Creep It Real Festive - Highlights
Christmas came early at the Heritage Museum of Orange County as they hosted their annual Creep It Real Festive event held on November 17th and 18th. This event had plenty of vendors, cosplayers, food, celebrity guests and live entertainment. They also offered ghost tours of the property which was something I wish I had taken advantage of. Everything was holiday themed with a touch of spookiness which made the overall experience feel very festive.
There were a lot of vendors at this event selling Christmas themed horror ornaments and decor. I saw some Michael Myers stockings, A Nightmare Before Christmas snow globes, pumpkin purses that had candy cane prints on them, and more. I was tempted to buy a Ghostface beanie. There was a lot to choose from in the outerwear department. I did end up purchasing an aromatherapy oil from The Magic Oil Box. It was Elm Street themed to help with stress and anxiety. You can’t have Christmas without Krampus and The Grinch, so I saw a lot of merchandise with those characters on them: tote bags, tumblers, and coffee mugs. I saw a vendor that was selling wreaths with baby doll heads on them. There were vendors selling sweet treats like cupcakes and cookies with horror movie characters designed on them. Anything you could think of that was holiday or Christmas related, they had but with a horror twist.
Zombie Outbreak in Whoville
There was an abundance of creepy Christmas cosplay. I feel like there were more people dressed up at this event than at Camp Creep It Real. I loved seeing Michael Myers and Ghostface in Santa suits. I saw a very disturbing Buddy the Elf and Josie cosplay where half of Buddy’s face was torn off. There were zombie Who’s from Whooville and of course The Grinch. Krampus and Pennywise were hanging out together. There was a deceased looking Santa sitting on his throne surrounded by presents taking pictures with people. I saw a giant Gingerbread Man as well as an elf on stilts. There were a lot of creepy elves roaming around. On top of that you also had live entertainment where the performers were also dressed up. There was a group of carolers dressed up like dead Disney characters like some of the ones seen in Pirates of the Caribbean and The Haunted Mansion. They sang famous Disney tunes in a spooky manner. In another area they had bands performing. The one I caught was a band singing songs from A Nightmare Before Christmas where the lead singer was dressed up like Sally. There was always some sort of entertainment going on to keep people engaged in the festivities.
Meeting Kirk Thatcher
One of the highlights for me was their celebrity guests who were there signing autographs and taking pictures with fans. They were Kirk Thatcher who is a Director, Writer, Producer who most recently worked on Muppets Haunted Mansion and Kat Cressida who is a voice artist and actress that voiced characters like Jessie from Toy Story 2 and the bride at the end of The Haunted Mansion ride at Disneyland. I had just recently been to Disneyland and bought a Kermit the Frog sweater so I wore that to meet Kirk at his table. The first thing I said to him as I scanned the table full of 8x10 photos was, “Wow, you’ve done a ton of stuff.” He was like yeah, it’s hard to keep track sometimes. I asked him what his favorite project was to work on and he said it’s difficult to say because he had different jobs on different projects. For instance, he co-wrote and directed Muppets Haunted Mansion, worked in special fx on Star Wars Return of the Jedi, and produced the TV series Dinosaurs. He saw that I had my camera with me and asked “Is that a LUMIX? I love LUMIX.” Something I have never heard anyone say in the 10 years I’ve been shooting with Panasonic LUMIX cameras. Him and I started talking about micro four thirds cameras and how great they are. They are making a resurgence. He told me he’s looking to get the Sony FX3 for his side film projects. I told him those are great cameras for that kind of work. I said, I’m looking to get the Panasonic BGH1 at some point. I said, they are the first micro four thirds cameras to be approved by Netflix. I laugh and say, it’s also the only cinema camera in my budget. It was really cool to nerd out over cameras with a director. Kirk was so nice and fun to talk to. He also told me some stories about working on E.T. He operated the hands of E.T. I easily could have spent all day picking his brain about all the projects he’s worked on.
From shopping to celebrities and live entertainment, Creep It Real Festive also had fun photo ops, coffee, boozy beverages and food trucks to fill people’s cravings. Unfortunately, I did not partake in the food aspect, but I wish I would have because some of those alcoholic beverages looked fun to drink. I had a really great time wandering around the property and stumbling upon all of these different activities and options this event had to offer. For some reason seeing Krampus and Zombie Grinch put me in a more festive mood than attending a traditional Christmas event. The only thing missing was snow. Although, they did put up some Christmas lights which put me in the holiday spirit. I look forward to Creep It Real’s next event and hope everyone gets a chance to check them out next year either during Halloween time or Christmas. You won’t be disappointed.
