I love Halloween.
I know how strange that must sound coming from a man who's made his livelihood off selling Christmas music, but it's the truth. I love all holidays to be honest... Valentine's Day, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, did I mention Valentine's Day?
So what is it about Halloween? Well, I approach it differently than most people, granted anybody who knows me knows I approach a lot of things differently than most people. The truth is I like a challenge. I like being put into a "box" and seeing how fast I can get out of it.
Here's a fact for you... in recent years (and these numbers may be slightly different now), home décor sales of Halloween products were expected to reach almost $7 billion and that has been the fastest growing category in the world of seasonal celebrations.
In sales, All Hallow's Eve is second only to Christmas. It's also second only to New Year's Eve in terms of numbers of parties thrown. Many analysts attribute this to baby boomers trying to recapture the nostalgia of their youth.
Personally, nostalgia's been good to me. I'm blessed to have a great career where I get paid to spread holiday spirit. I just can't believe it took me 25 years to figure out there were other holidays than Christmas. Halloween though is one of the most fun!
So many classic songs/themes can be updated and tweaked to give off a new futuristic vibe. I love being able to "de-range" these tracks into different styles. I've taken Bach's familiar music and "Mannheimed" it up to conjure memories of the classic Lon Chaney, black and white silent movie mainstays as well taking the well-known "Flying Dutchman" theme and making it into Richard Wagner meets "Conan The Barbarian."
For me these tracks create images of crisp fall nights, full moons and of course the change of seasons -- heralding the upcoming Christmas season. They also remind me of a time where as little kids we were able to go out into the neighborhood and trick or treat without being "guarded" by our parents.
I miss that Leave It To Beaver type era, but now as a parent myself I understand the need, which is part of the reason I've always held big Halloween parties on my farm. If I can give my kids and any others that sense of wonder and excitement then to me its just as thrilling as being on stage.
I wish you all a Happy Halloween.