Richard and Maria Citron have been living in Pacific Palisades for more than 30 years. They bought their colonial home, the first home in the Huntington, in February 1983. But along with the long front walkway and stately porch pillars, they bought into a nearly 90-year tradition of Halloween home decorating that began in 1927.
“The way people have birthdays, Oct. 31 is our home’s day,” Richard Citron told the Palisadian-Post. He added that for the hundreds of trick-or-treaters they get every year, “It’s like going to an amusement park.”
Rich Schmitt/Staff Photographer
The “haunted house” tradition at the Citrons’ Huntington home includes bags and bags of candy, hundreds of balloons and decorations that set the scene for the spooky season, including a coffin with a live person inside waiting to scare passersby.
Citron said he and his wife, whose three grown children were born and raised in the Palisades, were completely unprepared for Halloween that first year. He said the family had 300 to 400 trick-or-treaters and ran out of candy by 7 p.m.
The second year, the Citrons bought 500 pieces of candy to distribute in addition to handing out balloons, but it was clear that the house’s Halloween tradition was even bigger than they had imagined.
This year the Citrons are prepared with 3,000 chocolate bars and a helium tank ready to fill 300 to 400 balloons. Citron said young children are sometimes afraid to walk down the long path to the porch and that the creepy music they have playing can be a bit much for some of the youngest costumed kids.
But Citron claims that parents often approach him on Halloween night thanking him for keeping the tradition alive, saying they remember coming to the house in the 1950s and are now happy to bring their own children.
“People have been bussing in for the last 10 years,” Citron said. “At least five other homes on the street go all out.”
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