OKG Shop: Jarring journey 

What’s the hardest part about Halloween?

For some, it might be picking out a costume. There are parents out there who might say they secretly bemoan braving the frightening, long, loud lines at trick-or-treat events with their kids.

For others, the office Halloween party can be a time to stress. There’s the immortal question of whether one should dress up or not. Making small talk with coworkers while listening to “Monster Mash” on loop for an hour can take a lot out of a person.

If attending the annual office get-together is what gives you the biggest fright each October, Oklahoma Gazette is here to provide some assistance.

This year, don’t just be the hero of the party, but shop local while doing it. The Gazette took a recent trip to several Halloween hot spots and came back with a bright plastic pumpkin full of clutch party wares.

• Garett Fisbeck
• Candy at 42nd Street Candy Co., Friday Sept. 22, 2017.

42nd Street Candy Co.

4200 N. Western Ave.

facebook.com/42ndstreetcandy

405-521-8337

Finds: Gummy witches’

hats and legs ($9 per pound)

If kindergarten taught us anything, it’s that the key to any great party is copious amounts of refined sugar. For anyone looking to stock up on seasonal sweets of any kind, 42nd Street Candy Co. is the obvious first stop. The shop is stocked with Halloween-themed Peeps and special holiday varieties of your favorite national candies, but we need to make a unique splash at this gathering. A big bag of gummy witches’ hats and legs will help kick this party into second gear.

click to enlarge

• Garett Fisbeck
• Fog Machine at Halloween Superstore.

Halloween Superstore

1433 Northwest Expressway

halloweenokc.com

405-948-1234

Finds: Fog machine ($34.99),

“combover leader” wig ($17.99)

If your get-together didn’t include a fog machine, you’re not doing this holiday right. By purchasing our very own fog maker, our coworkers were saved the embarrassment of an optically lucid Halloween.

• Garett Fisbeck
• Costume wig at Halloween Superstore.

 To be a proper host at this party, however, we are going to need a costume. Who better to welcome guests than a totally unspecified and nondescript “combover leader”? This purchase only includes the wig, unfortunately, so we will have to pull together the rest of the costume with inspiration from popular combover leaders we see in the news media. If we’re lucky, there might even be a prominent example of such a figure on television tonight.

• Garett Fisbeck
• Zombie hand toilet topper at Party Galaxy.

Party Galaxy

7101 Northwest Expressway

partygalaxy.com

405-384-3333

Finds: Zombie hand toilet topper ($2.99)

After Halloween Superstore, our quest for the perfect office Halloween party led us to the seasonal shop’s mother store, Party Galaxy.  Why should one have to put their spooky office gathering experience on pause just to relieve their bladder full of witch’s cauldron “blood” punch? This disturbing zombie hand toilet topper (a gem of a find at $2.99) will at first give your coworker a stirring scare, but you can share a good laugh back at the party — assuming they didn’t wet their pants in shock.

• Garett Fisbeck
• Popcorn at Kernels & Kandies.

Kernels & Kandies

7640 Northwest Expressway, Suite 205

kernelsandkandies.com

405-470-7446

Finds: large bag of caramel popcorn ($27.95)

Most people have had popcorn, and many people love it. But most people would not love that popcorn as much if they had ever experienced the heavenly, house-made flavor concoctions dreamed up at Kernels & Kandies. The shop recently moved to a new location farther down Northwest Expressway, but its popcorn recipes are the same. There might be no better caramel corn in this state than what this shop makes, so bringing a bag of the good stuff means everyone can happily chew their way to 5 p.m. instead of, you know, actually talking to their colleagues.