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From competition to the economy, here are some ideas for Halloween stories. Share your ideas, too!
COSTUMES
Economy
Costumes can sometimes cost an arm and a leg (sorry for the creepy body-parts cliche, but it's Halloween). This year for the first time in my community I saw that the village is sponsoring a costume swap. Bring a costume to donate, and leave with the costume. Are people looking for cheap or free options for costumes this year because of our continuing economic woes? Check around to see if anyone is sponsoring an official costume swap, or if any parents are hosting a costume swap party.
Another angle: online used costumes. I knew a woman who would sell her daughter's past dance-show costumes on eBay before Halloween. Has anyone in your town tried making some extra money selling old costumes?
Competition
Some parents make their kids' costumes, and we're not talking about a simple sheet with two eyes cut out, in the spirit of Charlie Brown. In fact, the competition can be pretty crazy among the parents who go all out on their children's costumes. You could approach this in a positive way. Talk to parents who do this to see if there's a way to re-create last year's idea in 10 simple steps. Run this with a list of ideas and a quick paragraph on each, describing how to make the costume.
Another possibility would be to focus the story on the competition itself. You could talk to psychologists who specialize in families or in psych professors at a local college to find out what drives people to use a Halloween costume to compete. When does that competition become unhealthy for the parents and children?
DECORATIONS & TREATS
Is there a family in your area that goes all out for Halloween? In our area, a family turns their entire house into a haunted house, decorating every room. People can't wait to tour the house each year. If you have such a house in your area, ask how long it takes to prepare, and see if they have ideas for people who might want to do a fraction of what they've done to decorate.
Do a business story asking how much Halloween decorations and treats add to local retailers' bottom line. How does Halloween rank as far as holiday spending in your town?
READER INVOLVEMENT
Ask readers for their favorite Halloween movies, then put the top five to a vote in an online poll. The movies can range from spooky to funny.
Have you asked readers to send in their pets dressed up for Halloween? Give it a try!
The Springfield State Journal-Register is running a vintage Halloween costume callout. People love old photos, and it's fun to see which costumes dominated during certain decades.
What Halloween stories have you come up with? Send an email to Jean Hodges.
Jean Hodges served as a reporter and editor for more than 20 years and led groundbreaking projects that won national acclaim before coming to GateHouse to launch the company's news service. She worked most recently at the Chicago Sun-Times' Daily Southtown, covering the south side and south suburbs of Chicago. Before that she worked at the Killen (Texas) Daily Herald, the Clovis (N.M.) News Journal and the Ely Standard in Cambridgeshire, England. She now works with GateHouse news organizations on content strategies, Web initiatives, plus she leads training programs such as webinars and LEDE, GateHouse's leadership program.
