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The AfterEllen.com Huddle: Fall Traditions

It’s officially fall, y’all. Do you have any fall traditions? Like drinking your weight in Pumpkin Spice Lattes? Apple picking? Breaking out the flannel? How do you celebrate the year’s most brief yet glorious season?

Grace Chu: I refrain from placing bets on the “is she or isn’t she” game, because everyone starts wearing flannel so the odds are stacked against anyone who plays.

Marcie Bianco: Beyond watching You’ve Got Mail a bajillion times, beginning in September (“a bouquet of sharpened pencils,” anyone?), I usually begin to consume more cinnamon (-sugar) products that may or may not have an apple base.

Also, PUMPKIN ALL THE THINGS.

Sarah Terez Rosenblum: I usually take advantage of the time change and get up an hour earlier. Both because I’m type A and because I need my vitamin D.

Eboni Rafus: OK, I’ll confess: I’m that basic autumn-loving chick everyone makes fun of on Facebook and Instagram. Pumpkin Spice Lattes. Apple Picking. Scented candles. Layered colorful scarves. I’m all about it! I’m bummed that I no longer live in New England to witness the best of Fall’s foliage, but I make up for it by making and consuming anything that has to do with apple or pumpkin-I bake apple pie from scratch, brew apple-cider with cinnamon, and eat all the seasonal pumpkin flavor food I can find. You guys, did you know there is pumpkin flavor mochi ice-cream? It’s the bomb.com.

Bridget McManus: I am not a fan of fall at all, but to make do I always have an abundant amount of pumpkin spice candles and I bust out my heating blanket and crank it up to 10.

Valerie Anne: I love fall in NYC because it’s cold, but not what-is-air? cold, so you can dress all cozy but not feel like the 10 minute walk to the subway might kill you. I drink almost exclusively pumpkin beer in the fall. I also watch Hocus Pocus at least once (OK fine, I watch my Hocus Pocus DVD once-I also watch it every time it’s on ABC Family). Whip out the electric blanket for extra toasty reading binges. Plan an elaborate and clever Halloween costume but never actually make/buy/wear it. And most importantly, aim for and crunch the heck out of fallen leaves because I’m actually seven.

Dara Nai: Overuse of the word “autumnal,” because I love the word autumnal.

Ali Davis: My dad has been sliding into his golden years in a pretty great way: He keeps bees and he makes birdhouses that look like tiny versions of real buildings in foreign lands. But the best is in October, when he combines his puttering and artistic instincts to become Halloween Guy.

Every year my cousin and I and anyone else we can rope in comes over and we eat my stepmom’s delicious hearty fall stew while carving the hell out of some jack-o-lanterns. Not one apiece or any weak spice bull like that: I carved four last year. And left knowing that I had not contributed enough to the cause.

Dad puts them out at normal ground level, sure, but also in the trees all up and down the block — more and more distant neighbors started shyly asking for them a few years ago-and he has strict rules against silly or happy faces. It’s scary or GTFO.

There’s even one every year that’s a small pumpkin with just two round glowing eyes and no mouth. And then they bundle the damn thing up in an antique baby carriage and it’s the most disturbing goddamned thing you’ve seen in your life.

Hell yeah, fall.

Lucy Hallowell: Fall is my favorite time of year. I slink through the summer hating the hot weather and come alive again when the air gets crisp again and the leaves start changing colors. Maybe because I was born in October (10/10 is the best birthday, man) or because I grew up in New England where there is no more beautiful time of year but I just can’t get enough of it. The foliage never gets old. I love picking apples and devouring them amidst rows of trees while they are still warm from the sun and the juice dribbles off our chins and makes us laugh like we haven’t a care in the world. The smell of ripe Concord grapes surprising me on a walk makes me think of home and the gallons of jelly my mom makes each year. Lastly, cider donuts are as close to a religious experience as I will ever have.

Anna Pulley: Ruining pumpkin spice lattes for everyone because I’m THAT queer person.

Kim Hoffman: My girlfriend’s birthday is in October, a day before my dad’s, and my favorite holiday is Halloween (her’s too) so around here, if you’re a Libra, or you’re cool with one, there’s a ton of celebrating. When fall hits, I don’t give a shit about pumpkin spiced lattes, I break out the whiskey and the pumpkin beers (favorite one: Dark ‘O the Moon by Elysian) There’s god damn cinnamon and nutmeg involved. My favorite movie genre is horror is I make this time of year all about watching Carrie, Halloween, Friday the 13th, Scream-and for witchier fair, Hocus Pocus, The Craft, Stevie Nicks in concert…

Last year was my first-ever trip to a real pumpkin patch, and for my girlfriend’s birthday night, a group of us are going out to a creepy island here in Oregon to a haunted corn maze at a brewery, where there’s going to be those people who chase you and try to scare you. I’ll be in all-black (not that that’s unusual) and hiding behind our tall guy friends for safety.

Chloe: Buying those tiny palm sized pumpkins and sprinkling them around my otherwise eccentric apartment. There’s something about tiny pumpkin decorations that makes me feel like, “Hey, I have my shit together, I seasonally decorate, I could totally be a domestic goddess.” Then I throw my pants on the floor, spill a sippy cup of pinot grigio, and am reminded once again of my limitations.

Dana Piccoli: Little known fact, but I’m a boss baker. Fall is my favorite time to get my hands in some flour and whip up some tasty treats. Pumpkin, apple, cranberry, lots of cinnamon flavored goodies. It’s unbelievable relaxing not to mention delicious.

Trish Bendix: I’m lamenting my loss of fall this year as I’m a Midwestern girl that now lives in the consistent summertime that is L.A. But one of my favorite things about this time of year are the candles. I love a great-smelling Autumn Harvest, Pumpkin Chai or Apple Orchard Spice scent. It almost makes up for the smell of burning leaves I’m missing back home.

Readers, what do you do special in fall?

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