Possessed by Halloween

Jen Moore (above) dresses up for their annual Halloween party.

by Amanda Milewski

Possessed Halloween: These Carroll Countians Won’t Ghost You When Celebrating the Holiday

For many, the fondest memories of Halloween involve childhood costumes, candy and trick-or-treating. But many adults do more than station themselves at the front door with a candy container. In 2022, almost 70% of American consumers made Halloween purchases — for candy, costumes, decorations and greeting cards — according to Investopedia. According to the National Retail Federation, consumers spent $10.6 billion on Halloween that year and more than $12.2 billion in 2023. Halloween’s appeal among adults can certainly be seen among several Carroll Countians who go all out to celebrate All Hallow’s Eve.

Putting Her Scariest Face Forward

Marie Triplett as Freddy Krueger and the Tin Man.

Marie Triplett’s affinity for Halloween began as a reclamation of the holiday she was never allowed to celebrate as a child due to religious reasons. “I would go to school, and all the kids would be dressed up, and I wasn’t allowed to participate in any of the parties, trick-or-treating or anything,” she recalls. “Then, when I became an adult and had children, I was like, ‘We’re doing all this!’”

Now, “all this” includes intricate Halloween face makeup that began in earnest when she worked for a makeup company about 10 years ago. She has become so accomplished that she often does makeup for others in addition to her own. “Every Halloween, I do different looks,” she says, “but it all started with pretty basic stuff like a witch, clown or Raggedy Ann and Andy.”

Triplett began to branch out into more complex characters like Freddy Krueger, Edward Scissorhands, sugar-skull and zombie looks. Eventually, she started her own business doing makeup for clients attending Halloween parties.

Marie Triplett as Maleficent and Te Fiti.

For one party, she did the makeup of six attendees, all variations of a zombie bride or zombie corpse. Despite the intricacy of the looks and the time required for each, Triplett said it wasn’t stressful. “It was almost like a wedding day when the bride and bridesmaids gather to have their makeup done, except it was for Halloween. Everyone is usually in such good spirits because Halloween taps into our sense of play,” she says. “The older we get, the less we play. Halloween is one of those few times a year where we’re given permission to just play.”

Although her sons are older and don’t participate in Halloween as much, her husband joins her in dressing up but stops at the face makeup. They usually do couples costumes every year, like Moana and Maui from the Disney cartoon. Sometimes, they attend a Halloween party, but sometimes, they stay home to pass out candy to trick-or-treaters. “I spend three hours or so doing my makeup just to wear it around the house for a couple of hours before washing it off,” she says with a laugh.

Triplett usually decides on a series of looks for her makeup offerings and often is booked weeks in advance of Halloween. Her looks — including videos and tutorials — can be found on many social media channels. She starts planning the series “when I see the first yellow leaf,” she notes, “then my spirit knows that it’s time to start to plan. I usually let nature give me the cues, and I can smell it in the air.”

The Moore Family: Creating a Monster Mash

The Moore family hosts elaborate parties each year.

For the past 20 years, Jen Moore and her family have hosted elaborate Halloween costume parties. One year, they featured an honest-to-goodness coffin in their living room.

“My birthday is actually on Halloween, so I grew up loving [it],” explains Moore. “When I turned 50, we had a major blowout at the Westminster fire hall with an AC/DC cover band. I dressed like the queen of Halloween with a ball gown and tiara — the whole nine yards.”

The parties include costume contests, Halloween and dance music. Some attendees have performed skits or dance routines. Spooky drinks and snacks, which one year included a “body” with different edible body parts, and all manner of Halloween decorations are part of the haunting ambiance. “I have 20 to 25 bins of decorations,” she adds.

The coffin, however, was a lucky find. Moore happened to be talking with a fellow parent at a soccer game, and he mentioned that he had a coffin in his garage that they could use for the party. “I came home from work one day, and there was a coffin in our driveway,” she recalls with a chuckle. Moore set it up with a skeleton and a creepy bride and used it as a photo prop.

