(Updated Nov 8, 2007)

Halloween is one of my favourite holidays to illustrate greeting cards for, as the subject matter is fun and often aimed towards kids. Sending Halloween cards has increased in the last couple years, becoming as popular as Christmas in the US!

Date : Oct 31st
Publishers start thinking about designs : March

Read on for some of my Halloween brainstorming notes…

History :

The Halloween observance originated with the Celtic Druids in 700 B.C. The Druids believed that the souls of the dead returned to inhabit the bodies of the living on October 31. Villagers donned masks and costumes and paraded to the outskirts of town to trick roving spirits into leaving. October 31 was later incorporated into the Christian calendar as All Hallow’s Eve, honoring martyrs and saints. Children wearing costumes offered to fast for departed souls in exchange for money or an offering. Irish Catholics fleeing from the potato famine in the 1840s introduced the Halloween observance to the United States, including the practice of carving jack-o’ lanterns.
– Greeting Card Association

Icons :

• aliens
• bats
• black cat
• black pointed witch’s hat
• broomsticks
• candies
• cauldrons
• cobwebs
• costumes
• creepy crawlies
• dead stuff
• Dracula
• Frankenstein
• frogs & toads
• fog
• full moon
• ghosts
• graveyards
• haunted houses
• jack-o-lantern
• masks
• owls
• pumpkins
• scary trees
• severed limbs
• skeletons
• snakes
• space
• spiders
• trolls
• werewolves
• witches
• zombies

Colors : Black, Orange, for juvenile designs use a lot of vibrant colors
Flowers : dead ones
Fonts : drippy, scary fun fonts