It’s Halloween. Everyone’s entitled to one good scare.

And there we have it. Halloween 2026 is in the books! Staring at the holiday in the rearview I have a similar feeling to last year: the whole thing was a whirlwind. When the kids go back to school in September my calendar starts to get busy, but when sports and activities begin in October it turns in a hellish landscape of multi-coloured squares.

The crazy real life stuff actually helped me in one of my endeavours this year: to try and not let the trappings of Corporate Halloween charm me with her siren song. I'm a sucker for a good brand tie-in and all, but I can't help but feel like the fast food joints and junk food vendors have been playing it safe the last few years and in all truth, it's less about trying to eat healthier and save money as it is about being bored with the same old offerings.

That said, I can't let the year go without chronicling some of the things I enjoyed this Halloween and also some of the things I did my best to avoid!

Coffee XVI: Pumpkin Spice Lives!

I can't really do a Halloween recap without bringing up coffee, but at the same time I don't really have much to report. The usual suspects were in full swing. Tim Hortons still had their Pumpkin Spice Cold Brew, which was my kick-off to the season way back in late-August.

It's delicious, but they did continue with the same recipe as last year with the pumpkin-infused cold foam. I'm sure I've brought this up before, but one year it had chocolate cold foam and it was bonkers. The thing is, all-in this thing must be a million calories and a week's worth of sugar. I actually opted this year to just get my usual iced coffee (cream, no base, one sweetener in case you were wondering) and add one pump of pumpkin. It had all the flavour, none of the sugar, and handled my cravings perfectly.

I did, of course, get my yearly Pumpkin Spice Frappuccino from Starbucks, which makes Tim Horton's cold brew look like child's play. I'm pretty sure this thing is a pre-cursor to Type III diabetes. Regardless, I allowed myself my yearly indulgence and it was as good as ever.

They also had a Black Cat Frappuccino that they held back until later in October, which featured a surprise tie-in with, get this, Salem the Cat from the Sabrina the Teenage Witch TV series. Talk about left-field! I did not partake, however, both because I had already satisfied my annual itch for this style of drink and also because I didn't want to poop green for a few days.

Return of the Drac

It wouldn't be Halloween without spooky cereal! As usual, General Mills brought back Count Chocula for the season. And, as usual, he was without any of his friends again this year. The funny thing is that I'm not a fruity cereal guy and Count Chocula would be the one I'd pick out of the big three, but come on! Throw is a bone and give us Franken Berry and Boo Berry every few years! Spice things up!

The box art was in-line with the US at least and featured the latest edition of the Jim Henson artwork. One cool thing to note was that this year they brought back the cut-out papercraft on the back of the box. For like 15 year straight, you could use your trusty scissors to make a quick and dirty Count Chocula mask. This time around, you got a cool puppet! A definite upgrade in my books and something to occupy the kids with for a solid half hour.

The real star of the Halloween cereal aisle, however, was the return of Pumpkin Spice Mini-Wheats!

I can't recall when these last graced the Great White North, but as a guy who pays close attention to this sort of thing, it hasn't been in recent memory.

I will start with saying I'm a mark for Mini-Wheats in general. I like cereal that's just slightly soggy and I don't think any other cereal takes to it quite as perfectly as Mini-Wheats. 

I was a little worried about the pumpkin spice flavour when I picked these up. As much as I like pumpkin coffee, I find other PS-flavoured food more miss than hit, but I was more than pleasantly surprised with this cereal! It was the perfect blend of flavour and sugar. Not too much of either. I think we polished off two boxes of them before October even rolled around, which is saying something when Chocula is in the pantry.

2 Fast 2 Furious

This is usually where I regale everyone with the myriad of Halloween-themed fast food items for the year, but honestly this year it's more like the lack thereof.

Wendy's did Frosty Frights again, which I think might actually win best in show here in Canada? It's re-hash of last year (and I think the promo is in its third year in the US), but they had fun designs and I still think it's worth it. I tried to snag one early in the season, but my Wendy's didn't have any yet and I just never made it back. If my kids did want some burgers, though, I would've happily taken them to Wendy's for some garrishly-coloured PVC Frosty's without any qualms.

