Halloween Horses

I don't really collect Breyer's Halloween Horses - I prefer the happier, fun side of Halloween over the scary aspects of it. But I did do have four of the Halloween Horses in my collection and am getting them out this weekend to decorate my horse room for the upcoming holiday.

I absolutely HAD to buy this year's Halloween Horse!

Why? Because one of the hallmarks of my classroom for the past twelve years has been classic literature! Much of my instruction for Language Arts, including both reading and writing, was based on children's classics. And while Edgar Allan Poe's works were in the, "Don't miss that when you are a little older, folks!" category, still my 4th and 5th graders knew who he was and had heard of his poetry.

So, with my love of classic literature, and having taught it for the past twelve years in my classroom, how could I resist a model based on Edgar Allen Poe's famous poem, The Raven?

My absolute favorite of all the Halloween Horses, and the first one I bought, is Cryptic. He is so unique and so well-connected to Halloween but in a non-scary, neat way. A graveyard statue - what a great idea! He glows in the dark, too.

I missed out on Ichabod, but I got Crane, his smaller counterpart. Again, there is a connection to classic literature, and I did use Washington Irving's story, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, in my classroom. We would watch the 1949 animated Disney movie with Bing Crosby as narrator for our Fall party after reading the book aloud. Some kids came to the conclusion that Brom Bones was the Headless Horseman; others did not. We would have terrific discussions as to who it really was and why the author did not make that clear. (Such great memories!)

Illuminati just joined me, twelve years after it was produced.

I wish the pumpkins were happy ones, but this is a vintage mold and vintages are the heart of my collection, so I found one at a reasonable price and bought it. He lights up (hence the name) and is a little spookier than my usual taste, but as I said, he's a vintage mold and so I added him to my collection.

I am keeping an eye on eBay and MH$P, looking for an Ichabod, but right before Halloween is not the best time to find good prices for a Halloween Horse. It may be November before I find one for my collection. But that's okay - I can wait.