COVID-19 might be forcing us to stay apart, but that doesn’t mean we can’t celebrate! With Halloween and the holiday season right around the corner, I thought I’d throw together a little list of things you can do to celebrate and get into the Halloween spirit while staying safe and socially distanced.
- Decorate!
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There’s nothing like a little creative decorating to get you into the Halloween spirit. Dig out those old decorations, scatter a few fake spiders, and make your space spooky!
- Watch a Halloween movie!
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Halloween movies are a great way to get into the spirit and reminisce about the holiday’s past. Some of the best Halloween movies include The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993), Hocus Pocus (1993), Coraline (2009), The Addams Family (1991), Corpse Bride (2005), Ghostbusters (1984), Halloweentown (1998), Halloween (1978), and its remake, Halloween (2018).
- Watch a horror movie!
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If you’re down for a scarier experience, watch a horror movie to really get into the scare season! Some of the best horror movies include Us (2019), Get Out (2017), A Quiet Place (2018), Psycho (1960), The Shining (1980), The Chain Saw Massacre (1974), The Exorcist (1973), Hereditary (2018), Alien (1979), and if you’d like a horrifyingly relevant film reflecting today’s day and age, Host (2020).
- Read a spooky book!
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If you’re not a movie person, that’s totally fine! Books are a great way to transport yourself into another world, including a spooky one to get you into the Halloween spirit. Sydney Rowley has put together a list of books to read this Halloween season.
- Make a Halloween treat!
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What better way to enjoy your scary movies or books than to snack on some Halloween themed treats while you watch or read? Check out Sascha Rifkin’s article on top- ranking Halloween treats for more information!
- Write a spooky story!
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Immerse yourself in the spirit of Halloween by coming up with something spooky of your own. The only limit is your imagination! A quick and fun way to do this is through a trend called two-sentence horror stories, which is also an anthology show on Netflix! The premise is that the first sentence presents a fairly normal scenario, for example from this story who’s author is unknown: “The driver wasn’t very chatty, so I checked my phone.” The second sentence flips the story on its head and turns it into horror. ““Hey, it’s your Uber, I’m outside.””
- Celebrate with other people virtually!
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Last but certainly not least, it’s always more fun to celebrate together, even if we have to be apart. Things like Amazon Party and Teleparty (formerly known as Netflix Party) make it easy to watch movies with your friends online by opening up a chat box. You can also use video calls to chat with friends and maybe take turns telling spooky stories or writing two sentence horror stories. If you’d rather want something a little broader, dozens of online film and book clubs have been created to cope with quarantine, and some of them are doing Halloween editions, like @bastilledan on Instagram’s film club Distraction Tactics is watching The Shining for Halloween, then doing an interview with special guests in which fans can ask questions about the film.
Just because COVID-19 is keeping us apart doesn’t mean we have to let it douse our Halloween spirit! These are just a few ways to get into the spooky season, but there are dozens more. Thanks to the Internet and all of the virtual opportunities at our fingertips, the only limit is your imagination. Be safe and get spooky!