I wish I could say the same for McDonald's. They, yet again, did Boo Buckets. It's hard to imagine a world where I'd be sick of this Happy Meal considering how long of a draught we had, but I think the bucket thing is so played. I didn't partake last year, although fate intervened and I did end up with one. This year I would've abstained again, but I had a hungry 7 year old that wanted a quick bite after hockey practice and only McD's would do.

This year they actually did a weird cross-promotion with Disney and the Boo Buckets were all themed after movie villains, like Ursula the Sea Witch and Cruella Deville. This is one of those ideas that I think seems good on paper, but didn't exactly pop in reality. I can't recall seeing much if any advertisement for it, except for an obligatory social media post and email. Usually when you have Disney on the line, you give it the moon push. But not so here.

Anyway, I just think the time for Halloween buckets is nigh. I mean, you could get them at Home Depot and Canadian Tire at this point. You know you've jumped the shark if Canadian Tire is on the bandwagon. It's time to sunset Halloween buckets and bring back Halloween McNugget Buddies, Ronnie!

But you know what, you can at least say McDonald's tried. That's more than Burger King had to offer this year.

Last year BK went pretty big with a brightly-coloured orange Whopper, and some retro-themed buckets. In the US they also had Mummy Chicken Fries and Vampire Nuggets you could dip in faux "blood" sauce. I was actually expecting BK to more or less rehash the same promo this year, but actually bring the full menu to Canada, but instead they duffed the whole thing and went with an ice cream and a strawberry Sprite?

The ice cream was different regionally, but equally as boring. I think it was werewolf-themed here. The Sprite was fine and all, but I have to say I found it so strange that it was offered as an expensive solo item. I turns out in the States it had a special sour candy straw, which made the premium price tag a little easier to swallow. There was no such straw here in Canada, from what I could tell. Just a slightly sour, strawberry Sprite. I mean, it was a fun adventure while I waited for my kid to finish swimming one night, but not nearly what I've come to expect from BK this time of year.

Rumour has it they're taking the Halloween menu from last year and dropping it in November with a fresh coat of paint for Nightmare Before Christmas, which would be kinda lazy, but would at least score them some points, in my book.

Thirsty For More?

I would be remiss not to mention the one other thing BK had going for it this Halloween season: they were the lead-in for Ghoul-Aid finally making its way up North! They were including Zom-Berry Ghoul-Aid with their kids' meals, which I think was a definite win. And thankfully, it was just a precursor to a full launch at grocery stores! It was certainly far too sugary for my tastebuds, but my kid - who is a die hard blue raspberry enthusiast - gave it full marks. I think we're even getting a Christmas-themed Kool-Aid this year!

Mountain Dew and Fanta are still holding down the fort for chilling soft drinks. Last year Fanta had Chucky adorning a special seasonal beverage and this year it was Ghost Face! I wish it had a zero sugar variant, but I thought it was great. They also ran with designs on their regularly available products, but instead of other horror movie characters like they've done the past few years, they had a generic vampire and scarecrow. They still looked cool, though, and I can understand wanting to pool the resources to get a Scream tie-in.

Mountain Dew is still doing their Trolli cross-promo. I think it's weak myself. I get that VooDEW might have run its course, but I have pretty much zero interest in whatever Trolli candy is. Maybe go with something with more stature, like Skittles or Starburst? I dunno.

If you were looking for something a little healthier, Bubly had these cool Halloween mini cans this season. I only tried one, strawberry lime, but I personally was a big fan! I just wish they did them in full 355mL cans! These would be cool to give to trick 'r treaters, which I assume as the intended draw, but I can equally imagine lots of kids just shaking them up and using them to soak their friends instead of drinking them.

I just want to give a shout out to ol' Faithful, Canada Dry Cranberry. This is something that I think is more on an American's Thanksgiving radar, but it drops here much earlier in October and remains an important part of our Thanksgiving and Halloween seasons. And I just love it.

Tricks or Treats!

I didn't really indulge in much of the seasonal treats this Halloween - or at least I tried not to - but there were a few standouts.

