Halloween is On!

The most wonderful time of the year!

I’m a Halloween person. Let’s just get that out in the open. I love a good theme! I look forward to the decorations, fall treats, and movies year after year. While I lean more towards The Great Pumpkin than Nightmare on Elm Street, I enjoy a good suspense thriller or zombie movie too. But my real love is in the costumes. You can be anything you want on Halloween. The more over the top the better. Creepy and funny and silly and sweet…Halloween has all the things!

Balance for mental health

I’m a bit of a silver-liner, which I recognize isn’t always helpful. Sometimes we all need to be allowed to be upset and just sit with it. I get that. I’m working on myself and my bright side offerings. But can I just say that sometimes I feel like we need to tweak our perspectives to see the possibilities before us, and I don’t think that’s entirely unhealthy either. It’s about balance!

Halloween goes on

The meat of it – Halloween is NOT canceled this year! Trick-or-treating isn’t even canceled. People are coming up with all kinds of creative ways to pass out candy. My family generally loves trick-or-treating. It’s a true toss-up on whether we prefer handing out treats or going out and gathering our own. There’s something magical and exciting in the air in neighborhoods on Halloween night that I struggle to put into words. The costumes and free candy are fun, but it’s more than that, isn’t it? It’s neighbors coming together and sharing something joyful as a community. It’s special.

Finding the fun

As special as it is, we’re skipping trick-or-treating this year. I didn’t really think twice about it. I mean, it is taking candy from strangers and we are in a pandemic. My 9yr old Halloween junkie didn’t even seem surprised by it, though of course he’s disappointed. We decided to make it special in new ways. We’ll turn out the lights and live by fairy lights and candles to set the mood. Obviously, we’ll be in costume. My son has a ridiculously scary morphsuit that he’s been “surprising” me with around the house for a month. That costume has aged me. It’s going to be different this year, but you better believe it’s going to be memorable. I’m not going down without a fight! Not on Halloween!

Looking for last-minute ideas?

• Set the tone with a Halloween playlist. Alexa, Siri, and Pandora know what’s up.
• Play games – cornhole, flashlight tag, Clue, make your own escape room, bingo, Would You Rather? Literally, anything can be turned into a Halloween theme and the internet is full of clever people giving away free ideas and printables!
• Build a haunted cookie house – TJ’s has been out for ages, but you can make some unique and rickety creations using graham crackers, frosting, candy, and sprinkles. Make it a competition and give out prizes for the scariest, messiest, and most delicious!
• Scavenger hunt, egg hunt, or flashlight hunt for treats around the house/yard.
• Make creeped-out food and snacks. Kids love creating and being a part of the process!
• Private trick-or-treating event (so exclusive) – do you have a side or back door? Let your kids run outside your own house from door to door collecting their goodies! You can set this up just as easily inside between different rooms too. Decorate the doors and switch out the lightbulbs for colored bulbs, or just stand there giving them treats. This can be as easy or as elaborate as you want. The kids will love it either way!

Different can be good

There are seriously endless opportunities for fun here, and all of them are memory-makers. This year is different, but different doesn’t have to mean less or bad. Different is full of possibilities! We teach our kids resiliency, to think outside the box, to be flexible, and to be independent thinkers. This year has been a test of all of that and more, but I’ve been so impressed with the ingenuity, repeatedly seeing our communities coming together in new ways and sharing ideas. 2020 has room to be a memorable year for good reasons, and we all need more of that.

Happy Halloween to all, and to all a good night!

Cheers,
Nicole