In this episode, Sydoney Banks reflects on Thanksgiving and expresses gratitude while discussing the emergence of holiday-themed attractions in Arizona. She highlights the Mill of Madness and ScareZona as unique experiences that blend horror with holiday cheer. The conversation emphasizes community support for these attractions and the importance of promoting local events. Sydoney also shares future plans for the podcast and encourages listeners to engage with the haunted attractions community. https://millofmadness.com/ https://scarizona.com/ https://qrco.de/beJjEa
takeaways
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00:00 Sydoney
usahauntsearch.com
hallozona.com
https://qrco.de/beJjEa
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united-zombies-of-america.com
synystersyn.com
uzahorrorgraphy.com
myscreation.com
hauntingwithheart.com
sydoneybanks.com
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apocalypserawhide.com
Beneficiary
oddity13.org
Sydoney Banks (00:00.974)
Hello everybody and you are listening to Haunted Attractions and Horigallor podcast. And today's going to be a short sweet one. I just wanted to talk about, you know, Thanksgiving has passed. So hopefully everyone had a great and happy Thanksgiving and that we're all reminded what we're thankful for and everything that we have and that we're given. So hopefully that was a good reflection for everybody about, you know, you could always be in a worse spot.
So always be grateful and thankful for what you do have. So again, late happy Thanksgiving. And I was out of town. I was in my hometown in New Mexico for Thanksgiving, visiting family and dropping stuff off. And it was a very nice Thanksgiving. It was good sing family. Again, that's a special thing. And I had a really good time. And now I'm back.
And I just kind of wanted to talk about this coming holiday season and that there's a lot going on and that actually in Arizona this year, have two horror themed Christmas events and attractions, which is awesome because Arizona has not had anything in a long time. know 13th floor did something and it's probably not that good, but I know they did something a while ago and whatever. They're just there.
But now there's actually other attractions finally stepping up to the plate and doing something for the holidays, which is awesome. And something that we've been hoping for. And again, with our haunted house, Ms. Creation, we did do year round haunts and hopefully someday we'll be back to that or we can continue working with these amazing other attractions and team up and give you something incredible for the holidays. So for Christmas.
There's actually, or again the holiday season, Christmas, whatever, there's some events that are awesome that have come up, like I said, are horror related. So Mill of Madness just probably, I think it was yesterday, released. Finally their Christmas attraction that they're going to be doing. And there's a video on the website where you can see kind of little hints of what's coming. It's really well done. My team.
Sydoney Banks (02:22.606)
United zombies and miscreation actually helped with the video the characters that you see are our characters So our Krampus, Santa and our evil elf again very well done video by Milamadness It's on the website. I don't know if it's anywhere else right now, but you can get a longer version of the video on that So if you go to milamadness.com, you can actually check out the full little teaser. It's actually really cute and Very it's very well done
So good job to JP who made the video and I'm excited for hopefully more to come. There is a little one out on Facebook right now where it's just the elf kinda, you know, what would you call that? Kinda walking around and typing and getting ready for the holiday season. So again, really awesome video. Check it out. Go to milamadness.com. They will be doing a holiday haunt. So,
If you go on their website, you can read a little bit about it, but it says, to Mill of Holiday Cheer, where holiday magic meets haunting mayhem. This December, Mill of Madness transforms into Mill of Holiday Cheer, offering a one of a kind immersive experience where holiday joy takes a dark and sinister turn. So they're pretty much taking Christmas in the holiday season and matching it up with Halloween or horror. So you're going to see.
You know, some of their characters that they've already had, but in a different light of Christmas and holiday theme. And then they have Krampus and some other cool surprises. like talking to the owner, this is what he's saying. He doesn't want it just to be like a walkthrough, little haunted holiday maze. He wants it to be an event. So they're going to try to have music and lights and like some live bands and
some different things to bring in people so you can actually kind of spend a night there and actually do some fun with the family. I know they're also talking about having like it be kind of not too intense so kids could go through and then have either a added on more like scary experience or something like that. I don't know exactly yet but it sounds like it's going to be a lot of fun.
Sydoney Banks (04:39.616)
Mill of Madness is a very, very awesome haunted attraction. They are really a haunted show, a haunted production. They focus more on storytelling, character development, and being more immersive and hands-on than just your average walkthrough. scary, you know? It's more than that. They're actually more of a theatrical production, which is really, really, really awesome and really different and unique. It really is a one-of-a-kind experience.
And it's really cool that they're doing this. I hope that they even venture out and even do more different holidays and stuff. I know this is going to be more of a labor of love than anything, not necessarily, we want to make a Kalinger or whatever. They want to do it because first of all, they want to bring their team closer together and give them something to do than just Halloween. But also they want to give, you know, the public a different kind of experience for Christmas, not just
the regular drive-through lights or the Christmas things you can go to that everybody goes to and it's, you know, the same snow shows and all that. They want to do something that's different and more for your horror and Halloween lovers. So mashing the two together, because I love Christmas and Halloween, so mashing them together for me just makes sense. Miss Creation's done it before it was successful. People really liked when we did the Krampus and Nightmare Before Christmas haunts with characters they know and love.