For one, we finally got those Reese Pumpkins with the Peanuts wrappers. A small victory on this one, but I recall these were a popular item last season and I don't know why it took them a year to make their Canadian debut. Whatever, they were delightful and I'm glad I got to have them.

As far as snack food goes, the big winner in my book goes to Pumpkin Spice Jos Louis! For any of my American friends that might be reading this, Jos Louis is the flagship snack cake of the Vachon company. I guess this is like our version of Hostess, except way better! Jos Louis consist of two chocolate snack cakes with a white cream filling robed in milk chocolate. 

That already sounds amazing, I know, but swap out the chocolate cake for a spice cake and we're talking gamechanger! As I mentioned before, I'm hesitant with pumpkin spice flavoured stuff, but these were calling to me and honestly, I'm in love. I dunno if I'd even really hammer home that it's a "pumpkin" taste? I think that was just for marketing. This, IMO, was more a generic spice cake and let me tell you, I think it surpasses the original. If these were around all year I'd be 300 lbs, but very happy about it.

The Other Guys

Ah, the miscellaneous category. A definitely least, but not last situation this year. Herein lies some of my highlights of Halloween!

Last year I was picking up some stuff in Walmart in late-August when I saw this incredible, purple haunted house blow mold. I knew immediately that I wanted it, but it was August and I figured there'd be time a little later in the season. How wrong I was! These bad boys sold out immediately and all I was left with was regret.

Over the last few years, I've noticed this weird blow mold renaissance, but for some reason the figures are always really small. And usually some kind of tie-in, like The Grinch. This haunted house was a full-size blow mold, just like something you would've seen in the 90s, in all its purple splendour.

Needless to say, when I saw it again early this year I wasted no time getting it into my cart. It was the only new decoration I picked up this year, but what else could compare? It's hard to capture just how awesome it looks lit in the dark, but I think you can agree.

Some of the best things Halloween and Autumn have to offer don't cost a dime, like this; my very own homegrown pumpkin, Gourdon!

I've attempted to grow pumpkins in my yard the last three years. The first year was a bad year for bees and there wasn't enough pollination. I did get a pumpkin, but he was a tiny little guy. Last year, we had a terrible draught in Nova Scotia and although I did my best to keep the plants watered, they didn't yield much of anything. This year I grew six seeds indoors, but ultimately only one of them took root out in the garden. It grew a long and mighty vine, though, which brought Gourdon into my life!

He's the biggest pumpkin I've grown to-date. He was still mostly green by the time Halloween actually came around, but he did have some orange to him! Once he's enjoyed a nice stay indoors for the next few weeks, we'll extract his seeds for a nice snack and I'll set some aside for next year. Here's hoping for lots of little Gourdons next Halloween!

And I think that about sums it up! Honestly, this season went by like a blur. Even more than any other year. I did much less seasonal watching, that's for sure. I almost committed heresy and just managed to get John Carpenter's Halloween in on October 29th! The night itself more than made up for it all, though.

We took the kids trick 'r treating with friends and everyone had a blast. By the end of it, they all had sore feet, gigantic bags of candy, and great memories. And that's really what it's all about!

I hope you had a great Halloween season! And if you partake, I hope you're looking forward to the upcoming holidays! I'm still trying to wrap my head around it all, but in the next few weeks I'm sure I'll be trading in pumpkin ale for egg nogs, Monster Mash for Jingle Bells, and Michael Myers for Santa Claus.

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Have you come to sing pumpkin carols?

I was going to write a very long-winded, multi-post skeet on Bluesky the other day when I realized, what the hell am I doing? I have this whole blog I never use! So here it is.

I've been finding it difficult to hold that autumn spirit the last few weeks. On the rare occasion that I have enjoyed it, I've had to drag it out of me kicking and screaming. I usually take a day to myself every fall as a sort of Halloween pilgrimage, so I thought that might just be the ticket.

As usual, I kicked things off with a million calorie pumpkin spice Frappuccino from Starbucks. I get exactly two drinks from Starbucks every year. One of these and a peppermint mocha around Christmas, so I allowed myself the luxury.

