Halloween Evening Party 2026

[00:00:02] This is a Bramble Jam Podcast

[00:00:39] Happy Halloween! A very spooky episode of the show today. I'm Brand and I'm here. Per usual by somebody who hates getting scared. But today he is at Scared Scotty. Hi, Scott. So, I used to hate Halloween completely, but now I'm cool with it. Oh! Because it's another holiday to celebrate. But you're right, I don't like being scared. Like, legitimately scared. That's not for me.

[00:01:03] I like fake scary, like haunted houses and amusement parks and stuff. But I'm not going to sit down and watch. I don't know. We all know my history with the ring or something like that. We're not going to be doing that. Yeah. I can't help but notice, Scotty, I hear someone else here with us today. Well, luckily, as I was coming in, Helga was standing there at the door. Helga, it is wonderful to see you and we haven't seen you since Bramble Fest.

[00:01:33] So good to be seen, Scotty. And Bram, of course, long time. Happy Halloween! Yes. Happy Halloween, Helga. It's great to see you. What do you got there? You drinking a little something? A little witch's brew for the season. Dare I ask? And this is Bigfoot on my glass. Yes. You like Bigfoot? Are you friends?

[00:02:03] We are very good friends, yes. I have Bigfoot over for tea every day. Bigfoot is over for tea every day? Every day at four o'clock. Four o'clock. But Bran, I thought there was more than one Bigfoot, Bigfeet. Is there only one, Helga? Is there like a primary Bigfoot? There's only one. Oh, people try. They try to resemble Bigfoot, but he does not like that. Oh, interesting.

[00:02:30] He does not like that. There are many people out there making money off of him and, ugh, don't even get him started. How big we talking? Oh, you know, 20 feet or so. 20 feet? I was thinking seven. Seven would be a Bigfoot. Well, there's like basketball players that are seven foot, yeah. Well, I didn't say Bigfoot was taller than basketball players. I was thinking like 10. I was thinking like 10. Well, he is 10 feet, but he has 20 feet. Whatever.

[00:03:00] I'm not quite sure. You're not following, are you? Bran, I don't think we do a countdown on Halloween evening because it's what, like one day until Halloween. That's true. It is one day until Halloween. We do put this out the night before Halloween because we want you to have the entire day of Halloween to be able to listen to this whenever you want to. And so, happy Halloween. Hopefully, you are gearing up for a wonderfully spooky evening.

[00:03:29] I know of some people that are, Scotty. We have a lot of listeners that submitted stuff. They're excited about the Halloween. Am I understanding that correctly? Yeah, that's correct. We have a bunch of emails. Some are memories. Some are crafts. Some are audio clips. So, should we just get right into it? I think we should. Let's do it. Let's do it. The first email today is from Kristen Lowe. And Kristen sent in a couple crafts that she has made. Ooh. Oh, Halloween craft ties. Yeah, and I put the pictures on Instagram. They look really good.

[00:03:59] So, I'm going to read two summaries of the crafts. And hopefully, you can go to Instagram and look at the pictures and follow along. So, the first one are beaded spider webs. Ooh. And Kristen made sparkly spider webs out of beads and wire to hang in her windows. And Kristen's windows look so cool. She hooks thick aluminum wire back and forth across a notched piece of cardboard so the strands cross in the middle. And then they fan out like spokes. And then she strings random beads onto each one.

[00:04:27] Then she winds thin wire in a spiral from spoke to spoke, beating as she goes. And that's what makes the spider web. And she said, try not to make it perfect. Oh. Make it a little wonky on purpose because spider webs have their own natural flow to them. All right. I'll try not to make it perfect. I love a wonky spider web. Make a few off center. Make a few that are bare spokes. Make some arms longer than others.

[00:04:53] Each one ends in a little loop curled around with pliers and the whole thing hangs from suction cup hooks in her window. Nice. And when the sun shifts, these beads throw rainbows everywhere. Whoa. So, go check out the photos. They are gorgeous. And then the second craft are bleach painted spider webs. In the picture, she used toilet gel bleach, which I never thought of as a crafting agent, on a black hat to make spider webs. Yes. Of course.

[00:05:50] Of course. And hats that she made. They're so, so pretty. Very cool. That is perfect. Yeah. Isn't that great? That is how I make clothing for Bigfoot. Really? We make them orange and we use toilet gel bleach. Everyone knows this. We didn't know this. Yeah, we didn't know this at all. When Scotty said the toilet bleach, you said, of course. Yes. And I didn't know what to do with that. But yes, apparently that's a thing you can do. It is. It is.

