids run into my photos.

All the people that were there were in the festively-decorated Luna Park, leaving Deno's Wonder Wheel Park looking like a ghost town in comparison. Some of the rides are pretty terrifying (why does Donald Duck have Satan eyes?) but I'll always prefer the weird and old to the new and bland.

I'm not really a ride person but I did make an exception for the Spook-a-Rama, one of the few remaining "dark rides" left in the country. We paid $7 for about 45 seconds of creepy skeletons, gnarly creatures and screaming ghosts. I wish it was longer, but as with most relics of a past time—and Coney Island in general—I'm just grateful that it still exists at all.

Harry Houdini's Grave

At the beginning of July, my friend Jess took me on a Sunday adventure to see Harry Houdini's grave. She had been there once, many years ago, and currently lives close to the cemetery belt, a two-and-a-half-mile stretch of cemeteries between Ridgewood and Glendale in Queens. Houdini is buried in Machpelah, a Jewish cemetery that apparently used to be in much rougher shape than it is today. When we went, however, it looked tidy and well-cared for, and Houdini's grave is relatively easy to find.

It's a large, family plot containing Houdini's mother, father, grandfather and siblings along with the famous magician himself. Following years of vandalism (and frequent unsanctioned séances) the site was restored in 1996 with the help of donations from fellow magicians. It's a lovely space with a wide curving bench, a gorgeous mosaic featuring the crest of the Society of American Magicians and a beautiful stone mourner—all watched over by a recently restored bust of Houdini.

I've read that people have been known to leave playing cards or other magic props, but the only things we found were a dime, a rosary (I wonder if they knew Houdini—née Erik Weisz—was Jewish) and a handwritten note. The dime was odd to me because I seem to find them everywhere I go and I'd love to know what the Houdini connection is, if there is one. There were also a lot of stones on Houdini's ground marker, which is a Jewish tradition—flowers are thought to be a pagan custom and you will rarely see them in predominately Jewish cemeteries.

I'm always intrigued to see the gravesites of historical or famous figures—more times than not I find them to be kind of humble in scale and decoration. Houdini's is one of the more elaborate sites I've seen, but it still could be easily overlooked if you're not specifically on the hunt for it.

Fun fact: Houdini actually died on Halloween and every November the Society of American Magicians performs a broken wand ceremony at his gravesite. It just might be time to return to Machpelah and pay my respects once more to the entire Weisz clan.

NYBG: Haunted Pumpkin Garden

I didn't have to work yesterday (or today)—thank you obscure Jewish holidays!—so yesterday I spent the day at the New York Botanical Garden. I became a member last winter and I've been trying to go and see the garden in every season since. The Kiku: The Art of the Japanese Garden show just started, but I was most excited about seeing the Haunted Pumpkin Garden.

The HPG is technically for children, and when I went on a weekend last year it was full of them (not my favorite thing). On a Thursday afternoon, however, I mostly had the garden to myself and it was much better than I remember from last year. Most (if not all) of the carved pumpkins are fake, but like the Great Jack'O'Lantern Blaze, it doesn't really diminish the overall effect.

The weather was perfectly fall-like yesterday and seeing so many pumpkins in all different shapes and sizes really thrust me headfirst into the Halloween mood. At every turn there were more and more pumpkins—grey-green ones, white ones, ones with bumps and spots and even some of the biggest pumpkins I've ever seen (600+, 700+, 900+ lbs.).

The carvings were all different and appropriately spooky and I especially love the way that they incorporate the pumpkins into their environments—bats in trees, mushrooms in the forest—everywhere you looked there was a glimpse of orange peeking out from somewhere. A few of the creations were painted bright colors, but pumpkins come in so many different and beautiful colors that I'm glad most were left as nature intended.

I'm sure children would love the interactive events but definitely don't discount the HPG just because it's in the Children's Adventure Garden. I saw more adults walking through than children (thankfully) and I hope I never grow out of my love of all things Halloween. Although, if there's any "children's" activity that I can get behind it's certainly one that involves creepy carvings, a few bones and at least one vulture.

House of Frankenstein Wax Museum

While we were in Lake George, after (devastatingly) discovering the Magic Forest had already closed for the season, I opened my Roadside America app and started searching for something else to see. I settled on the House of Frankenstein Wax Museum because it was close to where we were, looked sufficiently weird enough and, most importantly, was open. It was pretty cheap as far as attractions go (under $10/person) and promised 52 exhibits of strange and macabre delights.

It's hard to explain the feeling we had as we walked out of the wax museum, and photos don't really do it justice since the lighting was almost nonexistent, but it was definitely strange, absolutely macabre and totally worth the visit.

There were exhibits that followed well-known stories—Edgar Allan Poe, Freddy Krueger, The Curse of the Mummy, etc.—as well as more general themes such as the Fortune Teller, Room of Rats or the Mad Scientist. I'm not sure how long the museum has been in operation, but from the looks of the beautiful hand-painted plaques at each exhibit, it's been open for a while. The whole place had a vintage, old-timey feel to it, which fit in perfectly with the rest of Lake George.

The most unnerving scenes in the museum were the ones that depicted scenarios that were a little too close to real life, even for me. There were a few like the Starving Prisoner that were just kind of sad, and then there was the Electric Chair. I'm not even sure if I can accurately describe the Electric Chair tableau except to say that you're responsible for "pulling" the switch and the results are nothing short of terrifying.

While it's called a wax museum, a majority of the exhibits at the House of Frankenstein move in someway or another—a blade swings back and forth, a sarcophagus opens and closes—but the Electric Chair exhibit featured such violent and realistic shocks, combined with a chilling soundtrack that actually made me a bit uneasy. Not so uneasy that we didn't watch it a few more times, but still it was weird and it's not often that I see something that catches me off-guard and truly creeps me out. I suppose that is the highest compliment that I can pay to the House of Frankenstein—don't say I didn't warn you.