With my seasonal drink in hand, I decided to try one last time to get a box of Count Chocula. I don't want to bore you with the same schtick as usual, but over the last few years we're lucky to even get Count Chocula here in Atlantic Canada. Occasionally you'll see Franken Berry, last year we actually got Carmella Creeper, and I'm told that once upon a time Boo Berry graced this land, but alas I've never found it myself. We did get our own version of Monster Mash a few years back with Boo Berry in it, but that didn't really scratch the itch.

And the real truth I like to keep buried deep down inside myself is that I really don't like fruit-flavoured cereals, so I'd probably only actually eat Count Chocula anyway, but it's the principle of the thing! I want that Boo Berry!

Anyway, the thing to write home about in 2025 is that General Mills finally changed the damn Count Chocula box. Although my American friends have enjoyed many varied packaging and varieties of Monster Cereals over the years, we've had the exact same box with the cut-out mask since 2014.

After going on failed mission after failed mission to find any sort of Halloween cereal over the last couple of weeks, I finally spied a box of Chocula at the very back of a local grocery store and I was elated to see the Jim Henson box art!

I've been on a diet lately (disregard that giant boat-load of sugar I showed you above) so I likely won't actually eat any of the Count Chocula, but my kids love it and I love the chase.

Keeping that momentum, I figured it was nigh time I hit Halloween mecca... Spirit Halloween! Here's the obligatory pic of the store, jammed in between CAA and The Shoe Company, in the dead husk of an old Roots store. Just like nature intended.

As is usual, Spirit Halloween is a serious infusion of the holiday spirit and I really enjoyed my time walking around the store, but I must say I wasn't nuts about this year's location. The last few years they've been in a space like two doors down from this, which is much more roomy. It was so big, it actually allowed for their little "haunt within the store" setups.

There wasn't any of that in this location. They did their best to setup some of the jump scare animatronics in the middle of the shop, which was a nice touch, but it felt a bit cramped. Rumour is that we're getting a Dollar Tree where Spirit has been located the last few years, which would explain it having to move down the road.

I took about a billion pictures in the store, mostly of kids costumes to aid my children in figuring out what they want to be for Halloween this year, so I'll spare you those.

The highlights were this light up skull Pumpkin Peeper, which I had to buy on the spot - I can't wait to get that bad boy into a jack-o-lantern - and this E.T. mask that scared the ever-lovin' shit out of me as I was browsing their sea of masks. His glossy, blue, dead stare chills me even now.

After that, I figured it was time to hit up HomeSense. If you're not familiar with that store, it's because in the US it's called HomeGoods. I've been stopping by every now and then since August, when everybody and their dog started posting pictures of those sweet Charlie Brown Halloween mugs (image  credit to Trash Witch on Bluesky, who I believe was the first person I saw to get the mug), that features the gang at Violet's Halloween party.

For many years, I purchased myself a new Halloween mug on my pilgrimage, but in the last few I've stopped because I just had too many damn coffee cups, but I decided I'd come out of retirement for this bad boy.

But alas, after several trips it became clear to me that we wouldn't be getting that mug in my area. Now that's not to say there was any lack of Peanuts-themed Halloween stuff there. If anything, the store was overflowing with it.

As I was about to leave empty-handed yet again, I saw this out of the corner of my eye.

La pièce de résistance! Feast your eyes on this incredible set of stacked cups, depicting the opening sequence of It's The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown! This picture doesn't do them justice, they look amazing and I was so excited to find them.

We are having my wife's family over for Thanksgiving this year, so I'm trying to hold off on breaking them out until then, but once I do I hope you'll be ready for my entire Bluesky and Instagram feeds to become a dedication to these four mugs and these four mugs alone.

Riding on that high I decided it was time to pack it in and grab some lunch. I took a meandering way home, while I listened to old episodes of the Purple Stuff Podcast (also an important part of the yearly pilgrimage) and I found myself near a Burger King.

I had seen several posts online of folks with those Scooby-Doo kids meal toys and I figured I'd pop in and check if they had them, so I could take my kids at a later date. Sure enough they did!

Even though I'd obliterated my daily calorie count with that gargantuan frap at breakfast, I decided I couldn't leave without getting a kid's meal, so I snagged one and I scored a Daphne. She looks very cozy with the rest of the toys that adorn the old desk TV.

