October 2, 2001 - Summer is over. Fall is here, and October has officially begun. It’s that time of year when we celebrate an event known as Halloween. In just a few short weeks, we’ll be getting visitations from little ghosts, ghouls, goblins, maybe a superhero or two, some monsters, and all kinds of weird, comical, and otherwise outrageous visitors. Each little visitor is going to knock on the front door expecting one thing... candy. And they’ll offer us a choice... Trick or Treat. This year, how about giving them both? Give the little hobgoblins a trick and a treat, and X10 has some products that will make your setup state of the art.

It just so happens too, that X10 is running a contest to see who can come up with the most creative ways to offer those "tricks" to their treaters. The winner will be given a five hundred dollar shopping spree right here at X10, to spend any way their heart desires. It’s simple to enter, just go up to http://www.x10.com/contest_main.htm and submit your ideas. From there, other X10 visitors will be asked to vote on their favorites. Whoever receives the most votes wins. It’s as simple as that.

Last year I personally went with the "Sleepy Hollow" motif. The movie was out, and I’ve always liked that story, so it was fresh in my head. It turns out it was a great idea. Much kudos from my party attendees.

The first thing I did was set up the front yard so it looked like a hollow. You know, Sleepy Hollow. It was pretty simple, just some chicken wire and a lot of foliage.

Then I hooked up the EagleEye motion sensor to set off RoboDog the moment anyone entered. That got some great reactions.

Just after the guests entered the hollow, I had setup a horseman, with a pumpkin for his head. Inside the pumpkin I put the XCam2 and camouflaged it so that it wasn’t noticeable. I hooked that up to VCR Commander II so that it would only start the tape when it sensed motion.

Then I set up a small television in the horseman’s arm so that when guests looked at him, they could see that he was looking right at them. And of course this whole thing was being recorded, so that I could enjoy the tape later on.

For those kids that ventured up for candy, we set up a large wooden trough, and put the candy in it. When the kids came up trick-or-treating, we led them through the hollow and to the trough. We instructed each young person to reach in and grab a candy bar. For fun, we attached little rubber critters to some of the candy bars. So when the young person pulled out the candy, attached to it might be a plastic snake, or a big ugly spider. That got a lot of shrieks, which in turn got a lot of laughs.

And all the lights were on motion sensor so that they would rise eerily when they sensed motion, and as soon as the motion stopped, they would drop again. This was a blast when leading the kids to the candy. One of our partygoers would take the kids through the hollow, and then stop as if they heard something.  Then they would instruct the kids to be as still as could be.  That meant the motion stopped, and the lights suddenly went down. Then, thanks to ActiveHome and a remote control, the sound of a wolf howling was heard in the distance. This caused a stir, the kids moved, the lights came up, and there was our real horseman with his pumpkin in his hand held up high above his head.

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