[00:06:16] It makes sense as a way to do it, Brian, because traditional just liquid bleach is just going to run everywhere. But toilet gel is going to be somewhat viscous and it's going to stay in place. Such a cool idea, Kristen. You need that viscous. You need that viscous stuff. You got to need that viscous. Viscous mucus, right? That's exactly right. The next is an audio clip from Jack Unverforth, and he sent us a reading of the poem The Haunted Chamber by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Let's give that a listen. The Haunted Chamber by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.

[00:06:46] Each heart has its haunted chamber where the silent moonlight falls. On the floor are mysterious footsteps. There are whispers along the walls. And mine at times is haunted by phantoms of the past, as motionless as shadows by the silent moonlight cast. A form sits by the window that is not seen by day, for as soon as the dawn approaches it vanishes away.

[00:07:12] It sits there in the moonlight, itself as pale and still, and points with its airy finger across the windowsill. Without before the window there stands a gloomy pine, whose bows wave upward and downward, as wave these thoughts of mine. And underneath its branches is a grave of a little child, who died upon life's threshold, and never wept nor smiled.

[00:07:39] What are ye, O pallid phantoms, that haunt my troubled brain, that vanish when day approaches, and at night return again? What are ye, O pallid phantoms, but the statues without breath, that stand on the bridge overarching the silent river of death? I like how Jack sounds spooky at Halloween time, and he sounds not spooky, relaxing, when he reads Christmas poems.

[00:08:08] He's a man of many talents. He's an artist. He's an artist. It's just so good. You do know I was there with Henry Wadsworth Longfellow when he wrote that poem. You were with him? Yes. Romantically? Who can you say? Let's not ask a lady, Bran. Sorry, I didn't know what she meant by that. I didn't know what she meant. No, no, no, no. Present. Present. Let's just leave it at that. What stays in the haunted chamber remains in the haunted chamber. Oh my goodness. Anywho, I was there. Good guy?

[00:08:38] Oh, excellent fellow. Oh. Bran, I believe he also wrote, I heard the bells on Christmas Day. Does that sound right to you? Yeah. I'm pretty sure it was him. So thanks for doing that, Jack. Really appreciate it. Very cool. Helga, would you mind reading our next email from Emma Smith? Of course. Okay. Hi, Scott, Bran, and Helga. Hello. Long time listener. Second time writer inner.

[00:09:06] I thought I would offer up a memory from Halloween of 2020. Oh, good. Spooky year. That year, San Francisco was, as you can imagine, pretty locked down. The schools were closed for over a year. Everyone wore masks all the time. Sounds like an everyday situation around here. Yeah, safety masks, but sure. Now, our block normally gets many hundreds of trick-or-treaters on Halloween. Hundreds? Wow. Whoa. Yes, as the date approached, we wondered if anyone would come.

[00:09:36] Well, as it turns out, even in COVID-anxious San Francisco, many people could not resist the fun of trick-or-treating with their kids. Of course. Luckily, we were prepared. We had figured out we had to come up with some sort of contactless way of passing out candy. Right. Some houses just put out a basket of candy and shut the door, and that was that. But a lot of us decided to get creative.

[00:10:01] Most of the houses on our block are this sort of classic San Francisco three-story townhouse where you have to go up to a full flight of steps just to get to the front door. So we decided to use gravity in our candy delivery methods. I remember that one house across the street sent candy out the window and tiny toy parachutes. Oh, my God. You had to tie a parachute to every piece of kid? Uh-uh. No, not happening. Oh, I use bats.

[00:10:31] Another one lowered a basket from a window over and over, but many of us went the route of some sort of shoot. In our case, we ventured into Home Depot, great place, purchased a long, maybe 12-foot piece of black PVC pipe and attached it to our outdoor staircase banister. Then, for the whole night, one of us stood at the top of the steps, and when kids came by, they would position their bag under the bottom of the pipe, and we would send a piece of candy shooting down.

[00:11:01] We worried that it would stick or stop halfway through, but it actually worked flawlessly. Another household fastened matchbox car tracks along both banisters and sent candy down that way. Everyone laughed and had a good time, and it really turned what could have been a dismal night into something novel and festive. The following year, we went back to passing out candy the old-fashioned way,

[00:11:27] but our matchbox track neighbors had so much fun with it that they still use that method to this day. I sort of love how COVID caused people to be creative in so many unexpected ways. I've attached some photos to give you an idea of the setup, and if you zoom in on the banisters, you can see the shoots. Happy Halloween! Happy Halloween! Very cool. This happened in our neighborhood as well in South Carolina.