So like I said, they're planning on doing pictures of Krampus, having different scenes that really pool in and with the characters and all that. I'm not going to go too much into it, but like I said, they want to have unique vendors. They want to have food trucks. They want to have live music and photos of Krampus and keepsakes. You know, the photos are keepsakes for the holidays. Again, it's not just a walkthrough attraction.
And they do not touch you like other places do. If you're that good of a haunted attraction, you don't need to touch people. That's how I look at it. That's a cop out. If you're really, really awesome, you can do it mentally. You do not need to touch people. I know there's a lot of people who don't like to be touched. I don't. And also as a haunted attraction, you're kind of risking a lot by doing that, especially in Arizona. They're very on laws and stuff. So I can't even believe that we have touch haunts here.
Sydoney Banks (07:06.638)
But no touch fun scary immersive interactive and unforgettable so mill of madness or mill of holiday cheer Great for this Christmas season. They're also going to be one of our podcast sponsors and like I said United zombies is teaming up With mill of madness another one that came up that I didn't even see coming and I was actually kind of like this awesome
ScareZona ScareGrams is actually doing a Christmas thing. So, A Nightmare Before Christmas. It's going to be 7-10 December 20th. 21st and December 22nd. Tickets and stuff will be on their website which is scarezona.com. And it looks like, Night Scare. It's actually a Night Scare. Even, okay. I see that, that's cute. A Night Scare.
before Christmas. So ScareZona is doing a night scare before Christmas event. Not a whole lot of information on their website yet, just that it's going to be open and it's a Christmas holiday event. that's again, two attractions are opening up the season for the holidays. So we have Mill of Madness and ScareZona. So if you're in the Arizona area and you want to do something fun for the holidays, that's different or creepy or unique.
There you go. ScareZona and Milamadness. And of course, my dogs love to be in the podcast. So they're over here playing and being silly. So I apologize for the noise. So we have that going on. And like I said, Milamadness, Milamadness is going to be December 20th through the 22nd and December 27th through the 29th. So it's only for two weekends and it's a limited time and tickets are limited. So get your tickets and
come out and have some fun. So that's exciting. And before this podcast plays, is going to be a ad about Mill of Madness that's going to play. But yeah, for sure go on Mill of Madness website, check out their video and keep an eye on ScareZona for their Night Scare Before Christmas event. Again, not a whole lot of information, but it looks like it might be fun as well. And then if you go to USA Haunt Search,
Sydoney Banks (09:30.346)
It turns to USA holiday search. So if you're anywhere in the United States, you can actually go to USA haunt search.com or USA holiday search.com goes to the same place. And you can look at all the holiday and Christmas lights and stuff. If you have a display or an attraction and you want it to be on our map, please, you need to email us the information and we can add it. Otherwise we don't know you exist. We can't really look and check everywhere we did do.
You know, a little bit of research to try to find some stuff throughout, you know, and it doesn't have to be scary. This is any holiday attraction event, whatever you can add it to our site. If you do put lights up, you can also add it to the site. So again, USA haunts search.com or USA holiday search.com. Email us, give us your details and we can add you to the map. That's also with Halizona.
We also do a holiday kind of transformation. go from Halloween to more of your holiday light displays, events and stuff. if you live in the Arizona area and you have an attraction and event, Christmas lights, it is absolutely free for both sides. All you have to do is go and message us your information. We can add you to our holiday map for free. so yeah, right now I know that there is some stuff on here. have, of course, you know,
Lights at the farm, zoo lights, Enchant Christmas. And I mean, the list goes on and on. There's all kinds of stuff. The Polar Express, Desert Farm Lights, and Yield Tide at Old Tucson, which we're actually going to be going to hopefully. If we, if everything lines up correctly with funds and stuff, should, we're going to be driving down there and checking out Old Tucson's Yield Tide. We did the Halloween thing.
They're Halloween night falls. So I'm excited about this Christmas one. We're going to go down, do some videos and photos promote and see how it goes and do a review on them. So if you go to the Halizona website, which is H a L L O Z O N a.com, you can go and click on the holiday map and there is holiday fun. Like I said, there's events and Christmas light displays. have free.
Sydoney Banks (11:53.26)
We have a couple of categories. have free holiday fun, which is like events and stuff that costs nothing. And that's probably where most of our holiday light displays and stuff, but you have Scottsdale's, holidays, scavenging, you have downtown Phoenix, winter wonderland, holiday lights, night in the lights. And then we have Glendale glitters and you know, so on, so on Scottsdale, quarter. And then we have our highly recommended fun.
