Halloween Stores: Where to Shop?

Halloween shopping! How exciting!

There are always the common stores that pop up around Halloween-time. Spirit and Halloween City for instance. If you are looking for gore and creepy, you have hit the jackpot.

Of course your local Target and Walmart will sell a variety of things. I have found good stuff at these places, especially Target. I have even found some great stuff at King Soopers. The stuff I usually go for is more in the way of decorations. Target usually has things like pillows and tableware that are all themed, which I like.

Had to share this Halloween-y picture of Romulus and Remus! And the pillow I got at Target and the blanket on the back of the couch was from Walmart. See? Good stuff.

Another good resource- Party City (or Party America, but I don't know if we have any of these nearby any more). They have a huge selection of costumes and accessories as well as anything you would need for a party. And if you live on my side of town, all costume-junkies (myself included) know about Disguises where you can rent or purchase costumes and accessories from a rather extensive selection. There is another place that I just learned about this year but have not visited (because I hate Cherry Creek...) called The Wizard's Chest. I have heard good things about it. Costume superstore and toy shop, I gather.

The beautiful mask I got at Disguises

For those of you who are crafty, JoAnn has things you can buy and supplies to make things on your own (plus SOOO much fabric and lots of patterns if you feel inclined to make your own costumes). My go-to for other crafty things (other than costumes, I mean) is Michaels. I LOVE this store and always spend waaay too much money here. I will be posting a bit about Halloween crafts and you will see that I have gotten almost everything I use at Michaels (thank heavens they started a reward program!). For those who don't like JoAnn as much (and there are some, that's OK), you can go to Hancock Fabrics.

While not always my favorite store, Hobby Lobby has some really cute decorations! For me, this is a goldmine! Most decorations you find at the popular shops, and even at Party City are rather gruesome. At Hobby Lobby they have some really adorable and fun decorations, perfect for people like me! And of course, they do have crafty stuff you can put together.

IF you can find them (and there aren't many these days), Hallmark stores are great for cute and fun decorations. However, I think the Gold Crown stores do not have the liberty to buy the same stuff, so their selection is much smaller. Hallmark. Since each Hallmark is different, however, the online selection is not very good, either. The best way is to actually go to a store and see what they have.

My mom love Annalee stuff, for Halloween and Christmas. We used to find it at Connie's Hallmark before it closed (38th and Wadsworth). Sometimes you can find them in little shops--I found some in a little shop on Washington Ave in downtown Golden, for instance. Here is the website for those who don't want to search: Annalee: Seasonal Decorations.

Thrift stores can be great places to find some decorations, tableware, and clothing/costumes for cheap. There are so many around, it is silly not to go look. And remember, if you are looking for costumes, you can often get pieces at thrift stores and do some alterations to them. I needed a Kagome costume from InuYasha shown here:

I happened to stumble upon a floor-length, pleated green skirt. So I cut it short and used the remaining fabric to make the cuffs of her shirt and her scarf thing. It turned out great.

If anyone else knows of some Halloween store gems, please share!