Halloween 2? The Sequel that had nothing to do with masks. . .

Halloween has a huge following every year. It may be the most popular holiday after Christmas (according to this somewhat dubious poll I found). I have always been indifferent to the scariest holiday. I like the gatherings of people, but I fairly dislike being dressed up in any fashion, fancy or otherwise. (ask my wife: ). I do know several friends who LOVE the last day in October. I've gotten different answer from each of them. The common answers were "the love of making a costume and getting to wear it" and "decorating the house into something from a movie" (lab, dungeon, etc.). Another interesting was, "being able to change who or what you are for a night." So I was thinking, how or even should I create a second Halloween.
  I will start with the should. Should can be a bad word sometimes. Should I wear slippers to the grocery store? Should I marry that person? Should I guess that the turkey is done? Should I try to create another sequel to a beloved holiday? You never know what will happen in these cases, and the back and forth of your brain can drive you nuts. I think that since Christmas has sort of creeped further and further ahead in the calender each year (not something I mind) that maybe a little more love for the scariest holiday would be welcome. You would get 100% more use out of your costume that you spent a lot of time and money on. You might not be stuck with all of that candy. The same friends I mentioned above would get a kick out of a double dose of the horror holiday. I think this is enough evidence to warrant a sequel. I'm sure corporate America would love it.
  Now it's time to move on to to The How. This set of brainstorming will be a lot simpler.  Originally, I set Thanksgiving 2 after the actual Thanksgiving because there is a lull (for me at least) between my two favorite holidays. I wanted to stay busy and having to do all the preparation for a gathering at the house allows for that. I'm believe something different could be done for Halloween. The shops that carry Halloween related items virtually disappear on Nov 1st. This makes last minute costume shopping kind of difficult, and with the Christmas stuff trading places with the Halloween stuff around that same time, someone may end up going as Santa Clause (I think that would be appropriate, but who's counting) to the gathering. So these facts lead me to think that perhaps a sequel that happens before the actual day would be best. The week before I think would be perfect. 1. Halloween items begin to go on sale. 2. There would still be plenty of traditional costumes available. 3. The average person will not be (hopefully) burned out by then. Well, I have figured out when would be best, but what to do during the event. Costumes would be mandatory (even though I dislike getting dressed up, I do understand the protocol), but what else could be happening? I think I would take advantage of the season and have it be a pot luck of sorts. A "Bring an Autumn (cause it's fancier sounding than fall) Drink". Examples would be Pumpkin beer, Apple cider, Apple Wine, Mulled whatever, pumpkin juice, any leftover Oktoberfest beer. I'm not a great non-board game player, but if I was going somewhere for actual Halloween I would use that knowledge to make any game decisions. If there were going to be games at the actual party I wouldn't play them at H2, or the reverse. The offering of games gives people who just aren't into circle talking something to do. A movie or TV show being played would also make a good conversation piece also. Not something scary, but at least themed-ish, Dune perhaps. Since the what and when are now taken care of, what about the food. I think a baked ham would be appropriate or if it was warmish still, grilled apples and a variety of squash. Pumpkin cakes, apple cake, apple pie, pumpkin pie, pumpkin roll if I was feeling adventurous all would make great desserts and even stay on theme. I hope everyone likes apples : ). Overall, I think this would be fun and very doable. Next year Halloween 2.0 ?!?