Oct. 31 birthdays add to Halloween fun

Kathy Carey of Morris celebrates Halloween in exaggerated style because her oldest daughter and granddaughter celebrate their birthdays on Oct. 31.

That's her official story.

But those birthdays may just be an excuse for Carey, 64, to indulge her whimsical side regarding costumes, decorations, crafts and food.

"My older children just laugh every time they come over and say, 'Mom, where does all this stuff come from?' " Carey said. "And I tell them, 'from within, honey, from within.' "

Through the years, she has won local contests for her original costumes: the carpet-foam-padding Gumby, a giant California raisin in brown garbage bags and little raisin boxes, a gauze-wrapped mummy and a lifelike cannibal.

"I even boiled bones to make necklaces, bracelets and earrings," Carey said.

During October, she opens her 20 totes of decorations and fills the inside of her home with Halloween lights, hanging bats, spider webs, Draculas, mummies and imitation blood. Her windows have so many cardboard decorations Carey can't see out of them.

"I go for scary stuff, not the cutesy things," Carey said.

Outside features include tombstones, a devil sitting in a beach chair, a lobster trap hanging from a tree holding a fake head and a spotlight, and a coffin complete with music and strobe lights.

New this year is a caped skeleton with his arms extended. He will hang from the eaves of her house. Roof-to-ground spider webs will enhance his horrifying appearance. Only Carey's toy budget is not frightening. Favorite shopping haunts for novel items include dollar stores and thrift shops.

On Halloween night, Carey's boyfriend, Randy Bell, becomes a live lawn ornament. He dresses as the grim reaper and sits in a chair, not moving or speaking unless someone is especially brash about declaring him a phony.

"He'll just jump right up," Carey said. "He loves scaring people."

She won't be trick-or-treating with her grandchildren this year. Instead, her Frankenstein alter ego (signature mask, gray suit and Randy's work boots) will distribute candy and thrill to the 'This is so cool!" remarks the children make when they admire her embellishments, as they do every year.

Carey did go trick-or-treating last year, at Disney World in Florida where Allie Graziani of Indiana -- the granddaughter with the Halloween birthday -- wanted to spend her 13th birthday.

"It was phenomenal," Carey said. "It was decorated with pumpkins and the characters all wear costumes. I brought 40 pounds of candy with me on the plane."

To encourage holiday cheer, Carey gathers her grandchildren (Allie and siblings Jacob, 12 and Mia, 9) into her kitchen to craft haunted houses and castles or to prepare Halloween-style food, such as Halloween snack mix -- waffle-shaped cereal, miniature marshmallows, chocolate chips and crumbled candy bars.

Even her daughters, Monica Graziani of Indiana and Angela Wagner, who shares the Halloween birthday with Allie, will join them.

She scorns the notion that Halloween equates evil. Even as a child, Halloween was a playful time with two nights of trick- or-treating. Carey recalls dumping out pillowcases of candy at home to go back out for more and changing costumes on night two so the neighbors--especially the one who made the taffy apples -- wouldn't recognize her.

"Families should celebrate holidays together," Carey said. "Halloween is just good, family fun."