I do puzzles. It’s kind of lame, yes. There’s never a puzzle I do during which I don’t at some point think, “This is a waste of time.” But I do them in autumn and especially around Halloween. This started way back when I was grounded for some reason during the fall of my sixth grade year. I spend my two grounded weeks in my room alternatively working a puzzle and reading Stephen King’s It (here and here). Since that time, doing puzzles has just been an Autumn thing for me. It’s part of how I enjoy Autumn, imbibe Autumn. Working a puzzle while listening to a great horror movie I know well and munching on Halloween candy? Yeah, that’s Autumn. A waste of time, but that’s Autumn. Making it even more Autumn-y are the great Autumn and Halloween puzzles as like these from my collection:

This is just a generic Halloween puzzle, but it is just filled with Halloween atmosphere. Every section of the puzzle has pumpkins, witches, and trick-or-treaters. And at 500 pieces, it won’t take too much time away from seasonal slasher flicks.

These puzzles are by Charles Wysocki. He’s done dozens of general Autumn puzzles and specifically Halloween puzzles. Some of these are very difficult to get, such as Hellraisers on Halloween (the blue one).

You have to have some Peanuts puzzles in the mix. Charlie Brown pretty much owns Halloween, and he stakes his claim on the holiday even harder with these pumpkin-shaped puzzles, one of which is taken directly from The Great Pumpkin and the other of which is inspired by it. They come in regular cardboard boxes as well as collectors tins. Making these puzzles extra-hard is the pumpkin shape. You can’t do the outline of these puzzles like you can with the square ones. You have to do the kids and then work out. It was also while doing these puzzles that I realized what a strange head Linus has. Seriously, that can’t be normal.

Waste of time? Maybe. But then considering all the enjoyment and atmosphere I get from doing these puzzles at this time of year, maybe not.

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