Decorating for our Halloween party is always a major task. In 2022, it was more than that; it was a love note to one of our favorite shows: Stranger Things.

For this theme, our favorite to date, we took on quite a few large and unusual projects that required construction, programming, painting, coloring, and even gardening skills. Let’s talk about a few of those projects.

We attempted to recreate the tunnel maps from season two of the series. While our exuberance did not go so far as to replicate the thousands of sheets used in the filming of the show, we did color 186 pieces of paper. I scribbled 36, Jason colored 63, and our niece completed 87. For this endeavor, we bought a box of 800 crayons. The scheme ended up not requiring as many Crayolas as anticipated. Anyone in need of 750+ crayons?

Jason decided to build a portal complete with escaping vines. I thought this undertaking had a high likelihood of turning out less than spectacular due to its complex nature. I was happy to be wrong. We didn’t stop cultivating vines there though. Utilizing some kind helpers, we fashioned dozens more of them for our Upside Down backyard employing foam pipe insulation, pliable wires, and black duct tape. These also turned out better than expected. By the way, if you find online tutorials for making these vines that include instructions for coating them in a layer of latex, don’t bother. We tried that, and the latex didn’t add much except stickiness, so it wasn’t worth the bother.

Another project that proved time consuming was a strand of lights Jason and a helper programmed in Arduino to flash 20 different phrases from the Upside Down in connection to a vinyl alphabet displayed on the wall. Such a setup can provide hours of diversion, just ask the Byers family.

We also transformed our garage into the Snowball Dance. Like any self-respecting 80s, middle-school dance, it had cheesy streamers, a disco ball, a balloon arch, strings of lights, and plenty of metallic fringe. Awkward tweens were the only thing missing… plenty of those came later.

In addition to our big projects, we made sure Easter eggs were stashed throughout the event space. These included a Lite Brite with “Run” twinkling on it, a boombox playing “Running Up That Hill”, “Papa” pictures, Have You Seen Me? posters, the rainbow art on Eleven’s door, slimy blue slugs, and crayoned drawings of the Mind Flayer.

Since our decorating tasks were extensive, I was thrilled I didn’t have to sew costumes at least. However, our getups did require a lot of jute knotting and hot gluing, which required a lot of sacrificial hand burning. I glued both ends of over 100 nails and painted gore on them. These were attached to trashcan lids for Eddie and Dusty. My fingers weren’t the only digit casualties during our preparations. Jason also fell and jammed his finger horribly while carting decorations up the stairs.

Other extremities were bigger problem makers. My ankle was broken, and therefore I was wearing the mandatory boot for such an injury during all of this. That boot made party preparations exponentially more tiring and uncomfortable. I was on my feet for 18 hours one day and nearly that long the next. Have you ever tried to stay on your feet for 18 hours while you are wearing a massive boot and have a fractured ankle? I wouldn’t recommend it. Plus, the boot made navigating the many boxes and decorations littered about our house much more hazardous. The stairs were particularly perilous. I nearly toppled many times, and going up and down them while holding all that stuff? Even worse. It’s surprising Jason was the only one who tumbled.

Fortunately, we had kind volunteers assisting us and our extremities. One friend came to help many days after work. Another shared her artistic talents by painting vines while her husband labored on our programming problems. A brother-in-law and multiple nieces and nephews helped create fringe and tunnel drawings and took on full ownership of a section of our portal tunnel. Our niece said decorating for our party was as fun as coming to our party.

After all that, how did the event go? We were still scrambling until right before it started. It turns out making portals and vines and talking lights and 80s dance scenes takes up a lot of time. Luckily, our costumes did not require much effort to put on, or we would have been very late to our own shindig.

We had about 72 guests that evening, which was manageable but almost too many. Party happenings included three 40-minute D&D campaigns led by a veteran Dungeon Master, carnival games, bingo, an outdoor screening of The NeverEnding Story, an opportunity to vote for Steve or Eddie, a contest for deciphering messages from the Upside Down via Joyce’s lights, a selfie spot, and a photo booth with a professional photographer. Food came in the form of corndogs and fries from the Corndog Commander, cupcakes and cookies from Alisha’s, and waffles from Eleven’s Eggo Buffet. The buffet featured a toaster, chocolate chips, marshmallows, fruit, whipped cream, Biscoff Cookie Butter, and Mrs. Butterworth’s syrup, along with the required Eggos of course.

This year, for the first time since 2020, we opened up the main floor of our house for the party. The mix of inside and outside space seemed appreciated though external temperatures were warmer than the previous all-outside year.