[00:11:52] A lot of cool ways people were still giving out candy, which was very neat and very nice in a really crummy year. That was one of the highlights of that year was that Halloween, that trick-or-treating experience where people were still, they were figuring out fun, creative, cool ways to give the kids the candy, and it was cool to see what people came up with. I love this. Yeah, I like not having to deal with people, so I would still do this,

[00:12:20] but I'm a little stuck on the hundreds of trick-or-treaters. That is too much money to spend on candy. I'm going to pass out Taco Bell hot sauce packets. In this economy? And maybe some ketchup packets or something. Oh, Scotty. Scotty, I have thousands of children that show up at my property. What would you do then? Do you buy candy for every single one of those kids? Well, some get candy, some get sticks. But the bats, they fly them down into their bags, and they don't know what they're getting. They're getting a trick or they're getting a treat. Sticks works. You know, leaves would also work for him.

[00:12:50] There's plenty of those to go around right now. Exactly. The trick is a stick? The trick. The trick is a stick. It could be a stick. It could be a spider. It could be a frog leg. It could be, you know. A frog leg? A skeleton. A bug. You know. You know. The usual. You know. Do you like frog legs, Helga? I don't like them. Yeah, I've never tried them. That's why it's a trick. That's why I have to get rid of them. They're in my house. I don't know where they come from.

[00:13:17] There's a guy that I watch on Instagram, Bran. He goes by mullet reviews. And his intro is always, welcome today, whatever, of eating at every Chinese buffet I can until I get food poisoning. And he often comes across frog legs on the buffet. No, no, no. And he always tries them. No, that's not for me. I don't want that. First of all, his first problem, the ones I have are rubber. They're not real. Oh, that's much better. You go to the trick store. No frogs were harmed. Okay, yeah, in the trick store. Yeah, of course.

[00:13:46] In the trick store, you know, the elves at the North Pole, they bring them when we have parties and they trick me. So I have to get rid of them. And so I give them to children on Halloween. Wow. That's a good idea. I didn't know the elves had anything to do with this. Yeah. So this is news to me. It's very cool. The elves love tricking me. I bet they did. Oh my gosh. Rascals. We have an audio clip from travel dad Ernie Delasanti. And he sent us today's spooky place instead of a Christmassy place, Bran.

[00:14:16] And that place is the Stanley Hotel from The Shining. Let's give that a listen. Hey, Christmas morning people. Travel dad here with one last Halloween detour before we turn the calendar over to our favorite time of year. If you want a spooky trip that isn't Salem, how about spending the night at the hotel that inspired The Shining? Welcome to the Stanley Hotel in Estes Park, Colorado. Stephen King stayed there in 1974 when the hotel was nearly empty for the season.

[00:14:43] And that creepy experience helped inspire the Overlook Hotel. Today you can actually stay there, take nighttime tours, hear the hotel's ghost stories, and then attempt to sleep. Personally, travel that has a rule. If the hotel comes with its own ghost tour, I'm leaving a little Do Not Disturb sign up all night. Happy Halloween, Christmas morning people. Enjoy the ghost today because tomorrow is November and we get Christmas back, baby.

[00:15:13] I'm Ernie Dalsanti, your travel dad. I'll see you next week with our first holiday postcard. Bran, do you like The Shining? That is a scary movie that I actually really enjoy. Uh, yeah, it might be because it's not actually that scary. But it is, psychologically. Those twins standing in the hallway? Ooh, scary. Yeah, I'm, I was, I'm underwhelmed by The Shining as a whole, but I love Stephen King adaptations.

[00:15:38] I just finished watching the new adaptation of Carrie, which they made into a TV show on Prime, which was so good. It was incredible. So, yeah, I don't, I don't hate The Shining. Okay, I have to interject to Shannon here. I did stay there, actually, after Christmas last year, but I didn't stay in the main hotel. I stayed in, like, the hotel next to it because I didn't want to be too scared in case, you know, it was haunted.

[00:16:03] And also, like, the reason why you would hate it, Scotty, isn't because of the ghosts, it's because of the people. There were so many people there. After Christmas, it was so crowded. After, really? After Christmas? Yeah, and so I was more worried about getting woken up at night because of people, not because of ghosts. I bet it's even more crowded, like, today, right? This is probably nuts. The creepiest part, though, and this is a true story, is I went outside into the maze

[00:16:29] that's right in front, which was, I believe, actually filmed for The Shining at that maze. Anyways, you know how they say, like, your phone battery can sometimes lose power if there are ghosts nearby? I swear to you, my phone wasn't, it was probably, like, at 40% and suddenly it went down to, like, 6% while I was in that maze. Whoa. And I was only there for, like, five minutes. Yeah. Yeah. So it was super, it was super scary. So that's all I have to say about that.

