During the holiday season last year, the Halloween convention Midsummer Scream (usually located in Long Beach, California) organized a spin-off event called Season’s Screamings to make up for the lack of its flagship convention for two years due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
But this year, even though Midsummer Scream made a triumphant return to Long Beach, Season’s Screamings was back as well in Pasadena, combining horrific haunts with Christmas cheer in the most frightfully fun way possible.
I attended opening night of Season’s Screamings 2022 on Friday at the Pasadena Convention Center, and it was wonderful to see all the yuletide spooks and decorations again during this event. I even ran into our old friend Bob Gurr, the legendary Walt Disney Imagineer, who was signing autographs and posing for photos with fans at the Haunted Orange County booth.
Then I explored the exhibit hall floor, where attendees could shop for all manner of Christmastime and horror-themed merchandise and pose for pictures with friends at a variety of photo opportunities. There were even a couple booths selling hand-crafted products inspired by the Disney theme parks and The Haunted Mansion specifically.
During my tour of the exhibit hall, I ran into some ghostly carollers singing familiar holiday tunes with twisted new lyrics.
But by far one of the coolest attractions at Season’s Screamings is the Hall of Yuletide Spirits, which (like the Hall of Shadows at Midsummer Scream) operates as a sort of scare zone for the convention.
Walking into the Hall of Yuletide Spirits was like entering a winter wonderland full of eerie specters and other gruesome creatures. I especially liked how the creators of Season’s Screamings decorated the main “Town Square” of this area with Christmas lights and faux snow.
Also in the Hall of Yuletide Spirits, I came across the Pizza Planet truck from Disney’s Toy Story franchise, but here it had been overrun by the mischievous monsters from Joe Dante’s 1984 holiday horror hit Gremlins and its 1990 sequel.
All told– though I wasn’t able to spend the entire weekend there, as I would have liked– this year’s Season’s Screamings sure seemed to be a smashing success.
The next Midsummer Scream event will be held in the summer of 2023 in Long Beach, California. For additional information be sure to visit the convention’s official website.