There’s only 47 days until Halloween, as you can see by the nifty countdown clock I’ve added. There are a lot of things you can do to get in the spirit as we enter the spooky season of autumn, so while we count down the days, I’ll be posting tips for getting the most out of your Halloween experience.

As your resident Halloween Queen, I hereby present to you Countdown 2011.

#1: Make a Playlist

There are few things that have as great an impact on your mood as music; it does something that words alone strive hard to achieve. So let’s set the mood with a playlist of songs to get you amped up for the coming holiday.

In every Halloween playlist, it’s necessary to have the obvious classics:

“The Monster Mash” by Bobby Pickett
“Thriller” by Michael Jackson
“This Is Halloween” from The Nightmare Before Christmas
“The Time Warp” from Rocky Horror Picture Show
“I Put a Spell on You” by Screamin’ Jay Hawkins
The Ghostbusters theme

Then there are some classic rock songs that add a bit of festive fun. Any song with references to hell, the Devil, death, creatures (witches, black dogs, reapers, werewolves, etc), or anything similar will do:

“Hell’s Bells” by AC/DC
“Don’t Fear the Reaper” by Blue Öyster Cult
“Bad Moon Rising” by Creedence Clearwater Revival”
“Season of the Witch” by Donovan
“Witchy Woman” by The Eagles
“Frankenstein” by Edgar Winters Group
“Twilight Zone” by Golden Earring
“Black Dog” by Led Zeppelin
“For Whom the Bell Tolls” by Metallica
“Shout at the Devil” by Mötley Crüe
“Bark at the Moon” by Ozzy Osbourne
“Sympathy for the Devil” by The Rolling Stones
“Runnin’ with the Devil” by Van Halen
“Werewolves of London” by Warren Zevon

In case you didn’t read my post about the Top Ten Pieces of Classical Music to Listen to on a Dark and Stormy Night, there’s a good amount of classical music to set an eerie mood:

Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony (first movement: the 4 repeated notes symbolize death knocking on the door)
Toccata and Fugue in D Minor by Bach
Danse Macabre by Camille Saint-Saëns
Carmina Burana by Carl Orff
March Funebre Des Marionettes by Charles Gounod (Alfred Hitchcock theme)
The Sorcerer’s Apprentice by Paul Dukas
In the Hall of the Mountain King by Edvard Grieg
March of the Gallows and Dreams of a Witches’ Sabbath by Hector Berlioz
Night on Bald Mountain by Modest Mussorgsky
Marche Slave by Tchaikovsky

Personally, I’m a big fan of the more hardcore side of rock, which works quite well with a horror theme, since many of the songs have that vibe. Some of these songs that fit either the mood or the theme are:

“A Little Piece of Heaven” by Avenged Sevenfold
“Nightmare” by Avenged Sevenfold
“Bodies” by Drowning Pool
“Haunted” by Evanescence
“Voodoo” by Godsmack
“The Death Song” by Marilyn Manson
“Sweet Dreams” by Marilyn Manson
“Living Dead Girl” by Rob Zombie
“Dragula” by Rob Zombie
“Scared” by Three Days Grace

There you go; you’re well on your way to a serious Halloween playlist, which you can now enjoy for the next month and a half.