[00:16:57] And I tried to do a ghost tour, but unfortunately, they, like, sold out and I had one ticket, but I wanted my significant other to come with me and they didn't have any other tickets. So it was really cold and I was kind of tired, so I ended up not going by myself. I didn't want to do it by myself. But it's a great place and it's really beautiful, actually. But I didn't see any ghosts except for that, the maze, maybe. One time for a work trip, I had to go to Lawrence, Kansas, and I stayed at the Eldridge Hotel.

[00:17:27] And while we were checking in, my coworker, as a joke, said, so this place is haunted, right? And the person behind the counter gave us the whole rundown and showed us the picture of the ghost in the elevator and then was telling us about how I think it was like room 506 is purported to be some sort of portal room and it's booked out for Halloween for like a decade. The portal room. And I was in like room 501 or something.

[00:17:56] I didn't care for that one bit. And you know what happened, Brian? What? I went to bed that night. Yeah. And my laptop was sitting open on the little desk. And then about three o'clock in the morning, the laptop lit up. You know, like if, you know, like when you shake your mouse or something and it comes out of sleep mode. I'm sure that's all it was, but I was already on edge because this was supposed to be a haunted hotel. And then I just sat up in bed for the rest of the night or morning or whatever. I didn't care for that one bit. No, sir. Okay.

[00:18:26] One more thing. Oh, hey, Shannon. Oh, hey, Shannon. Yeah. I stayed at, I believe it's called Hotel Colorado, which is in Glenwood Springs. Okay. And it is also supposedly haunted. In fact, if you go to their website, they have like stories about it. We stayed there one night. It was not around any creepy time of year, but in that room at night, all of a sudden, like outside, I heard doors slamming like at three in the morning. Good gosh.

[00:18:55] And my dog woke up and started barking. And then I had to take him outside, like in the middle of the night, like right after that by myself. And that was super creepy. So yeah, I don't know if it was, I tell myself like it definitely probably wasn't a ghost. It was probably just somebody who like woke, like got there late or something. Yeah. And the door, but you'd never know. Yeah. When your mind is already tuned for that. Exactly. Exactly. There you go. Okay. This was wonderful. I loved hearing about all the hotels.

[00:19:24] I'm a little scared myself. So I think we need to take a break. We'll come back. We'll reconvene and we'll go from there. Does that sound good? Yeah, it sounds good. All right. We'll be right back on Halloween evening. Welcome back to Halloween evening, everybody. It's great to be here today. Having so much fun. How is here? Scott's here. Shannon is apparently here also at times.

[00:19:50] What else do we got in the Halloween male cauldron? Well, you know how we have really amazing listeners, Brian? Yeah. Well, I don't know if you remember in the party episode, listener Fred Bonheim wrote in. Well, he also sent in a Halloween story. So let me read that one. He says, here in the New York City suburbs is the village of Sleepy Hollow, which becomes a big tourist attraction in the early Burr months each year. And the area hosts some cool events.

[00:20:18] The biggest one is probably the great Jack-o'-lantern blaze. This is an event we have been attending for a while now, and it grows and changes every year. It's basically a walkthrough light show with tens, if not hundreds of thousands of individual jack-o'-lanterns arranged in elaborate sculptures, scenes, and characters. The returning staples are full-size headless horsemen in Ichabod, art museum pieces, full-size dinosaurs, bridges, ocean and beach scenes, forests, movie monsters, etc.

[00:20:46] New this year was a Wizard of Oz installation with the yellow brick road leading to the Emerald City and characters in Jack-o'-lantern sculptures along the way. Among the other... You said Jack-o'-lantern sculptures. It's Jack-o'-sculptures. Oh, Jack-o'-sculptures. Yeah, sorry. I'm still a little wigged out from all that haunted hotel talk. Among the other local trunk-or-treat events and parties, the Sleepy Hollow, Tarrytown Parade and Block Party, walking tours of the historic Sleepy Hollow Cemetery. Not a chance for me.

