With the end of the summer Atlantic Coast of NJ turns into a hibernating bears lair: less people on the streets, colder weather, empty beaches. That’s when you think that the fun is gone, here comes boredom.

   It’s true that the pace of life slows down. However, it gives you the great opportunity to look around and get caught by American beauty of the season. It begins when you start noticing orange colour here and there and then everything around turns orange. Not only trees, but also stores, restaurants, streets, houses have caught this ‘fire’. It’s a pumpkin season. The beginning of the American autumn is marked by the appearance of pumpkins in front of huge grocery stores. Then they creep onto shelves taking all possible shapes: pumpkin balloons, pumpkin candles, pumpkin pots, pumpkin decorations. Slowly this vegetable moves into kitchens of every cafe and restaurant.  Delicious soups, pies, cookies - there is a lot ot try. One of the most famous deserts of the season is pumpkin cheesecake.  Even Starbucks Coffee has something to offer - pumpkin spice latte.  One of the best I have ever tried.  

  The beginning of October is time to carve pumpkins. It’s fun for both kids and grown-ups. Every store offers you to buy carving tools and patterns, which are not limited to simple scary faces. Let your imagination flow: monsters, flowers, letters even cartoon heroes. Little by little the entrance of almost every house becomes lit by orange globes. That’s when the Halloween rush begins.

  No fun in summer can compare to Halloween time. Even simple car ride through the city becomes an attraction. Every house turns into a monster filled haunted place.  Ghosts are dancing on the ground, creepy sceletons are crawling on the ground, witches are flying near windows. People like me (not having enough time to make up some unique decoration) can buy various scary things in every store, or in special Halloween stores that open in October.

  I will not even try to describe what happens on the 31^st of October. All the costumes and celebrations make up a subject for another artice. All I can say: this night is fun, fun, fun! But the funniest thing is that the next morning all the decorations are gone, and everybody is ready for another holiday. When do people have time to take it all away so fast?

  November in the USA is a turkey month, of one can say so. Pumpkin gives its place to this royal bird. It’s time to prepare for Thanksgiving Day. This holiday is celebrated on the last Thursday of November. The Americans though like to be ready for it beforehand. Thanksgiving-themed kitchenware is being sold in the end of October. A month in advance people make reservations for special dinners in the restaurants. However, most of places are closed on that day, because Thanksgiving is considered to be a family holiday. No matter how far from each other they live, relatives try to gather for a dinner.

  While a lot of people in other countries are relatively familiar with Thanksgiving, the following day is not so famous, but it’s one of the favourite days of each American. The Friday after Thanksgiving is called Black Friday. There is nothing black about it, though. I would call it Shopoholic’s Friday. It’s the only day in the year when all the stores open around 4a.m. to a huge crowd waiting outside since midnight or earlier. Almost everything in the stores is sold with 20% to 80% discount. By ‘everything’ I mean EVERY THING: pens, photoalbums, TVs, fridges, furniture and so on. It sounds insane. The tricky thing is that amount of discounted items is limited. A week beforehand each store sends out a list of best deals, so when the day comes people know what they want to buy. Some Americans spend night in front of a store, trying to make sure they will be the first.

  In the beginning of December while all of the stores are recovering after Black Friday, the customers are ready for shopping again. It’s time to prepare for Christmas! But it’s a different story.