The clock strikes midnight and my roommates let out a scream… of delight as they watched September become October, the start of spooky season. From the trunk at the end of the bed, out came decorations of all kinds: lights, crafts, window clings, and more. The suite had been prepared since August, all of us collecting decor over the past year. We strung up the spooky orange lights and completed our pumpkin and skeleton mermaid crafts. I put creepy eye window clings in my windows so the professors in Walker would feel just as creeped out about being watched this spooky season. Except, once everything was up, the stark white walls of the hallway were still too imposing for me.
My usual go-to for decorations is Party City, but with no idea where to find one in Boston, I had to think of something else. The cute, Danish store Flying Tiger Copenhagen opened its storefront in Downtown Boston this past year. Walking into Flying Tiger was like walking into a maze. Short shelves twisted through the room, all of them covered to the brim with knick-knacks of all kinds; these knick-knacks all costing below $15. Halloween decorations cover the front table by the entrance. From magic mugs to skull and ghost-shaped string lights to candles of all spooky shapes, Flying Tiger has enough in stock to help decorate any Halloween party down to the napkins and paper plates. Flying Tiger makes their maze with a loop starting on the right, working its way to the back of the store and then back to the front where the registers sit to the left.
Halloween house decorations also fill the front shelves. There are fall-themed pillows and Halloween jewelry. As the loop continues on, non-Halloween items begin to make an appearance. This is the usual niche stock of Flying Tiger: countless types of notebooks, pens, and other office supplies. There are crafts, witch-shaped candle holders to paint, and dinosaur bones waiting to be uncovered in a tiny box of sand. Stuffed animals sit on the shelves against the walls, and the back wall overflows with fuzzy socks and slippers.
While most of the Halloween decor sits at the front of the store, costume pieces are located next to the socks on the back wall. The costumes are the classics — witches, vampires, and ghouls— but right next to the packaged sets, are hair accessories, jewelry, and accessories that could be used to mix and match on this year’s costume. Some of the jewelry is spooky-themed like dripping-blood chokers, spider cuffs, witch-hat headbands with antennas, fake fangs, and fishnet gloves.
Back to the front of the store, the shelves mostly contain kitchen supplies— some of which may be spooky. At the registers, there will be pumpkin wrapped candy and pencils with ghost erasers. Before walking out with your incredibly low-cost decorations, make sure to look at the seasonal reusable bags available for purchase. These canvas bags decorated with bat prints save the environment, save shoppers money, and fit the season.
While Flying Tiger Copenhagen isn’t specifically a holiday store, it does Halloween right. I wonder what the Christmas decorations will look like.