[00:21:16] Hay rides, theatrical experiences, and a storyteller who relates the legend of Sleepy Hollow on Washington Irving's estate. He also does a Christmas carol in December. I would like to see that. Yeah. There was also a new event called the Sleepy Hollow Twilight Village, which was a festival with marketplace and performers including live music stories, a performance of the story with actors portraying the headless horsemen, Ichabod, Katrina, etc. Much like the other big Halloween tourist destinations, Salem, Massachusetts, the whole

[00:21:46] town and village gets on board with these festivities. The town's supermarket even owns the costumes from the Tim Burton movie and the Fox TV shows and displays them with some other Halloween decor and some animation art from the Disney version. There's a lot going on with family, work, school events, etc., but we are still trying to make time to watch Halloween stuff as a family, carve our jack-o'-lanterns, make our traditional Halloween meals, skull calzones, jack-o'-lantern stuffed peppers, and a pumpkin cake, host a

[00:22:15] pre-trick-or-treating party, and make our costumes, which of course have to be different every year and must be homemade. As I'm writing this, the costumes are not yet finished, but I attached several from previous years. My wife and I started doing this together, and as you can see, we started incorporating our son when he was born, starting with turning his stroller into a witch's cauldron when he was a few months old, followed by us being his topiary sculptures when he was Edward Scissorhands, his Batman accompanied by us as villains, then X-Men last year.

[00:22:44] This year he wants to be the headless horseman, and we're going to be his decapitated victims. Oh my. Oh my. The only year I don't have pics for is the year we got married. As I'm sending this, it's our anniversary, so October and Halloween has extra special meaning for us now. I love you, Beth. Happy anniversary. How sweet is that, Brianna? Oh, I love that. And Fred says, thanks for making some time for us who love Halloween on your Christmas-loving show. It's much appreciated.

[00:23:10] And he put in a footnote, I thought I'd mention that I helped produce and do some effects for a friend's new movie, Halloween Candy 2, which is out on streamers. And I was a guest on a friend's podcast, Are You Here?, with EJ Kalifarski, on which we discussed Tim Burton's Sleepy Hollow. Oh. And look at these photos, Brianna. I included all the ones of the couple's costumes and put them on our Instagram. Absolutely amazing. These people do Christmas, do Halloween, right? This is how you do it.

[00:23:39] This is how you do it. This reminds me of what I'm currently doing. What's that? Short story for you. My house was featured on Scariest Houses in America. Yeah, on HGTV. On HGTV, yes, with Brenda. I'm familiar. Yes, and they kicked me out. My house is being renovated, so I moved in with a local coven, which is actually just a book club, all female, of course. Oh, yeah. And they're reading ACOTA right now. But anyhow, that is neither here nor there.

[00:24:07] Every night, we get together and we're planning for our Halloween event, of course. And we are actually creating a real Sleepy Hollow as well. We are also, we have many of these things that they're mentioning here. And Skull Calzone sounds wonderful. I'm going to add that to the snack list. Yeah, that sounds really good. I love a good Calzone brand. I love a good physical shooting party. Yes, lots of food. That's right. I don't need those vegetables, but give me that Skull Calzone. That's exactly right.

[00:24:37] Absolutely. The important stuff. So thank you for writing in, Fred. These are fantastic. I would encourage everyone to go to our Instagram and look at these costumes. Just really, really amazing stuff. I love it when people take this stuff seriously, Brand. I don't need to, but I'm glad other people do. Absolutely. Even if you aren't a big Halloween fan like Scott, you can still appreciate how much work they've put into this. It's amazing. Oh my gosh. Unbelievable amount of work. Helga, could you read our email from Tony Doc Watson? I would be so obliged.

[00:25:07] Merry Christmas, Brand and Scott, and a very happy Halloween. Doc here, I thought I'd share a little something at my home that combines a bit of Halloween and Christmas. I've long been a huge fan of shiny bright ornaments. The mid-century modern style classic Christmas tree ornaments. I just love the style and nostalgia factor they bring to decorating for the big day.

[00:25:31] Well, a few years ago, my wife and I were at our local year-round Christmas store, the fabulous City Lights here in San Diego, and we found a box of Halloween-themed shiny bright ornaments. I bought them immediately. Now, every spooky season, I put them on this small ornament display tree we have and use it as a seasonal centerpiece on our dining table.

[00:25:56] It takes you just minutes to set up, but brings days worth of delight. I have attached a couple of pictures for you. As you can see, the ornaments feature classic Halloween colors and are adorned with images of witches, black cats, and the like. If it's hard to figure out from the images, these ornaments are about the size of a golf ball. Now, of course, Halloween doesn't get to outshine Christmas. I disagree.

[00:26:23] I have a box of Christmas shiny brights of the same style and size. We change out the basket holding the tree to one in a Christmas style, and on the Sunday after Thanksgiving up goes the new display. If you like, I'll try to remember to send you a picture of that. Hope the images bring a bit of autumn happiness. Ooh, I love that dock. That is a wonderful tree. It is very, very nice looking. I put these on our Instagram as well.

