So in LA, we've got dibs on Halloween.
A few years ago back in New York, I started predicting that Halloween would eventually rise to the level of Christmas—expanding beyond one night of costumes and candy and grow into an entire season of celebration, replete with black tinsel trees and skeletal ornaments and garland and lights.
It's been slow, but it's been happening.
Or is that just my perspective because I now live in LA—a town full of set designers and decorators, special FX artists, and animators who choose to use their talents on their own lawns?
LA has a few "Christmas streets," those places you go to drive or walk through all the pretty lights while neighborhood kids sell you cookies and cocoa. But this year, I discovered that we also have a "Halloween Street."
Unlike the houses that display Santa sleighs for several weeks in December, those on Alegria Street in Sierra Madre gear up for one big night: October 31. I visited to catch a sneak peek on October 30 and witnessed homeowners toiling away in their yards, workers rigging up set pieces, and a voice calling out, "We're not done yet! Come back tomorrow night!"
So for anyone without plans on Halloween night, Alegria Street seems like a sure thing. But why not let the rest of us enjoy it for a few days more? Why put all that work (and money) into the garden graveyards and front lawn funerals for just one night?
Isn't it time we acknowledge October as "Halloween Month"?
I know families go trick-or-treating in Angelino Heights and at the Spadena House in Beverly Hills, and I know about a few individual home haunts throughout Central LA and its surrounding valleys, but are there other "Halloween Streets" I don't know about?
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