And there you have it! A very successful Halloween pilgrimage, which was just what I needed to get into the Halloween spirit. I still have lots of other family activities to do in the coming weeks that will just amplify my mood, but I feel like this solo adventure is always a good kick-off.

How about you? Do you have any sort of Halloween/autumn traditions you partake in every year that are just for you? Feel free to reach out on my socials and let me know!

I hope you're having a great season so far and here's to many more spooky adventures to come!

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A false and commercial festival, devoutly to be ignored.

I've mentioned this in the last few months, but I've been trying to get back into media archival.

A few years back I scored a backup VCR for free (my current main unit, actually) and the guy threw in a bunch of tapes he had kicking around with it.

One of those tapes was a Maxell 6-Hour T-120 that I immediately wanted to peruse. I quickly discovered it contained a TV recording of A Christmas Carol, featuring George C. Scott as Ebenezer Scrooge. It aired December 1997 on CBC.

Is it possible to get high on old Christmastime TV bumpers?

I desperately wanted to mine the tape for any and all Christmas commercials that it might contain, but like many of my personal projects it was pushed to the background for a few years.

I finished a big assignment at work recently, which freed up some of my time, so I decided it was nigh time to digitize that tape!

A quick note on the George C. Scott version of A Christmas Carol - it's a decent movie, but a little darker than some of the other versions you might come across. You can find it on a lot of streamers and it often airs on TV this time of year. It's worth a viewing if you wanted to switch it up from your usual favourite.

Now, with that out of the way, let's talk about some of the classic commercials that aired alongside the film, back in '97! Honestly, there were so many good commercials on this tape, so I'm likely to return to this well later in the season. For now, let's stick with five (but really six or seven).

THAT Kellogg's Cornflakes Commercial

Oh, you know the one. This juggernaut of an ad started airing in 1990 and I'm fairly certain it ran, although edited slightly here and there, until the early 2000s. It's honestly right up there with the Hershey Kisses ad, which I'm fairly certain is still airing to this day.

The warm, earthy tones, dulcet music, soft-spoken actors, and perfectly lit scenery depict the ideal Christmas. Also, their kid-logic tracks: after a night filled with cookies and trying to squeeze down chimneys, wouldn't Santa like a brief reprieve and enjoy some healthy cereal? Makes sense to me.

I know this commercial has been encoded and uploaded about a million times on the web, but hey - what's one more?

Connect 4 and Guess Who

Alright, it's already time to cheat and break my own rules!

Not only am I including two commercials here, but neither are actually Christmas ads. So why are they on the list?

As I watched this tape, one of the things I had the hardest time grasping was it's recording date; December of 1997. The late-90s had a very distinct feel on TV. Everything had to be edgy and slightly obtuse to catch our attentions. Most of the commercials on this tape felt so early-90s.

And it's because the majority of them, much like the aforementioned Kellogg's ad, aired for like a decade. These days ad campaigns or mostly just related to focused ads on social media and YouTube and they completely disappear from social consciousness in a matter of minutes. Back in the 90s, 30-second ads on TV were the prime way to get a potential customer's attention and the companies that produced these ads went for broke.

In the case of these two commercials for Guess Who and Connect 4, there is no question in my mind that if you were a frequent TV watcher from 1990 to 2000 you have them emblazoned in your brain.

Throughout the duration of this tape, they played on almost every ad-break, back-to-back. It must've been a big year for Milton Bradley or interest in these games was lacking and they decided to throw big money at the problem. I can't speak for everyone, but I can say that it worked on me, because I wanted and owned both of these games as a kid (I was especially a fan of Guess Who) and I received them both as Christmas gifts, so I'm adding them to this list. If you don't like it... well I guess I'm sorry then? (Please keep reading my blog)

Disney Home Video

How's that for wholesome?

This is a commercial that distinctly feels like something from the early-90s, but I know for an absolute fact that it's from 1997, because not only is Disney hocking their other classic movies on videocassette, but they took this opportunity to push their latest Christmas flick, Beauty and the Beast: The Enchanted Christmas.

Most folks my age ruminate about the lack of quality in the Disney direct-to-video market, but you just know these tapes sold like freakin' hotcakes.