[00:26:51] I'm glad you mentioned the scale dock because I didn't get golf ball size. These actually look much larger to me. They look much bigger. In the photo. But it's really nice. I think it's a front and a back photo. Very, very cool. These are rare. Definitely go to our Instagram. Check it out. This is a great way to kind of combine Christmas and Halloween, I feel like. You typically think about ornaments, these ornaments like the Christmas classic ornaments, those round ones. And it's a fun way to make them Halloween and spooky.

[00:27:19] I think I may have to make one of these for myself. Okay. These are very gorgeous ornaments. Ooh, I love them. Yeah, they're so, so pretty. And I got the impression they're vintage. They are. And another one of our listeners wrote in about shiny bright before brand. Unfortunately, my old man brain can't remember who it is off the top of my head, but it's definitely not the first time we've heard of these. There were pictures in a Christmas store of them and they were Christmas ones, not the Halloween ones. Right.

[00:27:49] You know, Helga, I love orange and purple. I think those are my two favorite colors. They should be. Not because of Halloween. I just love those colors. Well, they're personally two of my favorite colored. Black is my first favorite color though. Of course. Of course. Of course. I was saying almost. Yeah. I have an email from Patty Stewart and Patty says, happy Halloween, Scott, Brandon, Helga. A few weeks ago, I went on a mini vacation to the Portsmouth, New Hampshire area with my sisters. We ate lunch at a place called The Goat.

[00:28:17] They were having a pop-up Halloween event and it was very cool. Portsmouth also has an annual Halloween parade that locals participate in. I'm hoping to go next year. I love Portsmouth largely because my dad grew up there. I would encourage you to visit if you are in the area. And Patty sent a photo of this Halloween pop-up event. A lot of purple and orange here, Helga. Shannon's here. Helga had to go take a break real quick. Oh my goodness. Oh. A note about that. I actually, I've been to Portsmouth, New Hampshire.

[00:28:44] I used to spend some time there back in my college days because I dated somebody who lived there. And yes, Portsmouth, New Hampshire is a really cool place. I don't know if The Goat was around at the time, but it sounds really cool. But Helga needs to get back in the booth. Sorry. Oh. She's in the way. I'm so sorry. I'm back now. Oh, good, good. Helga, would you eat at The Goat during their pop-up event? I definitely would. I don't eat goats. No, I don't think that's what, it's like, that's the title of it. Oh, good. I'm vegan.

[00:29:13] You're a vegan witch. I am. Oh. Is that rare or is that normal? I don't know. Oh, that is very common, actually. Welcome to 2026, Bran. Enough with your stereotypes. Close-minded. You ever had those Impossible Burgers? Those are pretty good. Exactly. I close-minded Bran. I'm sorry. And we have an audio clip from our friend Lenora Gilbert. And Lenora sent us in a story about her six favorite Halloween songs. So let's give that a listen. Okay.

[00:29:43] Hi, party people. It's Lenora here, your Christmas freak on the street. And I'm here today to celebrate with you my second favorite holiday. Halloween! And today, I'd like to share with you my list of my top six Halloween songs. It was going to be five, but I loved so many, and 20 was just too much. I bought a used skeleton at the thrift store last month for $5, and we've been driving around

[00:30:11] for the past two months in my new little truck. He's got a t-shirt on now, and his name is Frank. He's the best boyfriend ever. And these are the songs that we have been listening to. Number six comes in at Monster Mash, a true classic sung by Bobby Boris Pickett with his group The Crypt Kickers. I have loved this song since I have been in grade three. And if you've never seen the video on YouTube of him singing it, I really want you to check it out.

[00:30:40] The way he does his facial expressions are so amazing. Number five, Werewolves London by Warren Zevin. I love all the lyrics of this song from, gonna get a big dish of beef chow mein to his awoo. All right. Number four, the dream pop song, Dagger Moon. It's an original song by the Chromatics.

[00:31:07] I discovered this song on YouTube as the official background music for Fear Net commercials featuring my favorite Halloween character, Sam, from the movie Trick or Treat. Number three, Desperation Samba, Halloween in Tijuana by Jimmy Buffett. It's a rocking party song about a trepidatious trip south of the border to celebrate Halloween by dancing with my friends.

[00:31:32] Number two, This is Halloween by Marilyn Manson. I could have put a few songs on this list by Marilyn, like Cry Little Sister from the Lost Boys, Tainted Love, Sweet Dreams, Beautiful People. But then it would be just too Marilyn heavy. And number one comes in from 1977. It's Psycho Killer by The Talking Heads.

