As the Halloween holiday approaches the Tyler area begins to turn the large abandoned buildings into Halloween costume shopping centers. Not many people shop around for the best prices or the best selection. Two new competing Halloween stores have opened in town right across the road from each other. I shopped at each comparing the two in both selection and prices.
At Spirit Halloween I was greeted by a scene of spooky lawn decorations setting the mood for the Halloween holiday. As I pass by aisle after aisle of costume for every person in your family I am greeted by an employee dressed up in a costume. I made the whole shopping experience more exciting, although I got pretty frustrated when an employee dressed as a serial killer would not leave my frightened kid alone. I looked through the many different choices of costumes for small children, I loved the many different fun outfits and all the different accessories to make top of the perfect costume. I walked across the store to the woman’s Halloween costumes. Every single item was either going to show everything up top or show so much leg its dangerously close to showing much more. I don’t understand why Halloween is the day of the year that woman are expected to dress as inappropriate as possible. Costumes actually had the word “slutty” on the bag; slutty nurse, slutty lunch lady, slutty cat. I don’t really understand how a cat is slutty, but seriously? Why can’t you ever find an appropriate, fun outfit for woman in Tyler Texas? I guess I will stick to getting material from Hobby Lobby and making my own!
Across Broadway is the Halloween Bootique. When I walked into the store I was not greeted by any scary yard ornaments or employees dressed for the season. Come to think of it I was not very greeted by normal dressed employees. No one asked if they could help me, I don’t think I said a single thing to an employee and I was the only costumer in the whole store. Everything was very spread out. The Halloween Bootique did not have as large of a selection as the Halloween Spirit.
The two stores’ costumes prices were about the same, and pretty much the same costumes, but Spirit Halloween was a much more fun experience. So make this Halloween holiday be the best, and make your house the spookiest in the neighborhood.
Tyler is a little unique to the rest of the country when it comes to the Halloween season. Many churches in Tyler Texas have changed the holiday name to what churches call “Fall Festivals”. It is frowned upon to dress your child up as a witch or devil when coming to a fall festival to play games and receive free candy although some unfamiliar with the etiquette of a Christian church will still come into one of these fall festival celebrations as a witch, ghost, goblin, or devil.
Most churches probably won’t turn a child away for dressing like a goblin although you might get some stares. If you are unfamiliar with Christian culture and beliefs it may be important that you stumbled upon this article. If you do decide to attend a fall festival at some of the local churches like Green Acres Baptist Church or Tyler Christian Fellowship we encourage you to dress up like something other than the dark side. It will teach your kids that there isn’t really anything funny about the devil or being a witch and will make your visit to one of these local churches having a fall festival a little more comfortable and less awkward.
Halloween has its history in the Celtic festival of Samhain and the Christian holy day of All Saints’ Day. For most it is considered a secular celebration and many in the Bible belt and East Texas simply do not choose to celebrate this free candy give away celebration because of the celebration of evil. Many people in Tyler Texas have expressed strong feelings about perceived religious overtones and the news stations usually bring up the debate each and every year. You will likely hear from preachers on TV explaining why you should not celebrate Halloween with various historical references and Bible passages. You may also hear from some “cool churches” that think there is nothing wrong with celebrating Halloween because it is just for fun. Parents will weigh in on what they think and it will just be a ridiculous argument about what amounts to kids getting free candy from neighbors.
Based on history it has been recorded that Irish immigrants carried versions of the tradition of Halloween to North America during Ireland’s Great Famine of 1846. The day of Halloween is often associated with orange and black, and is strongly associated with symbols like the jack-o’-lantern and signs of bad luck like the black cat and walking under a ladder.
Halloween activities include trick-or-treating, wearing costumes, ghost tours, hay rides, bonfires, costume parties, roasting smores over fire, visiting haunted attractions, carving jack-o’-lanterns, pranking people, reading scary stories, throwing eggs on cars and houses, watching horror movies, and Halloween parties consisting of feeling spaghetti in a bowl while wearing a blind fold or drinking smoking green fruit punch. Many find Halloween nothing but the best opportunity to wear their coveted Planet of the Apes Mask or for those who are so lucky an entire Ape suit costume.
The idea of Halloween being a time of the year for teenage girls to wear sexy costumes is becoming more and more a yearly ritual. Halloween stores are beginning to pop up in towns throughout the USA selling cheap masks and sexy costumes at very expensive prices. The sexy costumes look more like role playing outfits for the bedroom but local Tyler Texas teenage girls are buying them like crazy helping to further what has been touted a 7 billion dollar costume industry.
Parents would probably disapprove if they saw the type of costumes these stores are selling their kids but these little beauty queens fall for it each year and look more like a prostitute than someone wearing a Halloween costume. It is sad and amusing at the same time but impressionable youth have to go through these learning years and will hopefully someday look back and rip up that picture of the risque Halloween costume in embarrassment. I mean come on teenagers and parents I have seen your kids on Halloween day shopping around town in what looks like a bedroom role play outfit as a nurse, school girl, and the like.
There are a couple Halloween costume stores in Tyler. One of these costume stores is in the Old Circuit City Building next to Barnes and Nobles/Starbucks. This store I have been told has the cheapest prices. The other costume store is in the old Linens and Things building next to the other Starbucks and Ross.
If you need a recommendation of something alternative but fun to do this Halloween we recommend checking out Plantation Pines Christmas Tree Farm. They have a Pumpkin Patch and some fun things planned for the family for those looking for a little more outdoorsy type of fun. Plantation Pines offers night time hayrides, camp fires, pumpkin carving and decorating and other family friendly fun. The Wiggins family owns the farm and offer a lot of fun as well as a gift shop with some unique Fall, Thanksgiving and Christmas gifts for sale.
