Halloween has always been one of my favorite holidays and when I was a child it was my favorite holiday! I can recall the buildup and excitement growing within as I waited for the celebration and trick-or-treating to begin. Before moving to the South, we lived in the Pacific North West and Halloween was such a special time for us as we went all out on decorations and treats. My husband would climb onto the roof of our house and position the big vulture “just so” and we had the zombie with coffin that would sit by the front door and all the critters that would glow under black light. Our house was in a neighborhood and all the way up on the steep hill so we thought any kid that would hike up that hill really deserved a fabulous treat and we would spend a lot of time and money picking out the right treat and waiting it for it to be delivered. One year we gave out 4ft tall pixie sticks, another year it was life-sized gummy watches and feet, and one year it was edible bubbles. We really had so much fun!!

Today, things are a little different and I still love Halloween and the bewitching fun but I find myself drawing more and more to vintage and antique Halloween collectibles. I am truly fascinated by the design and craftsmanship of the German Halloween decorations and the papier-mâché Halloween candy containers. I do not find many on the market in my area and if there are any in the antique shops they tend to sell quickly and even on eBay lately am not seeing very many items.

There is a vast collecting arena for sure when it comes to vintage Halloween decorations and they include German Halloween goodies, papier-mâché lanterns and candy boxes made between 1915-1935 and are often of black cats, pumpkins and witches and you can find vegetable people or anthropomorphic greeting cards and hand painted postcards.  The vintage Halloween die-cuts are amazing too. Everything from noisemakers, to masks, and costumes are being collected and treasured today.

A couple really great websites to visits for information on collecting vintage Halloween items as well as you can read about history and see amazing items are Vintage Halloween Collecting and Halloween Collector.