I’ve been in Maine at Halloween before and it’s always charmed me how awesome and weird Maine is when it comes to Halloween.  It shouldn’t surprise me, being that Stephen King is from Maine, how much Maine celebrates the delightfully creepy holiday but it did.  Each town seems to have their own festival and way of honoring the holiday but none captured my heart like Ogunquitfest has.  I’m so sad that this year I have a wedding booked that Saturday but I’m hoping to make it back to Ogunquit the week of Halloween this year.  Here’s hoping the displays are still up even though the festival will have already taken place!

When driving into the city, we noticed the awesome display at Littlefield’s Village and couldn’t stop laughing and staring.  There was a ton of roadwork along Route 1 so it was topical and on point.  We thought it was just their way of poking fun at the construction which had to of had an impact on their business but we soon discovered that many of the businesses in town decorate and compete in the scarecrow contest for first place during Ogunquitfest (spoiler alert, Littlefield won!).

The first night I still wasn’t sure what was going on (and our hotel was not really too helpful…) and it was rainy so I just wandered around the local businesses nearby and took pictures of all of the displays I could find with my phone.  The following night I went out with my camera so the pictures are going to be a mix of the both, apologies in advance for some not-so-professional images but the displays are too awesome not to share!

I started out at Pink Blossoms Family Resort which ended up being my personal favorite!  It was a family of skeletons near a fire on the beach, roasting spiders.  The attention to detail was superb!

Our next stop was Five-O Shore Road which we kept meaning to stop at for dinner but ran out of time!  I believe they ended up coming in second place.  Their display featured a grim reaper that featured a head inside which floated up and down.  He stood in a graveyard with tombstones of the workers (I believe?) employed at the restaurant.  It was delightfully ghoulish!

The next scarecrow was probably Jill’s favorite since she is a Patriots fan.  The Studio East Motel featured a play on deflategate with their scarecrow.

The next day we drove around a bit during the day so I could capture some images of the displays that we either didn’t make it to on our walk the night before or that weren’t really lit up well enough to see at night.  The first place we went to was Juniper Hill Inn because I had gone up the night before and wasn’t happy with how my iPhone captured the images at night so I wanted some from the day.

Over at The Falls at Ogunquit their scarecrows had a play on The Nightmare Before Christmas.  I loved all the little details from the movie including the sign from Halloween Town.  Sadly you can’t really see Jack in this picture but his head is behind the sign.

Over at Gorges Grant Hotel they had a little trick-or-treat scene set up with their scarecrow entry.  I like how there was a mix of businesses that went for the horror side of thing and how some, like Gorges, went for the fun part of Halloween.

Over at Meadowmere Resort they also embraced the fun side of Halloween with their display featuring Minions and some funny tombstones (some of which had blown down due to some strong winds).

We headed back down towards Perkins Cove and I loved how Cafe Amore just went for the creepy aspect of Halloween with their decor outside of the restaurant.

Our next stop was The Grand Hotel and I think their Lobsters Revenge entry may be my personal second place.  I loved the play on the food and switching humans for seafood.  New England Man Chowder anyone?  At night the lobster was lit up red and it was creepy in all of the best ways.  Sadly I didn’t get a chance to get a photo of it at night!

 Over at the Hartwell House Inn they went for the classic Halloween style with the infamous three witches and their brew.

Salmon Falls Stoneware opted to also go a more traditional route with their scarecrows being actual scarecrows.  They are still pretty spooky though!

However I think of all of the places, the resort next to the one we stayed at, Anchorage By The Sea, wins (in my book) for going ALL OUT on the decor.  We passed by a few times in our travels and every single time I saw a display I had previously missed.  Then on Friday night for Ogunquitfest they lined the street with lit carved pumpkins which were in varying levels of creepy and amazing.

 Fingers crossed that I can capture some more images this year of their event.  If you are ever in the area, or are looking for something to do that’s Halloween centric in New England the weekend of October 21-23rd I highly recommend hitting up Ogunquitfest!