Getting into the Holiday Spirit
This week dorm raiders is mixing it up holiday style with dorm room decorations centered on America’s spookiest holiday. If you haven’t guessed by now, I’m talking about Halloween—I mean Halloweekend, we are in college now. I’m sure some of you are missing covering your bushes at home in spider webs. Others miss their neighbors overly obnoxious and yet kind of cute and festive black and orange decorations. And some of you are even missing fall in general. Are you sure Halloween isn’t part of summer down here? One of the most fun ways to make your dorm into a true home away from home is by adding some seasonal decor. Yes, I’m talking holidays here! Check out these fun ways to get your dorm room into the Halloweekend mood.
1. Trick or Treat
In Monroe Marie Claire welcomes guests to her room with some Halloween treats. Ok, you probably won’t be getting trick or treaters to your dorm room. But what’s Halloween without the candy? Putting out a little bowl of candy will help you and your friends remember why you loved Halloween before we all found out the real rules of the holiday—thank you Mean Girls. If you can’t find a Halloween style jar to put candy in, just go with a bowl you already have.
Any bowl full of candy corn is bound to get even the frattiest of your friends screaming “Trick or Treat”!
2. Spider Webs (minus the trees and bushes)
Back home whenever I wanted to decorate for Halloween I always resorted to spider webs. These webs stretch so you can put them over bushes, trees, railings—whatever you can think of! Your dorm room holds so many new places to cover in spider web. Try stretching it around a bookshelf or mirror. Check out how the residents of Monroe 5 made spider webs work in their lounge! However, the most common way I’ve seen spider webs in dorm rooms is as door decorations, which brings me to my next point….
3. Decorate Your Door!
Your door is the first thing people see when they go to your room, why wouldn’t you decorate it? If you decorate your door for Halloween everyone on your floor will get into the Halloweekend mood with you. Even your neighbor’s friend from Loyola who stops by their room will get to see your creativity. Let’s face it, dorm hallways these days are basically public, so give everyone passing by something to talk about! You can decorate your door in away way you want. If you’re artsy make your own ghost and pumpkin cutouts to hang up. If you’re not, spider webs are still a good option. Spiders freak you out? Try finding a full length door hanging (like this one). I found this door on Monroe 3 to be especially cute and creative. Emily and Darrell covered their door in felt stickers!
4. Window Clings
I actually have these in my own room, courtesy of my roommate Becky. We have cute pumpkins hung up on our mirror as well. And yes, Becky made my mirror say eek. Either it’s super festive, or she’s trying to tell me something here…but I’m hoping it’s the first option! Window clings are easy to put up and take down. You can also try saving them for next year in a plastic bag (it worked for me over the summer!). Hang them on your mirror or on your actual window.
5. Lights, Lights, Lights!
We’ve talked about hanging up Christmas and string lights before—they create a relaxing atmosphere in your room.
Diana decided to take a holiday spin on this traditional dorm room decoration. She has skeleton lights hung up above her bed and pumpkin lights by her desk. Honestly, I had pumpkin lights hung up myself last year from Halloween all the way until finals. Diana plans on trying to take the pumpkins off of her lights so they can stay in her Monroe room year round. Unlike in my case, people won’t question her lights come winter…or spring.
Remember, have fun and be creative! Happy Halloween Y’all!