It's not mentioned in this ad, but the pallor of Disney's false scarcity tactics clung to all of these video releases, so you had to get them before they went "back into the vault"! Not only did it likely sell a lot of movies during the holidays, but to this day resellers seem to think their old Disney tapes are worth your firstborn and probably a few limbs for good measure.

Sobey's Christmas

This is a commercial that will hit much stronger if you're a local Atlantic Canadian.

Sobey's is a grocery store chain that during the 90s would've only existed in a few provinces, like Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and PEI. I don't even think they were in Newfoundland, but I could be wrong. These days, I think they have stores across Canada.

In the early 90s they had a smash hit commercial called "Songs of Christmas" that featured all sorts of holiday wholesomeness to the tune of a children's choir singing what amounted to a very long Sobey's jingle. That ad played on local TV for years and years and I'd dare say if you spoke to anyone from this area they could sing you at least a few bars if not the whole song.

In the late 90s, Sobey's decided to try and catch that lightning in the bottle again with this ad, which I believe ran for a few years, but didn't have near the same impact.

Still, I do love this commercial and have fond memories of it. I'm not sure exactly when it started airing, but it had to be mid- to late-90s. I think they even used some of the imagery and music from this commercial in the rest of their "regular" advertisements that ran during Christmas.

It sounds nuts, but some of these big production holiday commercials sort of felt like TV specials in a way. I'd actually look forward to seeing them on the tube every year and they were an important part of the holiday!

Local Season's Greetings

If you watched any low budget local TV (does such a thing exist any more?) you would've seen ads like this from many local businesses, sending season's greetings to any current or potential customers watching at home. I can recall when there'd be one minute (or more) solid blocks with Christmas-y backgrounds adorned with the fanciest of fonts sending warm wishes from many local businesses.

If you were a small TV station that needed public money and advertisement to keep afloat, I'm sure this was easy money during the holidays. I actually used to love these when I was a kid. It was this weirdly small, solemn moment that felt so calm and Christmas-y, even if you were in the middle of watching a TV airing of Alien or something.

The Coca-Cola greeting at the end is a particularly lavish affair, that even includes a few seconds of Coke's massive commercial with the Christmas lights on their 18-wheeler delivery trucks. La-tee-dah.

Christmas Day on CBC

I thought this was fun, so I decided to throw it in.

Every Christmas my family would go to an extended family get-together on Christmas Day. We'd gorge ourselves on delicious food, open presents, all that good stuff. Come the evening of Christmas Day, it was wide open. I'd usually play with my new toys and video games and my parents would have friends over for drinks and visiting.

I can't say I watched much TV on Christmas Day, because I was busy, but another reason was that it always seemed like blackhole. Nowadays it's become a tradition to air movie marathons and tons of Christmas specials, but back when I was a kid there was lots of religious programming, and old black-and-white movies I didn't yet have the appreciation for.

Case in point is the programming block for CBC on December 25th, 1997, which included back-to-back-to-back Christmas classics from the 40s, capped off a musical special from Canadian royalty, Tom Jackson.

There's absolutely nothing wrong with any of this, but when I was a kid there is about a -1000% chance I would've watched one second of this on Christmas Day.

And there you have it! Just a few of the wonderful Christmas commercials I mined from this tape. I'll hopefully make another post soon with some more of the cool stuff I found on here, but if not I hope you enjoy these clips and the warm fuzzies they bring!

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It was the Boogeyman.

I've forcibly put myself into a post-Halloween cooldown period, but after a few days I feel like it's time to take a moment and chronicle all the greatness that was Halloween 2024!

I don't think I could possibly write meaningful words about everything that dropped this season, but I want to highlight some of my favourite spooky snacks, events, movies... whatever!

Sodie Pop!

There were some fun pops to hunt for this season. I want to say that Fanta took home the gold. Not because the Haunted Apple tasted the best - it's terrible - but between a bright green Beetlejuice soda and the latest film's branding on their other products, it seemed like this was the biggest chase.

Personally, I missed WTFanta, but I guess with VooDEW being the crowned king of mystery sodas, Fanta decided to sit that one out.

