Jason Michael Carroll with his family, Halloween 2008. (l-r): JMC and wife Wendy (second from right) with JW, Gavin, Stori Paige and Savannah. Photo courtesy of the Carroll family.

Jason Michael Carroll says Halloween is one of his family’s favorite holidays.  In fact, if you were to drive by the Carroll house in late September, you might find it already decorated with ghosts and other assorted scary items.

“We always decorate our house early for the season,” says Jason. “Every year, we pick out a few new decorations to add to our already large collection. The older the kids get, the scarier the decorations get. We pick out our costumes months in advance, and try to go with some sort of theme.  Last year, we were Scooby-Doo and the Mystery Gang.  This year, we are working on a Batman theme.  Buying our costumes in advance gives us a chance to make them AWESOME!  One of our good friends helps us with alterations.  Even the grandparents, aunts, and uncles are dressing up to fit with our theme this year!”

Jason even puts a little mood music on to make Oct. 31 even more special. “While we’re all getting our make-up and costumes on,” he explains, “we play the Michael Jackson ”Thriller” video on TV and the kids try to get all the moves down. (They were so sad to find out that he had passed this year.) Then we’re off to go trick-or-treating and wind up at my mom’s house for food, because all that walking makes us hungry.  The kids also hand out candy to the rest of the kids that show up while we’re there. ”

For the whole month of October, Jason, wife Wendy and their kids celebrate the holiday. ”We always watch ‘The Nightmare Before Christmas,’ ‘The Addams Family’  and ‘Hocus Pocus,’ he says. “We  also have Halloween soundtracks on our iPods, too,  like ‘Monster Mash,’ ‘Ghostbusters,’ ’Thriller,’ and  ’Nightmare On Elm Street.’  My wife and I  make Halloween all about the kids and in doing so it makes us feel a little like kids again, too.”

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