Halloween’s my new favorite holiday

I love Halloween. Or more accurately, I love the days immediately after Halloween. There’s no post-holiday letdown. In fact, it’s the exact opposite.

I love most of the holidays. For obvious reasons, I love the Fourth of July. And I love Christmas. Before you start thinking I’m a materialistic heathen, let me explain that my favorite parts of Christmas are the feelings of peace and goodwill that tend to come with the season, and also giving people I care for gifts they will enjoy. I can’t lie and say I don’t like getting presents, too, but making other people happy makes me happy.

But with all the major holidays, there’s always a bit of a sense of sadness when it’s over. There’s some continuation with Christmas and Easter at church, and that helps, but there’s still a big drop in the main feeling of the holiday.

But Halloween is different. I don’t really get into the actual holiday of Halloween that much. I don’t often wear a costume, host a party or turn my basement into a haunted house. And where we live, we don’t get trick-or-treaters. We haven’t had a single one in 10 years of living here.

But what I love about Halloween is the days immediately after it. There are thousands of unwanted pumpkins lying around, and people are more than happy to let me take them off my hands. I don’t want those pumpkins for pies or to make my own pumpkin spice – I honestly can’t stand that stuff. But I have a much more enjoyable use for those pumpkins.

It turns out if you cut a small hole in the bottom of a pumpkin, or just open up the top of a carved Jack O’Lantern, you can easily fit a jar of Tannerite inside. If it’s a full pumpkin, use one-pound jar. If it’s carved, you can get by with a half-pound. It’s much more fun than trick-or-treating, and as long as you get far enough back to shoot, it won’t damage your teeth.

If you want to watch the results of my post-Halloween festivities, watch the video here.