We asked you readers to provide us with their best Halloween tales for a chance to win tickets to The Great Jack O’Lantern Blaze and you did not disappoint.
While only one can be a winner, all the stories we received are certainly worth sharing. Check them out below.
And the winner is….
Jason Weintraub, Brooklyn,
The MIA Power Ranger
“One year for Halloween I decided to go as the Red Ranger (naturally because my name is Jason.) With friends accompanying me, we were the complete Power Ranger set and were ready to battle any house that gave us horrific candy! (Candy Corn, Old people candy with the strawberry wrapping, etc.) There was a rumor of a house giving out full-size candy bars so we rushed to the house. The spirited homeowner made the house into a haunted house where you saw all kinds of traps and scary sights. I was the last one out but rejoined my Power Ranger group shortly after. After another 20 minutes of trick or treating I asked the guys if they wanted to come to my house and trade candy, which they declined. Confused, I asked why they wouldn’t want to join me. They responded with ‘because we don’t know you!’ That’s when I realized that I had been trick or treating with another group of Power Rangers for the past 20 minutes. I also realized I am the worst Red Ranger and leader of the Power Rangers, ever. -Retired Power Ranger”
Runners-Up
Jenifer Willis, Mamaroneck, NY
The Brilliant Laundry Machine
In college, the dorms sponsored safe, indoor trick-or-treating. Not wanting my costume to blend in with my peers, I began putting together an outfit I knew no one else would have. It required a cardboard box large enough for my torso, contact paper, and a variety of discarded food containers. It was a labor of love, and an annoyance to my persnickety roommate.
The night of Halloween, I debuted my costume and was, in fact, the only one dressed as a front-load washing machine, complete with a clear door to show off the laundry inside and a piece of iridescent tulle to represent soap suds. I even had knobs for various settings.
I was a big hit with the moms and a small British boy who announced that my costume was Brilliant!” Moments later, a boy dressed as a Power Ranger notified me that I had the lamest costume ever. But does that mean much coming from one of 37 Power Rangers I saw that night?” (Ed Note: Our Ex-Power Ranger Jason feels your pain)
Dominique Mirza, No City Listed
Accidental Ghost Hunter
“My most memorable Halloween was when my friends and I spent the night at the Shanlet Hotel in Napanoch, NY. There were things moving and lots of noises. The owners were apparently talking to ghosts and something pulled my hair. I ran down the stairs screaming and out of the front door of the hotel and into the street. Needless to say I spent the night at another hotel down the block and I’d not return to the Shanley. Saying I was afraid would be an understatement. There is a picture I took in the dark and you can clearly see the silhouette of a man. This place was so creepy.
(Ed Note: Here’s the photo. We have taken a staff poll and remain unconvinced without further evidence)
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Rachel Mead, Highland, NY
The Cardboard M&M
“I was seven. A chubby, messy haired, missing-toothed girl. It was the ’90’s.
Every Halloween of my childhood, my mother and I attempted some great costume idea and every year we failed. But this year, when I was seven, we hit an all time low.
There is always one great character that kids want to be for Halloween, this past season it was Elsa; for me in 1997 it was an M&M. Yes. All the kids were wearing them. The costume stores sold the expensive, flashy outfits with blue, red and green colored round M&M suits, white tights and white gloves.
That year my mother said, You’ll be an M&M!” and then she said, “I’m going to make you the costume!”
In the ’90s, crafty mothers were all the rage. Costumes, clothes, easter baskets, birthday gifts for friends; they could do it all. But my mother, she was not one of the crafty moms. Her idea of making my costume was painting two circular pieces of cardboard, stenciling a white M on the front and on the back, then tying the cardboard together with white string.
I remember so vividly the morning she showed me the almost finish project. The cardboard lay on the floor like discarded garbage with a fresh coat of blue paint. She was so happy, so proud to be creating something for me. I smiled, told her I loved it and left the room as my insides cringed.
That Halloween I wore the costume- I’m not sure we have any photos to document the horror. I spent the night walking around my grandparents’ neighborhood, ringing doorbells and grabbing for candy. The cardboard M&M suit, I think, helped me get a little more candy that year. The neighbors pitied me. There were plenty of homes that in order to take the candy, I had to take off the cardboard suit. It was so wide that my short arms could barely extend or stretch. At one house I had to take it off just to walk up the front steps because on the first try I got stuck between the railings.
I wore the costume to Halloween night at my elementary school as well. Yet, half the night I had to take it off just to play the games and walk around normally.
A week later I was riding the bus home and a fourth grader, tall, intimidating and adult-like had sat next to me. I tried to avoid contact and hovered nearer the window. She looked at me, once, twice, three times. Then, about fifteen minutes into the ride she asked, “You’re the girl that wore the M&M costume right?” I said yes and that my mom had made it. She answered, “Your mom could have just bought one at the store, you know.”
And I did know. But never, until years later, did I tell my mother that. It was my grandfather, after watching me stumble and shuffle blindly (the M&M suit was also too high around my neck so I could not turn my head or see too far ahead), that asked my mother to never make me a costume again.
She took his advice.”
DeAnne Biglin, New Milford, CT.
Don’t Call Her House Spooky—Or Else
“This is a good one. It happened last year. We live at an end of a cul-de-sac that’s quiet and heavily wooded. As I waited to hand out candy, I could here a bunch of teenagers say that our house gave them the creeps. So I crept up to the bushes and scared the heck out of them. Then I gave them extra candy and told them it’s really not a scary house. Bwah-ha-ha”
Stephanie Teigen, Baldwin Place, NY
Not The Candy!
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When you’re a kid, is there anything worse than losing your bag of candy on Halloween night? The short answer is no! When I was about 6 years old, I went trick or treating with my cousin Michael. We dragged our poor parents to practically every house in Somers to get all the candy we could find! At the end of the night, we exhaustedly stopped to tie our shoes and put our coats, scarves and hats back on before walking back to our car to drive home. Once we got home, I realized I forgot my pillow case full of candy on the ground!! We went back to look for it, but it was gone! I was devastated and cried my eyes out! Not only did my cousin Michael help me look for my lost candy, but when we couldn’t find it, he voluntarily gave me half of all of his candy. It taught me a lesson about sharing – it’s not about how much candy you have, it’s about who you share your candy with. (And we still laugh about it to this day!)
Tara Cifarelli, West New York, NJ
Rolling With The Big Kids
“Getting to go with the big kids when I was in second grade…we got to go several blocks away from home and at the time I thought it was a really big deal and I would get better candy than anyone!”
Have a good story? The contest is over, but feel free to send yours in anyway and we will add it to the list.
