Everything in my Halloween Shop is locked. How do I unlock Halloween items?

Are you stuck on the witch statue as your next thing to buy? That's where I am currently stuck.

I believe you need to finish the statue in the central garden area to continue. Since I only started playing the game a month or so ago, I hadn't even started on the statue before this event began.

I feel like it's just poor planning on the devs part, to lock pretty much the entirety of an event behind such a time consuming task, that new players have no hope of completing. But then, perhaps this event is tailored more towards long-time players.

I'd have just preferred something everyone could participate in, regardless of time played.