Speaking of VooDEW, Mountain Dew finally brought their popular secret soda to Canada... sort of. Instead of releasing the current flavour that dropped in the US, they gave us last year's American offering. It's not that it's altogether awful, but for a guy that imports these every year, it would've been nice to be on par with our American friends. I still haven't come across a can of the US version, but I'm hopeful I will in the coming weeks.

Things look bleak for VooDEW right now - the hubbub is that this was the last year for it and that Mountain Dew will start offering brand crossover sodas next year, but at least VooDEW officially graced Canada at least once.

My favourite of the seasonal offerings that were new (at least to me) this year was 7-Up Zero Sugar Cranberry. I love cranberry ginger ale and lemon-lime pop, so this was a slam dunk for me. I still prefer Cranberry Canada Dry, but it was nice to switch it up. Also, I do love me a zero sugar!

Bucket List!

This was a big year for buckets! These were the only two I saw available in Canada this year, but I know Dunkin' Donuts did a Munchkins (their version of Timbits) bucket that was very popular.

My favourite was the Timbits bucket. Not only did it come in a spider or ghost variant, but this year it was glow-in-the-dark! I'm not sure when I'll ever desperately need to find my Timbits in the pitch black, but... who am I kidding, we all know I'm sitting in a dark room gorging on fat pills.

The Boo Buckets have been back the last three years and I still appreciate them. This year McDonald's decided to go for something different with all-new designs and honestly, they're pretty great. I'm not going to lie, though. I kinda hope they switch things up next year and bring back Halloween McNugget Buddies and blow the Internet wide open.

Monster Mash!

I knew it was going to be a big year for Halloween when I found Monster Mash fruit snacks on August freakin' 1st. For reference, the Monster Cereal brand has been circling the drain in Canada the last few years. I've been lucky to even find Count Chocula some years.

For 2024, General Mills went all out in the US, with the Monster Cereal characters getting pet marshmallows. Here in Canada we at least got the fruit snacks from last year and finally a new cereal: Carmella Creeper!

It's a bummer we're still getting the same lame boxes with the masks on the back - I'd much prefer the retro-styled ones in the US - but beggars can't be choosers and all that.

Out of the three cereals available, Chocula still remains my favourite. I want to love Franken Berry, but I just find it too sweet, which was mostly how I felt about Carmella. I'm so glad it's there, but it's just not for me.

As for Wedneday, again, I'm elated the cereal found it's way to the Great White North, but I just didn't like it. You'd think cookies and cream would be a solid gold hit, but I wasn't nuts about it.

I'm hoping these all sold well enough, though, and maybe next year we'll finally see another Monster Cereal here in Canada. I'll take Boo Berry at the very least.

Spooky Eats!

There were food promos for Halloween literally left-and-right this year. Honestly, I don't think I could keep up if I lived in the US, that had themed menus at several restaurant chains and cute little Frosty figures at Wendy's.

For me nothing beat the Addams Family Burger King menu. We had Gomez's Churro fries, Morticia's Kooky Shake, and the glorious Wednesday Whopper available in Canadian BKs. I only tried the Whopper, but honestly - that was enough. Look at that beaut!

This was really completely out of the blue as there wasn't a new movie in the Addams Family animated series this promo was tied to, but whatever - anything Addams Family is as hot as Hansel right now.

This seems to be a Canadian exclusive, but for the second year running McDonald's has released a Halloween-themed McFlurry! Last year we had the Trick n' Treat McFlurry, which was black and orange Smarties. This year they kept the same colour scheme with Reese Chipits and Fudge! They dropped the Trick n' Treat name, but they did continue with the spooky packaging, so I'd call it a win.

There were all sorts of other random finds this year, but another I'll mention is International Delight Pumpkin Spice Cold Foam. Tim Hortons, for some reason, opted not to have a Pumpkin Spice Cold Brew this year, so I had to take things into my own hands. I don't think I'd buy it again, but the cold foam and a bottle of Stok scratched the itch.

One big complaint I have is the lack of Reese Werewolf Tracks. Reese (or Reese's, whatever) has been pretty solid in releasing their Halloween-themed treats here every year, including the Frankencups. Heck, I usually find them first thing in August! This year, though, nada. They didn't even have Reese Pumpkins! Of course as soon as we hit late-October I could plenty of those Reese Trees, though. SMH.