And some of that is free, some of it isn't. I know the Mesa Temple Christmas lights is free and the scary Christmas house is free and the APS electric perler is free and that's going to actually be this weekend. So again, you can check out Halizona if you live in Arizona. We have all of your Christmas stops. And if you're not on the list, don't complain. Email us and add you to the list if you know of a neighbor or something that we didn't get.
Please add it to our list. All you have to do is go on the website for absolutely no cost and add it to our holiday map. And same thing goes to USA Haunt Search. Even if you live in Arizona or outside of Arizona. Again, that's USA. So that's anywhere in the USA. You can add your stuff. So that's just to name a little bit of what's going on right now. But I really just wanted to hit on the fact that we have two haunted attractions that are doing Christmas.
holiday fun. So I'm really happy about that and I don't know why it's taken this long for it to happen. mean, again, we were doing it. So it's nice that other people are friendly jumping on board and getting on that holiday train. So again, go to ScareZona, Mill and Madness, check them out, give them some love support. The more support and
love that they get, the more likely that they will keep doing it every holiday. And also maybe other attractions will jump on so we don't just have a regular Christmas one, but we have some creepmas fun. See what I did there? Creepmas. So again, support horror community, know, support your local attractions. It really helps them and shows them that it's actually worth doing something.
Sydoney Banks (14:17.216)
When numbers are low, lot of attractions usually just drop out and stop. So please, please, please, please follow them, like them, share their stuff, go to their attraction. Word of mouth is terrific. Share, share, share. And let's see what we can get this holiday season. yeah. So that's kind of what I really wanted to go over. There's that going on.
USA Haunt Search is now USA Holiday Search, so again, you can look up stuff, add stuff, and the same with How the Zone Are, we go into full holiday gear once Halloween's over, we switch over. Because usually if you like Halloween, you usually like Christmas. Or, you know, at least you'll like Christmas a little bit more if there's that horror element. So, but I mean, if you like traveling and you're into that,
There are haunts all over the United States that are going to be doing Christmas attractions for a limited time. Like I know the darkness. I know the Denton schoolhouse does. I know, I think it's called Sir Henry's. I mean, there's so many attractions that will be doing Christmas and holiday events. Like I said, it's rare in Arizona. We haven't really had any in a long time. So it's awesome that there are two that are stepping up to the plate.
So that's, yeah, that's pretty much what I wanted to talk about and talk, you know, haunted attraction wise. I'm hoping to be able to do more podcasts on different topics and stuff. Again, I'd really like to interview haunters on different things and their attractions. So if you have a haunted attraction or a business that makes stuff for haunted houses, like masks, makeup, decorations, you want to be on our show, it's absolutely free.
Please, please, please let's set something up. I'm going to be reaching out to a couple of different businesses and seeing if I can hook up some interviews and stuff. So we can keep stuff year round on the podcast. And it's, like I said, it's educational, it's fun. And that's something that I'd like to do. I'd like to get more sponsorships of businesses so we can do more. Like another thing is if you have a haunted
Sydoney Banks (16:42.926)
display or attraction in Arizona, like kind of how Night Falls is, and you would like us to go to your event and do a review and a free social media package is what we're calling them now is which we go and we take photos and videos and we do promotion for you and we usually go through and do a review. We'll do a review on our podcast and reviews on our website. And then.
We will send you also all the photos and videos and all that for no cost. we've been doing it and we're trying to really push that more now so we can help promote our community and our community can help promote us. So it's kind of like, you know, how things used to barter and all that, you know, you help me, I help you. So again, if you have, you know, an attraction or a Christmas display or something and you'd like us.
to come and check you out and do photos and videos or even interview. Again, all you have to do is go to usahauntsearch.com and send us an email. Please. We try to check our email as much as possible. If we don't get to you, just send us another one. Worst case, you could always just send an email to uza13 at yahoo.com. That's another website or another email that goes directly to me. So yeah.
We hope you have a very happy holidays coming up and that you will check out some of these amazing attractions that we're talking about. And we hope you had a great Thanksgiving. Until next time, we wish you a very happy holidays and of course, every day is Halloween. Thank you for listening and supporting us. We really wouldn't have a show without y'all. Otherwise I'd just be talking myself. I'm still in shock that there are people who are listening and especially outside of the U.S. That's pretty cool too.
it's showed on my little thing, cause you know, it tells you how many people are listening and stuff and our numbers keep going up. And our second biggest, country that listens to the podcast is Japan, which, wow, that's, didn't even, I, I can't even believe people in the United States are listening. So thank you so much. Remember to stay humble and, where you came from, where you're going.
Sydoney Banks (19:06.872)
But yeah, ego's not a pretty thing, so try to stay humble in the haunted attraction industry. There's a lot of pride in ego. And that's just something to remind people is stay grounded, be humble. And again, thank you for listening. Again, like I said, every day is Halloween. Until next time.