It’s the Halloween season and I for one am excited! My Halloween festivities over the past few years have been very lowkey and lacking, to say the least. Which is why I am ready to take advantage of October right up until the much-anticipated thirty-first day! That being said, I would like to share with you Simmone’s Declassified Halloween Thrival Guide.
Food
Food is a big part of life — especially my life. This being said, there are certain foods you need to have on hand for Halloween.
Those Pillsbury Halloween Cookies, for example, are a must. I highly recommend just eating them all, more specifically eating them all uncooked. I mean, do so at your own risk, because raw cookie dough can be a little questionable, but is subjectively worth it.
Next, I have to recommend that Scooby Doo Pasta, which comes in a can and features all my childhood idols. I used to love the show Scooby Doo and this cheaply canned pasta just has this festive childlike energy to it. A delicious spooky Scooby Snack. My third recommendation would be anything pumpkin related. Pumpkin pie, pumpkin loaves, pumpkin drinks, pumpkin soup — you name it. Just pumpkin the heck out of your diet. You should also consider increasing your sweet potato and apple intake.
My final recommendation would be to get creative and make something Pinterest-y and photo worthy. Make some real cute snacks. There are unBOOlievably good ideas online! A friend of mine recently made a few snacks to share including witch-finger pretzel sticks, white chocolate dipped ghost strawberries and pizza pockets with ghoulish dough designs. All delicious and super cute!
Fun
Now that we’ve covered food, let’s have some skele-fun! There are lots of ways to celebrate the Halloween season. Obviously, there are parties! If you aren’t invited to one then you can always host your own. Themes are always a fun route — and what’s a Halloween party without costumes!? I would recommend a party where everyone brings their dogs dressed in costumes (If you do go through with this, don’t forget to slip me an invite).
For those who prefer something a little more chill, there are movies, as well as tons and tons of wicked awesome movies! I like a nice balance of creepy, youthful and fun, like Coraline. I’m also down for “scarier” films, like Saw or Silence of the Lambs. I personally don’t like anything too dark — but to each their own. Put on some comfy, possibly orange and black PJs and make some popcorn, then enjoy your film. You could also break out the mini chocolate bars or make some hot chocolate or apple cider. The possibilities are endless.
Music is another area that is important to cover. I like to make seasonal playlists or find them online. This is the time of year for you to do the monster mash — or maybe you prefer to dance along to Thriller. A good app I like to use is called “Hoopla,” you can borrow four CDs or whatever a month, they have some Halloween music available if you want to check it out.
Hit up a pumpkin patch during the day and snap some cute pics (#SquadGoals) or go out in the evening and attend some sort of haunted attraction — if you dare (#SquadGhouls). Both typically involve wagon rides and corn mazes but the latter is a little more thrilling.
Another route to consider on Halloween is the family route. There are two types of people on Halloween — those who give candy and those who get candy: aspire to be the latter. When you get older trick or treating is no longer an option, unfortunately, free junk food is not as easy to obtain. Despite this age barrier, if you have cute little relatives you can always tag along with them. I like to go trick or treating with my little sister because it makes her happy and if I’m with her people will often offer me candy — a little life hack.
To add on to the family route, I heard of an awesome idea a while back where you do Elf on the Shelf — but a spooky version. So you get a Halloween character and have them move every night, the same concept as seen at Christmas, but designed for a different holiday. The way I saw it advertised was promoting terror, but I am planning on getting a cute little Halloween Elf on the Shelf for my nine-year-old sister. Maybe a little bat stuffed animal or something? I thought it was a fun idea to pass on, especially if you know any little ones.
Decorations
Which house did you want to go to as a kid? For me, it was all about the houses that looked expensive, because I thought that meant they would give me more candy (this was not always the case). But more importantly, I wanted to go to the houses that had the best decorations. It’s hard to celebrate Halloween without decorations. My mother always decorates for Halloween and I love it! I personally just finished decorating my study-desk with rodent & spider silhouettes, pumpkins, a spider-web tablecloth and caution tape. I am used to — and therefore drawn to — the tamer version of Halloween. I’m not so much into gore; but if that’s your thing, I totally still recommend going all out. Pull out all the Halloween candles, the little skeleton figurines and door signs which say “boo,” and do it fast — because October is more than halfway through.
Costumes
Finally, looking the part. You could stick with the simple orange and black attire or you could dress up, I recommend doing both. You could have an orange and black day-attire and then a costume for the evening. I recommend painting your nails orange and/or black, maybe incorporating the colours into your makeup. You could attempt a bat-wing or dripping-blood eyeliner. Earrings are an option, I like to wear my black cat silhouette earrings, you could also get little jack-o-lantern ones — or maybe bats. As mentioned earlier, be sure to dress up your pets, if they’re cool with that. Really, just embody the Halloween spirit in your look, whatever that may be.
Have a wonderful Halloween season — and don’t forget to Trick or Treat yo’ self