Though for some people, Halloween is a time to break out the fake blood and zombie makeup and try to scare the neighbors, for Karen Walker, Halloween is the time to celebrate the innocence of childhood and each fall she fills her shop with décor that's festive, but not frightening.

“The world is scary enough these days. I don't see any reason to make it scarier,” said Walker, owner of Karen's Kollectibles, a home décor and gift shop on the Milford Oval.

When the weather starts to cool, Walker begins to stock her shop with rustic, primitive pieces that bring her back to a Halloween where children in homemade costumes would go door to door in their own neighborhoods chanting “trick-or-treat” and maybe an occasional “boo!”

“I want to keep everything focused on family, on tradition, on things that make people happy, not things that make them afraid,” Walker said.

Throughout the shop, there are familiar Halloween characters that both fit the spirit of the holiday, but are also meant to evoke a smile. Toothy jack-o-lanterns, made of wood or cloth, grin lazily out from beneath floppy hats and witches with twigs for hair stare wistfully through the shop window.

“When I first brought in the witches and the pumpkin men, they sold out in a few days,” said Walker. “People just love them, and they love how whimsical they are.”

And Walker likes to play with words to give people something to giggle at. A jaunty scarecrow holds a silly sign that says, “I want my mummy,” and a pumpkin sitting atop a pie-shaped candle pleads, “Please don't turn me into a pumpkin!”

“I like this store to be a place where people can come in and leave feeling better,” she said. “They don't have to buy anything. They just have to enjoy the experience of being here.”

Most of the goods found at Karen's Kollectibles are made in America, she said, and a lot of the work is done by artisans and crafters in Amish country. The collection at the shop changes regularly as new items come in and Walker has fun creating new vignettes to entertain her customers.

And though she doesn't want to scare anyone, she does warn that Halloween is going to come and go in the blink of an eye, so folks better enjoy it, because “before you know it,” she said, “it's going to be Christmas.”

nfoster@newstote.com