Exactly two years ago to the day, I published a short article centered on a photograph of a happy, inflatable Halloween ghost with a wizard hat outside of the Happy Sprouts Family Daycare in Cobble Hill, Brooklyn. In that post, I questioned whether the ghost, which wore a wizard’s hat and carried a lantern, was a ghost at all.
I have reason to believe that this ghost might not be a ghost at all, but perhaps something in a ghost costume.
Nicholas A. Ferrell
The same inflatable “ghost” returned outside the Daycare in 2021, but I did not write a new article about it because there was nothing new to report. I walk by often enough that I am reasonably appraised of any haunted developments on its perimeter. I noted the absence of the Halloween ghost this year. Because I like the ghost, I found its absence a bit disappointing. When the majority of Halloween decorations are skeletons and rotting pumpkins, a warm, friendly, inflatable Halloween ghost is quite refreshing.
All hope seemed lost, but on October 29, 2022, I saw a friendly figure outside the daycare.
The ghost is back!
However, the ghost is different this year than it was in 2020. The ghost in my 2020 photo was carrying a lantern in its left hand and something that I cannot make out in its right. It was an inflatable ghost of action – looking like it was on a pleasant Halloween walk. This year, the ghost is scary. Very scary. It has a lantern on one hand and a sign saying “BOO!” in the other. Note the three not rotting pumpkins on the ghost’s left – the closest one looks a bit scared. (It is nice to see some not-rotting pumpkins for a change.)
I decided to try to get to the bottom of the mystery of whether the Halloween ghost is actually a ghost or something in a ghost costume. To get to the bottom of the matter, I ran a reverse image search on my photos. It appears that this inflatable ghost is available for sale at a number of major retailers, including Amazon. One day after I conducted my search, I happened across an identical ghost outside a home in Brooklyn Heights (perhaps they are cousins). I had thought back in 2020 that the character may be from some show that I was not familiar with, but it appears to just be a Halloween decoration design. Moreover, it is consistently described as a “ghost,” so I suppose that it is definitely a ghost and not something in a ghost costume. Finally, it appears that the ghost is striking a different pose this year because this year’s version represents the newer design of the inflatable decoration.
Two years after my original post, we have solved the mystery of the Halloween ghost of the Happy Sprouts Family Daycare. I still like the design, especially in a sea of poor-taste Halloween decorations. The happy Halloween ghost is a reminder, along with other figures and decorations, that Halloween decorations can be fun and charming.