Sometimes, her husband joins her in coordinating costumes. One of her favorite costume pairings was the year the couple dressed as Janet Jackson and Justin Timberlake, complete with Jackson’s infamous wardrobe malfunction.

Moore dresses in three to four different costumes each Halloween. “I teach cardio kickboxing, so I dress up for classes, then I dress up as something else for Halloween, and then there’s another costume for the party,” she says.

In addition to the adult Halloween parties, the Moores have hosted some crazy kid parties, too. “One year, we set up a haunted walk through the woods behind our house. Parents had roles to play, and there were different stations — a couple dressed as a scary meat cutter and his victim — and my husband ran around like the ‘Texas Chainsaw Massacre’ guy with a real chainsaw but with the blade removed. It was as much fun for the parents as it was for the kids,” Moore says.

Although their children are in their mid-20s, the Moores still hold a pumpkin-carving contest each Halloween. Moore hopes to pass along her dedication to celebrating the holiday in an over-the-top style to her children.

Even if one of her children carry on the tradition, she will still do something spooky on Halloween night. “Last year, we staged a haunted walk to our shed with a cemetery and ghouls,” Moore recalls. “Actually, that’s my very favorite … when the kids knock and say, ‘trick-or-treat,’ and when they put effort into their costumes. Some even sing happy birthday to me,” she adds.

A Necessary Endeavor The Corbett Family: Celebrating Halloween All Year Long

The Corbett family celebrates Halloween all year long. Photo by Nikola Tzenov

Lauren Corbett doesn’t just live for Halloween; she lives Halloween every day. “It’s a lifestyle,” she explains. “The outdoor decorations are the only ones that are put up and taken down. The inside of the house stays like The Addams Family.”

Corbett’s parlor has a 6-foot coffin shelf, taxidermy stag heads that she dyed black, a cabinet of curiosities and black lace curtains. “It is reminiscent of a Victorian funeral parlor,” she describes. Her kids’ bathroom is Tim Burton–themed, and her bathroom is Haunted Mansion–themed. The kitchen is “witchy, and the guest room leans toward Beetlejuice,” Corbett continues. Outdoors, Corbett has a graveyard in one flower bed and another that features dead gnomes and a dragon.

Corbett’s love of Halloween began as a child and has become more extreme “now that I have adult money,” she says jokingly. Her childhood costumes usually included Licorice, her black poodle mix. “When I was Dorothy, she was Toto; when I was a poodle skirt girl, she had a matching skirt with a bone on it. When I was a tiger, we put [safe] orange stripes on her fur to match.” Her family’s current pet, Wednesday, also gets into the Halloween fun. Last year, Corbett was Pennywise, her husband Jason was Georgie and Wednesday was the paper boat, all characters from “It,” the movie adaptation of the Stephen King novel.

If Corbett doesn’t sew or craft her costume or those of her family, her costume choices often are custom-made and usually revolve around a theme or group of characters. As a baby, Corbett’s daughter was the dragon Toothless from “How to Train Your Dragon” in a home-crafted costume. Corbett and her husband wore custom-made Viking clothes, dressing up as Astrid and Hiccup. These efforts continue annually and have included themes and characters from “Alice in Wonderland,” “Frozen,” “Cinderella” and “The Little Mermaid,” for which their daughter wore a custom-made Ariel costume that Corbett wore as a child.

Halloween is “my most-loved [holiday] hands-down!” Corbett says. She and her family had planned to host a “Summerween” party in mid-August, also on the couple’s 12th wedding anniversary. The plans included a caramel apple bar, games, an inflatable projector screen for airing spooky movies and themed food and drinks. Their three 12-foot-tall skeleton yard decorations were scheduled to appear. Sadly, poor weather canceled the celebration.

Whether there is a party on the calendar or on any given day, Corbett indulges her penchant for Halloween. There’s no doubt that as the Halloween season ramps up on the calendar, it’s her time to celebrate. “Give me anything in the Halloween and horror realm, and I’m a happy girl!”