Trick-or-Treat: No Tricks Here, Only a Sweet Treat, the History of Halloween Decorations
As 2020 has been scary enough, this Halloween, let’s delve into something less frightening and free of tricks: the charming story behind Halloween decorations.
Swathing our houses in white gauze and spiders, artfully dotting pumpkins on our front steps, and placing plastic skeletons and black cats in our yard may appear to be a recent, modern addition to the festivities of the late October holiday of Halloween. Americans’ seasonal house decor of witches and pumpkins, however, can be dated back over 100 years ago to its beginnings at the turn of the 20th century.
While old, it is not as ancient as the celebration of Halloween itself, which draws its origin to a traditional Celtic festival that was incorporated into the Catholic feast of All Hallows’ Eve and All Saints’ Day. Brought to the United States by Irish immigrants in the 19th century, in the following years, Halloween evolved into a day for Americans to throw fun, ghoulish parties.
Two enterprising paper companies, based in Massachusetts and Pennsylvania, saw the opportunity for commercial success and in the early 1910s started designing paper decorations to accompany the Halloween house parties for adults.
Dennison Manufacturing Co., based in Framingham, Massachusetts, in 1909, began creating Halloween decorations, invitations, and crepe paper costumes for people to host their own festivities on October 31st. Utilizing creative advertising and skillful marketing, the company started releasing a yearly life-style like magazine, the Bogie Book, abounding with party themes to follow, cut out decorations, ideas for party games, and even ghost stories for the host to tell at the end of the night.
A 1920 edition of the Bogie Book. Dennison’s Manufacturing Co., Framingham, MA. Public Domain.
Detailed instructions were included in the magazine, such as setting the scene for the guests’ entrance, “When your guests arrive the door should swing open apparently unaided and the hall should be entirely dark except for a few very faint green lights…”, and drawings depicting how the host’s house should be decorated with, obviously, paper pieces all purchased from Dennison’s.
Dennison’s Bogie Book.
Dennison’s timing of launching Halloween paper decorations with the rise in popularity of adult house parties was very successful, and they continued to produce the Halloween themed ephemera till the 1940s.
In 1921, another paper manufacturing company, the Beistle Company in Shippensburg, Pennsylvania, also began releasing themed decorations. According to Beistle’s website, the founder, Martin Luther Beistle, during a trip to Germany, learned the technique of honeycombing paper and adapted it to tissue paper. Creating an inexpensive line of themed paper products, such as paper pumpkins, witches, cats, and bats, allowed Americans’ to cheaply fill their homes with Halloween decorations, all easily purchased from Beistle stores. In the 1930s, Beistle released a much-loved, and now widely recognizable, paper skeleton which freely moved at its limbs and could be hung over doors and on walls.
A dining room filled with crepe paper in the Bogie Book.
Thus, through Dennison’s and Beistle, the American love of seasonal black and orange decorations for Halloween was ignited and has lasted to today. While trick-or-treating has largely replaced elaborate adult house festivities on October 31st, our homes continue to be decked with cackling witches on brooms, scary black cats, limber skeletons, and vibrant orange pumpkins during the month of October.
Decorations from Dennison’s Bogie Book.
http://www.beistle.com/AboutUs.aspx
https://www.vintagebeistle.com/store/pg/8-The-History-of-the-Beistle-Company.aspx
Country Living Staff. “This is What Halloween Was Like the Year You Were Born” Country Living. September 23, 2020. https://www.countryliving.com/entertaining/g460/vintage-halloween/?slide=1
Welch, Laurren. “The Collector’s Guide to Beistle Company’s Vintage Halloween Party Goods”. Country Living. August 31, 2016. https://www.countryliving.com/shopping/antiques/a39532/beistle-company/
Mitchell, Nancy. “Halloween Decorating Hasn’t Been Around As Long As You Think”. Apartment Therapy. October 8, 2017. https://www.apartmenttherapy.com/the-rather-modern-history-of-halloween-decorations-249863
"The Halloween Ephemera Factory: An Empire Built on Orange Crepe Paper”. New England Historical Society. Updated 2020. https://www.newenglandhistoricalsociety.com/halloween-ephemera-factory-empire-built-orange-crepe-paper/
https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/dennison-s-bogie-book-for-halloween-1920