BOO! Halloween on Beacon Hill has been canceled! BOO-HOO!!
Yes, this year will be very different! No trick or treating this year for children. Even ghosts and goblins are laying low and residents of the Granary, King’s Chapel and Copp’s Hill cemeteries have already been practicing social distancing for centuries. Good for them.
So is this it? What about us? No pumpkins on porches or in windows? No skeletons hanging on doors? No decorations on mantle pieces or as centerpieces adorning dining room tables? No family costumes parading in living rooms in front of blazing fireplaces?
No way, says Blackstone’s of Beacon Hill, Infinity Portrait Design and the Hill House. Even during these challenging months of Covid-19…celebration and creativity are never canceled.
So, in the spirit of keeping the neighborhood Halloween tradition alive, these three institutions are combining to bring a new twist to Halloween by challenging Beacon Hill residents, children and store owners to a photography contest. It will provide a way to celebrate Halloween safely and creatively as we still grapple with Covid-19 restrictions and fears. This pandemic has changed everything and no one can predict how families will adapt to this new environment.
Regardless of how Halloween 2020 is celebrated, “We hope to keep the spirit of costume design and house and store window decorating alive by challenging the neighborhood to submit pictures of their costume designs and their creative house and store handiwork to be judged in a contest for fabulous prizes,” says Jennifer Hill of Blackstone’s.
For many years, Halloween on Beacon Hill has always been a fun and spooky night for neighborhood children and adults. Trick and treating door to door, dressed to the nines in creative homemade costumes past decorated homes that would put Hollywood-set designers to shame has been a tradition each year that so many look forward to. Maybe this year creative decorating moves inside for residents and store windows. Costumes and telling ghost stories may move inside as well.
Categories will be:
Best House Decoration inside or out
Best Store Window
Best Costume- Children
Best Costume-Adult
All entries will be submitted to and judged by Susan Symonds and Annie Landry at Infinity Portrait Design no later than Friday, Oct. 30, at: [email protected]
“Annie and I have been photographing much of Beacon Hill and its families for nearly 15 years, and we look forward to seeing the photographic skills of our friends and neighbors and we are available to assist if need be,” says Susan Symonds of Infinity Portrait Design.
Once all entries are in, they will be collected and eventually will be put on display at the Hill House for all to see.
“We are excited that we can work with other community partners to ensure all kids and neighbors can still celebrate and show off their Halloween creativity this year – but in a safe and meaningful way.” says Lauren Hoops-Schmieg, Executive Director of Hill House
In addition, all business and store owners are encouraged to get in on the celebration by decorating their windows and dressing in costumes to show their spirit and sense of community.
Halloween is the first of three consecutive holidays, with Thanksgiving and Christmas to follow. Let’s not remember this year, 2020, as a year when things changed, replete with its many hardships and cancellations, but let’s instead remember what we did to never give in and how we continued to find new ways to overcome, to reach within and without, to share the best of ourselves with each other as we have always done because when we are needed we have never failed one another. Good neighbors do that!
And for the first time in many a year, there will be a full moon this Halloween. So put your creativity to work, submit your pictures, and under a full moon, give us all something fun to howl about!
For more information, details and deadlines, contact: Jennifer Hill, owner of Blackstone’s of Beacon Hill, at 617-227-4646 or via email at [email protected]; Susan Symonds, co-owner of Infinity Portrait Design, at 617-367-9432 or [email protected]; Lauren Hoops Schmieg, executive director of Hill House, at 617-227-5838 ext. 180 or [email protected]; or Meredith Adamczyk, Hill House’s Director of Marketing and Community Outreach, at [email protected].