Halloween in Prescott Arizona

Hey, howdy, hello!

Being the week of Halloween, ahem, HALLOWEEK, I am verklempt and schmaltzy and want to roll around in nostalgia like a pig in glorious mud.

Do the holidays make you nostalgic/sentimental? Bah, they make me crazy, with that cheesy glistened over look on my face as I go through old photos on my phone *wipes tear* LOL.

So, as you may know, I adore Prescott Arizona. Ugh! Tried to live there (too expensive/no jobs) and even got married there. Shoot, I try to convince David to try to move up there again with me. Shoot, a girl can dream.

I really believe my love for the historic mountain town really began when I took a random road trip there in my junky ’97 Toyota Tercel, what, six or seven years ago one October day just to see some fall colors (us poor souls in Arizona on the desert floor don’t exactly experience Autumn in all of its full glory, we must travel up the mountains for that swoony storybook Autumnal weather.) To my complete GLEE, I discovered that the town went NUTS for Halloween. Their prominent/historic neighborhoods were completely decked out in Halloween decor, one after another. HALLOWEEN HEAVENNNNN.

I literally felt like I somehow traveled through some vortex into Halloweentown or onto the set of Hocus Pocus. Something about gorgeous historic homes decked out in Halloween. Why oh why is it so wonderful, enchanting, goosebumps, galore!

In sum, I was in love.

So every year it became my “tradition” to go to Prescott for Halloween. Either it be the weekend before or for the actual holiday.

Sadly, living nearly five hours away now in my new married life, we had all intentions to go this year but with the financial aftermath of our wedding reception (umm, yikes) and also that fact that I’m kiiiiiiind of in need of a new a tire, oh! and with good ole Thanksgiving and Christmas around the corner, we decided to be boring, fiscally responsible adults and stay home which honestly puts a little pit in my stomach. Like, how can one properly celebrate Halloween without walking along fallen leaves in a Victorian neighborhood sprinkled with skeletons, witches, and pumpkins?

Instead, I organized our insanely messy extra room. Every household has a junk drawer, well, we have a JUNK ROOM. Or rather HAD a junk room, because we stayed home and that’s what I did, she said with a sigh…I know, the pout on this girl!

I told David okay next year, to make up for it, we are going to request PTO and reserve a hotel for Halloween LOL. I even told him when we have kids, and Halloween falls close to a weekend, we are taking our kids trick or treating there, hell or high water LOL. Forced Family Fun Enforcer is in my future, is that what my horoscope says? Really? Really? REALLY?!?!? If our future holiday home ends up on the news with our house on fire I’m blaming Pinterest and Target LOL. Bad joke?

Anyway.

So for the record, I wanted to share some photos of Halloween in Prescott from all of the past years.

Now hold onto your butts Jurassic Park style because there are a b-u-t-t load of pics. Okay seriously, like six years worth of pictures.

TA-DA!

We’ll start with the Courthouse. I love Courthouse Square. This is from the time I actually lived in Prescott. It was a perfect chilly October morning, sigh. The fall colors are just exquisite. I know, they probably can’t keep with Vermont but this is Arizona, folks!

There are two main neighborhoods in Prescott that are notoriously “trick or treating neighborhoods.” You know every town has one, but these are GLORIOUS. They are the Mount Vernon and Park Avenue neighborhoods. In fact, these two neighborhoods will have the streets closed off by the town specifically for trick or treaters. The streets are FULL of both kids and adults, frolicking about in costumes. Most homes will be very interactive, some having projector screens playing Halloween movies, playing Halloween music on a loudspeaker, and homeowners dressed like mad scientists with chainsaws. Some will even have a massive fog machine that will fill the street with that enchanting Halloween fog.

Ugh. It’s so enchanting and fun. Take me back!

This gorgeous lavender Victorian home on Mt. Vernon always puts on a huge show Halloween night. There is a giant chess game with skeletons playing chess, and they play good Halloween music on a loudspeaker, and their entire yard is full of Halloween vignettes. One of my favorite homes!

A classic truck parked in the front yard just for Halloween decor. Bah!

What I especially love about most of the homes is that the owner will do a totally different theme every year, so it’s new and fresh most years. How they can afford to be so damn extra every year, I would like to know because I would love to do the exact same thing, HA!

This sweet Victorian home one year was just a pretty Autumnal house, and then the next year, boom! Alices in Wonderland to the nines.

I usually go to Prescott for Halloween with my sisters Shannon and Trish and my niece Jayde. We will make an entire day of it, packing up a ton of candy in the car for the hour road trip up the mountain listening to Halloween music. We will usually enjoy the quaint downtown before the evening when it’s really the best time to walk through the streets because all the homes are lit up.

Prescott has some of the cutest little shops, parks, and restaurants and bakeries. But they have the BEST antique shopping which we like to do, which for some reason feels especially appropriate on a beautiful fall day.

(Pssst, we’ll usually always hit up the Hobby Lobby and shop Christmas which some may consider a sin LOL.)

One of my favorite shops that I PRAY never goes out of business is a recent little shop called Liberty Lane right off the Courthouse Square. They have THEE most amazing holiday decor and fun/novelty antiques. Their Halloween display one year totally blew my mind. One time they had a full blown Victorian carriage hearse? Yesssss, please! But for some reason I don’t have a proper pic of that?

Usually, we like to stop by for some breakfast or pie at Berry’s Pie Pantry. It’s my favorite little diner in Prescott. One year, when Shannon and I lived in Prescott, my mom came to visit for Halloween and the following morning we went out for breakfast pie at Berry’s Pie Pantry. Their cherry pie is THE BEST. In fact, our little yellow wedding house is right next to this diner and we had their cherry pie!

Just some pics of beautiful antique shops downtown…

In 2020 they still had trick or treaters and they would send candy down these pipes which is pretty genius.

Okay this house on Mt. Vernon is craaaaaazy. The homeowner picks a different theme every year and GOES TO TOWN. One year it was Day of the Dead, one year it was Tim Burton with Beetle Juice and Nightmare Before Christmas throughout the yard, this one year was an evil circus. Like…this is insane!

He legit put up these strips of white and black fabric to resemble a circus tent.

He GLUED jack in the boxes along his picket fence. If you think about it, those are pretty terrifying LOL.

Then one year, he had an entire Steam Punk theme. Mindblown.

One year we decided to go to Fort Whipple in the dark. Fort Whipple was a military fort built in the 1800s and is now part of the VA Hospital campus in Prescott. It is a street lined with identical white Victorian homes, like at least fifteen in total. It definitely gives off that spooky haunted mansion on the hill appeal.

Until next year when, come hell or high water, we shall meet again lovely Prescott Halloween.

Muah!

Courtney