Halloween Emerges Quietly at Target & Other News

So it is finally September....Hooray! I had wanted to do a "First Day of September" post...but alas I am late as always. September 1st signifies that we are just one calendar month away from the glorious month of October...woo hoo! And in Florida it means that the stores can officially start putting out their Halloween wares. True enough....some renegade stores have had theirs out for awhile now....and oh how I love them for it too. But many are hold-outs until September when it is officially safe, and a less likely target of the scorn and ridicule of the 'Unbelievers'! You know the ones....."those who don't believe in the Great Pumpkin"!! Tsk Tsk! Now I'm not sure how it goes down, in other parts of the nation, but in Florida.....it seems that Target is always the last holdout.
BUT....I went in there this week and actually found small signs of Halloween emerging. They had the Halloween T-shirts out, which is usually the first thing to arrive in our stores. And there were a few Halloween items in the Dollar Bins up front, but not many. But surprisingly, they also had a Halloween Music section, complete with an audio box to listen to all the spooky selections. The Fall candles were out and smelling good, as well as children's Halloween books. There were NO signs of the 'School Supply Section' being converted over to Halloween yet however. Oh Target....why do you taunt me so? This excursion to Target was exciting to me though because....well because I am easily excited I suppose. But it was almost like Easter egg hunting in a way. As these little sections of Halloween were hidden amongst the regular merchandise with no real signage or fanfare to mark their presence. And I just happened to stumble upon them as I made my way around the store. That's always fun. In juxtaposition to Target of course...is the Spirit Halloween Store that officially opened it's doors. Ours is decorated really spooky and has all kinds of props and costumes. It's 100% 'in your face' Halloween there....no searching necessary! As the 500 neon orange signs they have out front does a more than adequate job of alerting you to their presence!

And Home Goods, which was previously not impressing me much so far this season....just upped their game! I went in, because it is my weekly Autumn routine to go in and see if anything new and spectacular has arrived. And much to my delight, the Halloween section had grown exponentially, AND it was swarming with people. This did cause me a moment of slight panic as I thought of them encroaching on my holiday. For I'm usually the only one haunting those aisles this early in the season. Where did all those folks come from? HomeGoods had a lot of new items that were not there just a few days ago. So now I proclaim my love affair with Home Goods to be officially rekindled. Oh how I love thee HG! Oh....and, JoAnne's had begun getting their Halloween merchandise out as well, and I scored my first sighting and purchase of Martha's Halloween line! I liked it....but then I always do. There was a 'Witchy' line of stickers and decals that I especially liked. But it was all good in my book!As for us....well, we are enjoying our Labor Day weekend by decorating the inside of the house for Halloween of course. And we've managed to watch "The Good Witch", "The Halloween Tree" and "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" to kick off the season. Hope everyone else is getting out. or staying in and kicking off the Halloween season as well!