[00:31:56] This song explores the deteriorating mind interspersed with French lyrics to emphasize the split personality. Maybe you could add a few of these to your spooky playlist. Happy Halloween party, everybody. And remember, after midnight on October 31st, it's Christmas. And Bran, those went by real fast. So what I did was I transcribed the names of all six songs here and I wanted to read them. Are you ready? I'm ready. I was hoping you would.

[00:32:26] Number six is The Monster Mash by Bobby Boris Pickett. The Monster Mash. It was The Monster Mash. Number five is Werewolves of London by Warren Zivon. Are you familiar? Wahoo! Werewolves of London. Oh, I know Werewolves of London, baby. Now, number four was one I had never heard of before. It's Dagger Moon by The Chromatics, and it was easy to find on YouTube, as she mentioned. Number three, Desperation Samba, parentheses Halloween in Tijuana by Jimmy Buffett.

[00:32:55] I've listened to plenty of Jimmy Buffett. I have never heard of this song before. That was pretty cool. Number two is This Is Halloween by Marilyn Manson. I've never been much of a Marilyn Manson fan. No, but this is his cover of This Is Halloween, and it's actually pretty good. And then number one is Psycho Killer by The Talking Heads. Psycho Killer. Que ce que ce? You guys. See, look. I don't know if I know that song. Whoa.

[00:33:22] It's an older song, and it was obviously from the 80s, and you were not alive. Sure. But go check it out. It's a great song. Oh. I think I heard most of these, except for a couple of them in the middle there, on a Spotify Halloween playlist recently. Because I know my wife and daughter were like, what is this Werewolves of London? I was like, this is a great song. Werewolves of London is a banger. Oh, ooh. Great trick. Marilyn Manson and I had a falling out because I wrote This Is Halloween, and he stole it from me. Wow. Yes. Really?

[00:33:50] I thought Danny Elfman wrote that, but okay. I don't know who Danny is, but I've been around a lot longer than all of them combined. Danny Elfman was the person who did the score for- Right. For Nightmare Before Christmas. Nightmare Before Christmas, and also the Simpsons theme. I'm sorry. I was the one who did the Nightmare Before Christmas theme song. He stole it from you? Yes, I told you. They're all trying to steal from women. But you don't know Danny. I think for legal reasons, Helga is saying that she doesn't know Danny.

[00:34:18] But we'll just leave it there. I just want it on the record that I don't believe Helga. And on this particular situation. There might be some tall tales going on. That's Halloween for you, Brian. That's Halloween. I can neither confirm nor deny. Ooh. And then finally, we have a review of the X-Files Christmas episode called How the Ghost Stole Christmas from our good friend, the Halloween aficionado. Let's give that a listen. Ooh.

[00:34:49] So you know what's not fun? Visiting a creepy haunted house on Christmas Eve. That is unless you're Fox Mulder and Dana Scully. Here's my review of the X-Files Christmas episode, How the Ghost Stole Christmas. Agent Mulder invites Scully to investigate a haunted house that has paranormal sightings on Christmas Eve. The house is a personal curiosity of Mulder, where a pair of Starcrest lovers, Maurice and Lida, fear of separation,

[00:35:17] made a pact to not celebrate Christmas apart, taking their own lives and haunting the house's ghosts every Christmas Eve. And what happened to them? Driven by a tragic fear of separation, they forged a lover's pact so that they might spend eternity together and not spend one precious Christmas apart. They killed themselves? Scully is about to leave, but Mulder's temptation and the fact that he took her car keys leads Scully to follow him.

[00:35:45] Searching the home, they find a large room with a lamp on, discussing why the ghosts haunt the home. The hope that there is something beyond this mortal coil, that we might never be long without our loved ones. I mean, these are powerful, powerful desires. I mean, they're the very essence of what make us human. The very essence of Christmas. Floor starts knocking and underneath the floorboards, they find their dead bodies. They try and leave, but keep re-entering the same room, eventually getting separated.

[00:36:15] Mulder is confronted by the ghost Maurice, claiming that he's a sole prospector. You all tend to fall into pretty much the same category. What category is that? Narcissistic, overzealous, self-righteous, egomaniac. Fertile fields for the descent into total wacko breakdown. Scully is approached by the ghost of Lyta, manipulating Scully that she is there just to prove Mulder was wrong.

[00:36:43] Your only joy in life is proving him wrong. You don't know me. Maurice enters the room with Scully pointing the gun, and makes them put their hands up, discovering that Lyta has a hole in her torso, and under Maurice's hat is a hole in his head. Scully faints, and the ghosts complain about how they only get the one night to haunt, and that they need a new approach. We used to be so good at this.

