ARLINGTON—For Arlington resident Brandi Smith and her family, Halloween has always held a special place in their hearts. For as long as she can remember her family decorated their house, handed out king-sized candy bars to Trick-or-Treaters, and made a big batch of homemade chili for the occasion. But when most of the region’s festivities came to a standstill in 2020, due to a pandemic-driven shutdown, Smith decided to keep the spirit alive by designing an interactive map of all Halloween activities in the area that were still taking place.
What started as a tool to just notify the residents of Arlington which houses would still be handing out candy during the pandemic, has now grown to over 1,135 listings all over Snohomish County (and surrounding areas) and over 40,000 people who utilize the free service every year.
“Regular trick-or-treating seems to be going away these days with the trunk-or-treats and all but I feel like this gets people excited to do regular trick-or-treating too, because we want to keep that tradition alive and we want to keep doing that,” said Smith. “Trunk-or-treats are fine too but we don’t want to have it turn into only trunk-or-treats. We still want there to be regular trick-or-treating, going door-to-door because that’s how we grew up doing it and that’s what makes Halloween so fun.”
Smith, who admitted she is not a computer savvy person, uses Google My Maps to generate the map but the process is still a time consuming one none-the-less. Out of the 1,100 listings, for example, Smith personally researched and added 600 of them. The remainder were listings and events that were brought to her attention by fellow community members.
Last September, Smith’s father John Morrison, who she referred to as the “King of Halloween” and is to blame for keeping the Halloween spirit alive every year, was in a tragic motorcycle near Wenatchee.
Morrison and his friend had stopped on the road for some construction but a motorist two vehicles back did not notice, swerving right to avoid the traffic and slamming into the side of Morrison’s bike.
He was flung from his vehicle and was rushed to a nearby hospital with severe trauma to his leg, suffering from a heart attack shortly after due to complications with his tourniquet. He was in the hospital for an entire month.
Today, Morrison has made mostly a full recovery except for some heart problems due to the heart attack, having his leg amputated, and losing vision in his left eye. Despite not being able to decorate the house as he normally does for Halloween, his love for the holiday is as big as it ever has been.
However, the interactive Halloween map Smith designs every year took a dive in quality last year due to Brandi spending a large portion of the fall in the hospital looking over her father. She wasn’t even sure she would do it last year, she informed the Lynnwood Times but was encouraged by her father to keep it alive.
Now, just one year later, the map is the biggest it has ever been, Smith informed the Lynnwood Times. It includes listings for houses that are participating in Trick-or-Treating and/or decorated in Halloween displays, crafting events, Halloween-themed markets, adult parties, pumpkin patches and corn mazes, haunted houses, decorating and costume-making events, and more stretching all over Snohomish County and as far as Federal Way.
The map even has sub selections that allow users to see which houses are handing out toys and king-sized candy bars, and which events are dog friendly.
“As years go on, I keep adding more and more categories and things that might have fun going and doing in the month of October,” said Smith.
Growing up in a household where Halloween was so special, Smith remembers fondly of decorating her house with her father, making chili, and walking the neighborhood with her two sisters and parents to trick-or-treat. These days she stays home to pass out candy to other children.
Her best Halloween memory is when she wanted to dress up as a black cat one year, and her parents made her a cat costume out of a headband for the ears, and a tube sock stuffed with grocery bags for the tail.
To visit Smith’s interactive Halloween map, click here. One may also find a Facebook page for the map by going to facebook.com/BrandisSnoCoHolidayMaps.
Smith also puts on a Christmas-themed map during the holidays each year to include houses with Christmas light displays, tree lighting ceremonies, holiday and craft markets, professional displays, and more.