I put together 68 party favors encompassing a selection of options. For starters, I compiled two dozen bags for the younger kids filled with a gnarly assortment of 80s goodies. Back-to-school sets with Trapper Keepers and 4-Color pen combos were another alternative as were Stranger Things coloring books paired with themed color pencils. (Friends Don’t Lilac and Frozen Waffles are always in vogue hues.) Rubiks cubes and banana clips, 80s standards, were the stars of yet other favors, and Dungeons & Dragons starter kits provided an additional possibility. Finally, I built nearly 30 character-themed bags focused on either Max, Eddie, Steve, or Eleven. These bags contained items like bracelets made from recycled skateboards, waffle shaped bath balms, 80s metal band pins, and replicas of Eddie’s guitar pick necklace. After the event, we had 13 favors left, six child and seven adult ones, only because some people apparently have an aversion to neon.

Although the party required an incredible amount of work, we enjoyed sharing our love of Stranger Things with other appreciative fans. That extended beyond the confines of our shindig. On Halloween, we set up our portal and gave candy away in our backyard. We went through 198 candy bars, and the portal was a hit. Kids returned with their parents and texted their friends to come too. Eddie was a rock star and greeted warmly by many.

Many thanks to our totally tubular aides who helped turn our world upside down last fall and our radical party guests who helped turn it right side up.

That familiar line describes our 2021 Halloween party experience well, but it isn’t the whole story. Here’s the rest.

Jason and I thought COVID concerns would be a thing of the past by our 2021 Halloween event. We were incorrect. 2021’s summer and fall brought new variants and fresh waves of uncertainty. Since the virus’ fall plans were still up in the air and out in the air, we decided a yard party was the only way to guarantee accommodating varying comfort levels and not spreading COVID faster than gossip on TMZ.

Doing our shindig outdoors posed some unclear challenges. Namely, we’d never done an all-alfresco Halloween party at our house before, and it was hard to anticipate the extra nuances that might entail for an already-complicated function. Also, October weather is unpredictable. Would the conditions be reminiscent of a tropical island, glacial tundra, or perhaps a dark and stormy night? (Don’t think too hard about that one.)

The theme we had already decided on for the year didn’t work well outdoors, so we had to scratch it, but an appropriate motif presented itself in a roundabout way. I thought a backyard movie could be a great way to entertain the kiddos. The film would need to be appropriate for all ages and at least loosely tied to Halloween. Preferably, it would also link to the year’s theme. And the winner? Coco. With that, Dia de los Muertos became our focus. Yes, I am aware that Halloween and Dia de los Muertos are not the same holiday. They do have some common origins though, which is something I learned from my investigation into the subject.

That brings me to research, one of my favorite things. I did in-depth research on Dia de los Muertos. It was important to Jason and me that our spotlight on this celebration be about cultural appreciation not appropriation. I created a quiz to educate attendees on some of the origins and practices of Dia de los Muertos with prizes offered for the top scorers. Jason and I ordered party favors and decorations directly from central Mexico to put money back into the communities where the holiday originated. Food at our bash was provided by members of the Hispanic community through Super Taqueria and Panaderia Flores. I hope our efforts would make those of Mexican heritage comfortable sharing their holiday traditions.

That takes us from the determined theme to the undetermined weather. Rain was forecasted for the day of our party. We prepared for this possibility by putting up canopies throughout our backyard and a couple in the front. Additionally, we set out buckets filled with umbrellas ready for use. The showers did come but miraculously stopped an hour or two before our revelries commenced. The rain didn’t pick up again until just before the last of the guests had left. It was a stress-inducing mix of bad and good timing.

In the tumultuous weather, attendees were warmed through several methods. Moods were thawed by the cheerful banners and twinkling orange lights that counterpoised the broody humor of the windy evening. Innards were kept cozy with abundant hot chocolate and tea provided by a massive hot-water dispenser purchased just for this shindig. We went through 25 bags of tea alone; I lost count with the hot chocolate. External surfaces benefited from snugly blankets, which were available in bulk to movie watchers. We also had six propane heaters, a propane-fueled fireplace, and two infrared heaters all pumping out comfort at various locations throughout our yard. The infrared heaters paired with all the outdoor lighting overloaded our exterior circuits, and Jason had to rewire everything the day of the party, which was not an easy or quick task. That rewiring required our windows to emit strings of extension cords.

As we didn’t think our yard could accommodate our gathering’s usual 100 guests, we tried to keep the invitee list smaller this year. We ended up with about 60 attendees, which was perfect. It was enough to make our efforts feel worthwhile but not so much as to make our yard feel like an overpacked coffin.

So, while it was a stormy night, it wasn’t exactly dark. Radiant fireplaces, glittering lights, frenzied children, colorful crafts and games, flamboyant costumes, rowdy adults, toothsome cuisine, and thawing liquids all filled the gloom with vibrancy and geniality. We made the most of the turbulent evening offered us to welcome both partygoers and the dead.