Bordentown has earned its well-deserved reputation as a place where people are into Halloween.
There is the city’s annual Halloween parade, and of course the tradition of Halloween house decorating that is not just fun, but growing every year. The parade marked its 50th anniversary in 2023.
It makes sense that a small town where the streets are narrow and the houses close together would be the sort of place where people can really make the most of the occasion.
Each year, it seems, the bar is raised in terms of who can outdo whom in the department of spooky, over-the-top decorating. For some residents, there is no Halloween off season. They are planning for and budgeting for next year’s theme practically from the day the last year’s Halloween ends.
It’s not just in Bordentown where Halloween traditions are big and getting bigger. “Halloween stuff is in the stores already,” says Katy McGowan, who spoke to the Current last month. “It’s July.”
McGowan is an important person on Bordentown’s Halloween scene. The all-volunteer Bordentown Consolidated Fire Association is the sponsor for the parade and many other Halloween-themed events in town, and McGowan is chair of the parade. She has been involved with it since 2009, and her father, Steve, who died that year, was one of the first chairs of the parade.
Starting this month, McGowan and the Consolidated Fire Association will be bringing another of what they hope is an annual Halloween tradition: The first ever Bordentown “Prop Swap Yard Sale.”
The sale event is set to take place on Aug. 16 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Crosswicks Street. Vendors and neighbors from Bordentown and beyond will have Halloween decorations for sale, and members of the community are invited to stop by to see if there is anything they would like to be able to use to decorate their homes this October.
The event committee made 20 tables available for the inaugural event. McGowan said that they originally envisioned it as an opportunity for members of the Bordentown community to sell and/or exchange their decorations. But Bordentown is not the only community where Halloween home decorating is a big thing, and some of the tables will be taken by people from other New Jersey towns.
“The purpose of the event is to give folks an outlet to sell or make room for more Halloween decorations,” McGowan said. “Bordentown is a big Halloween town — we have a Halloween parade, we do Halloween house decorating contests, we have a scarecrow contest. We thought about using the Hallowing Prop Swap Yard Sale to sell Halloween decorations in a small space where there’s a lot of people who like Halloween decorations.”
McGowan said that while the event will all take place in a single location, it will have the feel of a community yard sale. “Each vendor will have their own table set up. We are allowing people to bring any sort of Halloween decorations, indoor or outdoor. They can be homemade decorations, they can be store-bought decorations from Home Depot or Spirit of Halloween. We’ll have a variety of both indoor and outdoor decorations that you can be using for your home.”
Throughout Bordentown, there are certain streets where visitors know they can expect to see a multitude of decorated houses each October. Thompson Street was one, although its residents have not been as active in recent years.
Brooks Avenue is another. Halloween committee member Neil Laswell is a resident who regularly takes part. “Brooks Avenue for Halloween is a big pull in our town,” McGowan said.
Nor is Halloween fervor limited to Bordentown City. More than 30 residents, plus some entire streets, entered into the 2024 Halloween House Decorating Competition, with first prize going to the house at 251 Grover Ave. in Bordentown Township. Three homeowners in Fieldsboro also took part in the event.
McGowan admits that the idea for the Prop Swap Yard Sale was not an original one. “We did pull the idea from somebody else four hours away, in Pennsylvania,” she said. “They have a great response and they’ve been doing it for about seven years. Neil and I were aware of that yard sale and wanted to bring something similar to Bordentown.”
McGowan said response to the Bordentown version of the event was also shaping up to be solid.
“It’s our first year, so we’re going to be doing the event at the firehouse and the adjacent parking lot of the funeral home (Bordentown Home for Funerals). Half the space is taken, and we have room for 10 more,” McGowan said. “We seem to be pulling a lot of people to sell from outside of Bordentown. I have folks coming from way down in South Jersey, big people on the Halloween house decorating scene down there. Someone from the border of New York and New Jersey is coming down. I think it’s good for Bordentown folks to see props and decorations from people outside of town.”
The event will have a mix of pre-owned and new items for sale. “Our original thought was that we would have a lot of preowned items, but we have had some people come in that have a bit more of indoor decorations, maybe make it a bit more of a crafty fair,” McGowan said. Only Halloween items will be permitted to be sold at the event.
This being the first year for the event, McGowan says that the committee is hoping to learn and grow from the experience. “We are looking for this to be an idea year,” she said. “In the years to come, maybe we’re going to outgrow the space and have to move to a bigger location. So far there seems to be a lot of interest. So we’ll see how it goes and go on from there.”
The cost for a table is $20 and prospective vendors are asked to register by Aug. 9 at bordentownhalloween.com. Set up will start at 9 a.m., with the sale beginning at 10. Smachna Kawa Coffee Shop is set to support the event, offering food and drinks for sale. The Consolidated Fire Association is located at 20 Crosswicks St. in Bordentown.
A Bordentown house decorated “Beetlejuice” style for Halloween. Decorations like these will be available at the first “Prop Swap” event set to be held Aug. 16.,
