Day of the Dead Collectibles

It's barely October 1st, and I'm already looking forward to Halloween! I'm not sure what changed for me, but I used to hate Halloween...You'd think it would be the other way around; that I would love Halloween as a child and hate it as an adult but that doesn't seem to be the case. I'm not sure exactly why...I guess primarily it's watching my son have fun with the holiday and making it special for him. I'm also just more fascinated with the holiday than I was previously. Being a lover of the state of New Mexico, and in particular the town of Santa Fe, the Mexican tradition of Day of the Dead (Dia de los Muertos), which is celebrated on November 1st and 2nd, is noticeable there and just about anything that reminds me of that town is comfort to me; thus my fondness for the Day of the Dead figures and my growing collection.

So, in the spirit of Halloween and my fascination with the Day of the Dead figures, I thought I'd share some that I've collected over the years, including this Paper Mache skull I found at the Sacramento Antique Faire. How old it is, I don't know, but I liked it and I got it for practically nothing. All of my Day of the Dead figures rest on my mantel in the family room. My grandmother took one look at them and shuttered. I think her exact words were, "yick." I understand that other people don't understand it. I've told people about my little collection and most don't get it. Nevertheless, if those little buggers weren't so expensive, I'd have more! Luckily, my husband seems to like them too. In fact he bought me the surfer, shown below. We were both Southern California beach bums, and he surfed nearly every day back then...when we were young and didn't have a care in the world!

Pictured above is the first of the collection. My mom got it for me in Santa Fe on one of her excursion, which she did not take me on, thank you very much! It looks like he's hitting the bottle, but to be honest, I'm not sure.

I just love these mariachis. I think I need a horn player though, don't you? I bought these on one of my excursions to Santa Fe. I think I'd already spent so much money on these two, I didn't want to spend more for another guy in the band!

Here's the surfer skeleton that my husband gave me for Christmas a couple years ago. He got it from a fun, local Sacramento store called Zanzibar that has a great selection of these guys.

I figured by this point, you're tired of looking at my collection one-by-one, so here's a picture of the rest all together. My mom got me the nurse (?) and the kitty (I love cats), and my husband got me the Keith Richards look-alike.

If you're interested in finding some vintage figures, my best suggestion would be to go to eBay, although I would imagine it's hard to know if you're getting something that is truly vintage or not. Either way, you're getting a piece of handmade folk art. No two are exactly alike. I've also found them in different online stores by just doing a little Googling, but those tend to be even more pricey.

If anyone knows of a good resource for Day of the Dead items online, I'd love to know where!

Ta-ta for now!

~Jeannie