Pumpkins spelling out "Welcome foolish mortals" will invite guests to take a stroll through a Halloween display with everyone's favorite haunts alongside cancer ribbons for the last time.
Christopher Bailey gradually assembled more than 1,000 handcrafted foam pumpkins at his Davenport Pumpkin House, 418 Grovepark Drive. In its 10th season, the home has become a Halloween spectacular, as visitors are invited to walk through an interactive path that times themed music to pumpkins featuring the holiday's favorite icons.
"It's just kind of grew," Bailey said. "I've always loved Halloween, and I've always loved decorating."
In 2014, Bailey said he made a fall trip to Sleepy Hollow, New York. The village is famous for "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow," an 1820s short story about the Headless Horseman. As a Halloween enthusiast, he was there to see the Great Jack O'Lantern Blaze, an annual event featuring thousands of hand-carved pumpkins on the historic estate grounds.
"I walked around and I had this moment of 'I could do this,'" he said.
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One issue was the pumpkins. While carved pumpkins do well in cool weather, Florida's climate proved a challenge.
"Here in Florida, you carve a pumpkin, the next day it's shriveled," he said. "The fake ones are more expensive, but you can use them year after year and I could do more intricate carves."
Bailey said he purchased 50 pumpkins in 2014 on a post-Halloween sale and got to work. In 2015, there were about 64 pumpkins decorating his house.
"At the time I thought, 'that's a lot of pumpkins,'" he said. "Now it's a little over 1,000."
The Halloween pumpkin spectacle took on a deeper meaning in 2018, the first holiday after Bailey's late wife, Adriana, was diagnosed with a rare, aggressive type of stage four lung cancer. The home began accepting donations to fight cancer, with this year's contributions going to AdventHealth.
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"Back then, if you donated $10, my wife would write your name on a pumpkin and I would carve it with a cancer awareness ribbon," Bailey said.
He has dozens of carved foam pumpkins onto which people have written loved one's names in black Sharpie on one side, glow-in-the-dark on the other. Pumpkins honoring those who have survived or battled with cancer have been added each year.
"We would put them out and people come to see the name of survivors or someone who has passed," he said.
Adriana was enrolled in an innovative clinical trial for cancer treatment by AdventHealth that he credits with giving her two additional years of life.
"She stopped coughing after her first treatment," he said. "It also reduced her cancer by 72% within six months."
In those two years, Bailey and his wife spent a lot of time together traveling. The couple visited 32 countries in the five years between diagnosis and when she died. Every Halloween, they returned home and put out the pumpkins as a fundraiser.
"She actually didn't like Halloween," Bailey said, laughing. "She would let me set things up, but she wasn't a big fan."Bailey said Adriana's touches can still been seen in the displays. Careful observers will see how orange and white jack o'lanterns alternate in a matching pattern around the windows. Many of the designs are symmetrical, thanks to Adriana's touches.
Featured displays include many of Bailey's favorite iconic Halloween stories. Visitors should watch for characters from "Ghostbusters," "Hocus Pocus," "Pirates of the Caribbean," "The Munsters," "The Adams Family," "Peanuts," "Nightmare Before Christmas" and more.
"When you are going to carve pumpkins ― some take up to three hours to carve — if you are going to spend time carving, you want something meaningful to you."
Visitors to the display are asked to scan a QR Code to make a donation to AdventHealth to help cancer research. Donations can also be made through the Davenport Pumpkin House's Facebook page or placed in a locked cash box.
After 10 years, Bailey said this is the last year he will be putting up the display. He's continued the tradition to honor Adriana, but also wants the opportunity to travel and see more.
"It’s time for me to go out, enjoy fall and see the other displays I never get a chance to see," he said. "I think it’s time to move on and enjoy my Octobers."
Bailey has offered those who have donated over the years to take the small pumpkins carved with cancer awareness ribbons inscribed with their loved one's name.
The annual display will come down for the last time on Nov. 1, Bailey said, as is tradition.