Friday, September 13th!

This was the second year-in-a-row that we were treated to a Friday the 13th during the Halloween months. Last year it was in October proper, but September works just as well for me.

I've reached the point where I rarely watch a Friday the 13th when it isn't the actual day (or, what, holiday?). I've just watched them so many times at this point. As a result, it makes the day and the rewatches extra special.

The next Friday the 13th is actually in December of this year! But then we won't see one in the fall for several years, so I'm glad I savoured it and watched the Paramount "Zombie Jason Trilogy". So good.

Making a Scare at the Box Office!

What a year for horror films in general, though! There were so many box office triumphs. These little indie darlings were making big money at movies.

Highlights include the mystery thriller Longlegs, which is making a run at the Academy Awards, Terrifier 3, which is now the highest-grossing indie film of all time, and The Substance which stars Demi freakin' Moore in her comeback era.

I really like Longlegs, except for the ending, and although I'm still not sure about Art the Clown and the Terrifier series, I'm so glad to see horror doing big numbers. You know things are going the right way when a horror icon gets to ring the bell on Wall Street!

TV Tingles!

Let's not forget the (not-so) small screen! With all the UFO talk in the news lately and the resurgence of shows like Unsolved Mysteries, there's been no lack of spooky sci-fi and paranormal shows. In my opinion, these sorts of shows a perfect this time of year.

This season we had a new volume of Unsolved Mysteries, which certainly had plenty of true crime, but actually had episodes on Roswell and cattle mutilations! It felt a bit more like the Stack-era.

Not to be outdone, Disney dropped OUT THERE: Crimes of the Paranomal, which has almost the exact same look-and-feel of the new Unsolved Mysteries series on Netflix, but leans hard into the supernatural.

Speaking of sci-fi and supernatural, probably my favourite horror movie of the year was V/H/S Beyond, which was dropped on Shudder right smack-dab in the spooky season. It's mostly all alien and UFO science fiction themed, which is certainly my wheelhouse. It's honestly my fave in the series. By my estimation this is a series that is actually getting better with age and I hope we get lots of V/H/S for many years to come!

Oh, and one last thing. I picked up the 4K release of A Nightmare on Elm Street, which dropped in October and damn that movie has never looked so good. I don't usually go in for 4K, honestly, but this one certainly sold me on the idea.

Here's to the season!

I can't express to you just how incredible Mother Nature was to us in Nova Scotia this year. Yes, it was uncomfortably hot at the start of September, but honestly the temperatures eventually became quite "normal" for us by the time October rolled around.

We are known for our beautiful autumns here, but in the last few years we've been smashed by multiple hurricanes. As a result, we end up losing most of our leaves far too early and, with that, our fall colours. This year, however, was very mild on that front, which I know is a blessing. For those of you who had to handle extreme weather this year, I feel for you. I don't mean for this to seem like a slight.

Not only did we have beautiful weather, but we were treated with some incredible celestial events. We had several back-to-back supermoons, including the Harvest and Blue moons. I wish I had my telescope prepared, so I could've gotten some proper pictures.

I also got to see the Northern Lights for the first time in my life! I've heard that in some northern and less light-polluted areas of NS that you can see them on occasion, but we had an and incredible showing that was very visible even in the urban areas and it was breathtaking!

I had made a promise to myself last year and this year that I'd try and do more cool outdoor events during the season. While I didn't get to do a haunt that I really wanted to (hard to do with young kids) we did have some incredible days, which included a picnic, hayrides, apple and pumpkin picking, and a jack-o'-lantern carving contest.

That's a (mummy) wrap!

As is typically the case, I did so much, but still had a lot left on the table in terms of things I wanted to do this year. I can't complain, though. This was definitely a Halloween for the books!

As I'm writing this, I know there's a lot of bad stuff going on in the world, but I think it's good to reflect on the things you love and care about: your family and friends, maybe your health, or hell - just a purple burger and a scary movie. Try and find whatever makes you happy and shake the shit out of it.

I hope you had a great fall and Halloween season and I wish you further enjoyment in the coming months!

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