Give Halloween Boxes a ghoulish go this Halloween season

By Jack O. Lantern

“Head’ Writer/Editor

HUMAN WORLD -- Monsters with three hands know that they have one hand to help themselves, a second hand to grab victims in the night, and a third hand to help others. This Halloween, those helping hands should be used to offer Halloween Boxes to those in need of a great spooky season.

Nightmare365 founder Matthew Bartholomew Douglas came up with the idea to give Halloween boxes a couple years back, and he explained why.

“My mom used to give out gift baskets for each holiday,” Douglas said. “And one day, I thought it’d be cool to share the love of Halloween in a similar way. I started by giving away Halloween advent calendars to people I knew had kids. Then I thought: What if I put together a little box with stickers and candy, too?”

And so was born the Halloween Box. 

Douglas is trying to attach more traditions to Halloween. In addition to giving away Halloween Boxes, he’s also trying to get more folks to tell scary stories at Halloween time. Last year, he got a few ghoulish goblins together to tell tales with scary sounds, and then he played them on his Nightmare365 podcast and on his YouTube channel. You would be able to listen to these stories, except Douglas took them down because he's endlessly revamping his podcast and YouTube channel. Blow him up at 732-660-8893. Luckily you can hear Picarella’s tale, "High Beams," from Alvin Schwartz's "Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark" right here: 

“I love the idea of having more fun traditions associated with Halloween,” Picarella said. “Trick-or-treating, costume parties, and watching scary movies are all great. But I really like the idea of telling scary stories again. The last couple years, Matt also sent out Halloween cards. I like that, too. It really adds to the fun of the season.”

Picarella added that Douglas is probably the last living being in this world or the monster world to actually send postcards still. (For the youth of the world, postcards are pictures you can’t text. They’re images printed on cardstock, found on rusty metal rotating racks in tourist gift shops of notable landmarks.) 

So back to Halloween Boxes -- the best way to go about putting together a Halloween Box is to first select a victim who would most benefit from Halloween goodies. Then choose a number of spooky items to give such as a Halloween advent calendar, plastic vampire teeth, spider rings, Halloween stickers and decorations, Halloween candy, and maybe something a little extra, like a Tasmanian Devil, all of which can be found in any of the 13 deadly districts of Transylveinya. Next, smash these items into a box and have that box tied shut. Finally, have the box sent Dead-Ex (they’re the only postal service that’ll send a Tasmanian Devil).

Then wait for the phone to ring and the screaming to begin.

So don’t just use your three hands to help yourself this Halloween season. Your paws can do much more than grab victims, tie them up and claw them to pieces. They can also give the gift that keeps on living: Halloween Boxes with a little (or a lotta) something extra special inside!