Do you prefer creepy Halloween or a more"Hayrides and Harvest" theme this time of year?

I understand the nature of your question but frankly it’s a false alternative.
I like all the creepy shit about Halloween, vampires and ghosts and skeletons and Jason and such. But that is focused primarily on the Trick or Treat tradition. It’s one night, then it’s gone.
On the other hand, Halloween happens during the harvest, so there are traditions that are associated with the fall in the agricultural parts of the US. Hayrides, pumpkins and stuff are sort of representative of the harvest season. It’s a party because prepping the land, planting, cultivating, and harvesting is very hard work. When it is done, it is worthy of a celebration.
Sort of like Summer vacation.
So the truth is, both are part of the deal.
No real need to make choice.

I prefer ignoring this whole nonsense altogether.

Hayrides and harvest.

I am with @josie.
It is kind of like asking if we like the foreground of a painting, or the background. They work together to make the total experience.
I just bought a bag of apples so I can make some baked apples.
They are yummy, but you can’t beat the way they make a house smell too.

Halloween is my favorite holiday. I watch scary movies every day beginning in September. I’m all about the creepy and decorate this way beginning Oct. 1.

I save the harvesty shit for November.

Practical Magic, one of my must sees.

I don’t like gruesome, bloody displays, but scary along the lines of Disney’s Haunted House. I have a giant plastic mural of a haunted house that goes on my garage door every year, and I stuff the boys’ outgrown costumes and place them (headless or with skulls) around the yard. This year I found some very festive, shiny tinsel garlands with pumpkins and bats on them at Dollar Tree, and lined my fence.

My old neighborhood used to have scary hayrides with the sound of a chainsaw whirring and they’d go on the walking path behind houses. Scared the living shit out of me the very first time they did it. For some reason they didn’t tell the homeowners about it beforehand. I called the police thinking there was an actual maniac outside.

@Patty Halloween, Carrie and Amityville for me.

I bought the Carrie 2. Pretty good. I never watched the other two. I am more into psychological thriller, and funny than gore. I got Killer Klowns. My daughter was mad because it scared her! I thought it was so funny. I laughed all the way through.

This time of year stirs all kinds of autumn desires and memories.
Apple bobbing, ghost stories, dried corn stalks, walks just for the fun of shushing leaves, it is all part of the fun.

What the fuck is “hayrides & harvest?”
That sounds like the creepy way to go…Wicker Man style.

@ucme Hayrides are so fun! All your friends pile into a flatbed trailer filled with hay, drink cider or whiskey, under blankets, and drive around. Usually after the bonfire party. Maybe bob for apples or other innocent games. Its fun, but mostly done for kids and teens.

@KNOWITALL Ahh, never heard of it, cheers for enlightening me to the ways of the pagan :D

We got a projector and our plan for this year is to project some sort of kid friendly halloweeny stuff onto a sheet over an upstairs window. I’ve seen the gruesome ones of insane people who have gone mad, climbing up the walls and stuff, and I don’t want that. I’m thinking of the kids. I have no wish to scare the shit out of them.
Any ideas for happy, mild Halloween videos?

The defibrillation scene from “The Thing” on a permanent loop.

There are also haunted hay rides or zombie killing hay rides with paintballs. That’s more my style.

@ragingloli

That was a major scene, and yet I’ve never seen a jaws-chest costume. ;-o

We’ll stick with the traditional guising, tattie bogles and the undead. No “hayrides” here thank you.