[00:37:10] We used to have years to drive them mad. Now we get one night. This pop psychology approach is crap. All it does is annoy them. Eighty years ago, the ghost chose to haunt the house at Christmas because the holiday is miserable for people. The ghost convinced Mulder that he and Scully came to the house to be together for eternity, which leads to Mulder and Scully shooting each other. As they lay dying on the floor, the record player starts playing, have yourself, a merry little Christmas.

[00:37:40] They start to struggle to leave the house, and suddenly they realize that it was all in their heads, and neither of them actually shot each other, and they drive away from the house at the strike of midnight. The ghosts sit by the fire, knowing they haven't forgotten the meaning of Christmas. You wonder what they were really out here looking for. Hard to say. People now, this is just another joyless day of the year. Not for us.

[00:38:09] No. We haven't forgotten the meaning of Christmas. So, final thoughts. The theme of loneliness is a real struggle for people, not only around Christmas, but Halloween as well. The episode ends with Scully going to Mulder's home, wanting to be with Mulder on Christmas as she finds solace with him. I give this episode an A. Well, that's my review of The X-Files, How the Ghost Stole Christmas from the 6th Season.

[00:38:35] I wish everybody a happy Halloween, and more importantly, Merry Christmas. I'm the Christmas aficionado, and remember, stay off the naughty list. Joe, thank you for sending that in. It's great that once a year, Joe can become the Halloween aficionado. And if I remember right, Bran, Joe does those incredible plywood cutouts of the Peanuts characters for the great pumpkin Charlie Brown, right? Absolutely. I think so. I think that's right.

[00:39:03] I'm pretty sure I saw them recently on Instagram. I think you're right. Who can say? But first, I have to ask you, have you seen the episode of The X-Files Christmas? No, I have not seen this one. I was a big X-Files fan too, but obviously that was more than 20 years ago, like probably 25, almost 30 years ago. So, I don't know, citation needed. I don't remember this one. I definitely remember The Smoking Man. Bran, how do you feel about The X-Files? I do love The X-Files, yes. How about aliens?

[00:39:33] I love aliens. All right, we can have a deep discussion on this later, Bran. Yeah, we'll take it offline. Do you believe aliens have visited Earth, Bran? Hard to say. You're up in the air, a little agnostic about it? I, uh, no, I don't. Okay, how about you, Helga? You probably know some aliens. They come over all of the time. Bran, it might change your tune if you go to Helga's house. I mean, I'm just waiting on my invite. Yeah, Helga, can we come by?

[00:40:02] We just need to have a good abduction for you, you know what I'm saying? Oh, yeah. What do you believe? Now, you didn't ask me if I believe people have been abducted. That's a different conversation. Okay, let's hear that. So you think the aliens showed up and abducted people, but they never got out and stepped foot on Earth? Oh. Oh. Oh. Yeah, well, yes. I get the, this is an audio medium, so I'll have to describe it. Bran is doing the traditional sucking up the human sound. You're describing it by also doing the sound.

[00:40:35] I'm not great at this, Bran. It's a challenge. Oh, well, Helga, that's our Halloween episode. That's our Halloween evening episode for this year. What are your plans tomorrow night? Oh, yes. Once again, meeting with the book club, we're having a fantastic party. Sure. We'll have lots of hors d'oeuvres, lots of shotcouterie. Oh, yeah. We'll hand out candy and sticks and things to the children from bats. Yeah, rubber frog legs. It's just going to be a very fun night all around.

[00:41:05] Would you mind if Bran and I stopped by? Oh, absolutely. As long as you don't mind meeting some, you know, mythical creatures. I'm all down for the mythical creatures. Like, TV Scotty will come. He's a mythical creature, too. He is. That's true. No one's ever actually seen him. I hear that. Except for Bran, maybe. All right, well, thank you for coming by, Helga. I know this is your busy season. Oh, yes. I'm very busy, but I must return. I must return to my cave.

[00:41:34] Bran, any closing thoughts on Halloween 2026 before the real big show starts? Yes, I don't have any more closing thoughts on Halloween, but we are going to be back starting daily, Scotty, with our Christmas morning podcast, Daily Palooza. I don't know what we're calling it, but we go daily. Monday, November 2nd, right? So two days or whatever time you're listening to this. November 2nd will be daily, Monday through Friday, every day until Christmas.

[00:42:04] So it's going to be a lot of fun, a lot of work, but a lot of fun, but a lot of fun. So much work. Can't wait for that. But until then, may we be the first to wish you a happy Halloween! You're about to hear some ads that help pay for our trip back and forth to the North Pole. Feel free to listen. Feel free to bail now. But either way, thanks for being here. Ho, ho, ho!