Are you a scaredy-cat? Do horror movies make you scream? Does the thought of going into a haunted house make your stomach tie itself into knots?
You’ll be happy to know that you are not alone. I am not a fan of the super scary Halloween and fall vibes. But I have great news for you! There are plenty of things that you can do during spooky season that isn’t necessarily spooky. So here is my list of the top 10 things you can do during the Halloween and fall season that is completely scare proof!
1. Baking!
Baking is a fun and fairly easy way to celebrate the holidays. Fall flavors are some of the best that you can find, like pumpkin. If you are a beginner baker (or just not that confident in your skills) do not be alarmed! Pillsbury makes pre-made sugar cookies featuring pumpkins and ghosts on them and they are SO GOOD. This year, Pillsbury rolled out pre-made pumpkin cookie dough. If you want to make something homemade, there are fantastic recipes for pumpkin bread, pumpkin chocolate chip cookies, and pumpkin pie. And finally, making themed treats is so fun! An easy one is to make dirt (out of crushed Oreos) with (gummy) worms and put a little grave (half of a cookie with RIP written on it in frosting) on top. Super easy, super fun, and helps you celebrate the Halloween season without being scared half to death.
2. Pumpkin Picking and Carving them
Pumpkin picking is so much fun! The fall atmosphere and being outside in the chilly weather always helps me get into celebrating it. I personally like Wightman’s Farms. In addition to pumpkin picking, they have a hayride to the pumpkin patch, apple picking, a hay playground, a corn maze, and an adorable little shop with all the fall foods you need! Following the picking of the perfect pumpkin, you can carve them to make it your own! I love the simple triangle eyes and mouth with a few teeth, but you can also paint your pumpkin. In addition, there are lots of kits that have things you can stick in the pumpkin to make it look like a character. I recently saw one that was one of the witches from Hocus Pocus!
3. Watch Cute Fall and Halloween Movies
All Halloween and fall movies are not horror movies. There are plenty of cute and fun (and maybe just a smidge cheesy or childish) movies that are completely spook proof. Here are a few of my favorites:
- It’s the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown – Amazon Prime
- Hotel Transylvania – Hulu
- The Addams Family (both the older movies and the new animated film)
- Haunted Mansion (do be warned, this one is slightly scarier than the others)
- Mickey’s House of Villains – Amazon Prime
- Other Disney shorts that are Halloween themed – in the Halloween section on Disney+
Happy watching!
4. Ghosting
Ghosting is a super fun activity! In my town, ghosting is mostly done by younger kids, but why should they have all the fun? Here’s how I ghost people:
- First, I make little goodie bags of Halloween themed treats and gifts. My favorite things to give are candy, Halloween pretzels, stickers, and pencils/erasers.
- Then, I make little signs for the bags. I usually put a little cartoon ghost on it, and type a message that says “Boo! You have been ghosted!”. And you DO NOT sign your name. The whole point of ghosting is that the people who are giving the bags to not know who you are.
- Then, you wait until it is nighttime. Dress in all black and hop into your car.
- Park a little ways down the street from your friends house, and essentially ding dong ditch them. Hit the doorbell, drop the bag, and sprint back to your car.
- If you were successful, hopefully your friends will not know that it was you!
5. Secret Santa but with Candy
Have you ever done a Secret Santa? Basically, you and a few of your friends draw names randomly for each other, and then secretly buy a present for the person you drew. But what if you did that, but Halloween version? Still draw random names of your friends, but instead of presents, buy them some of their favorite candy! Or pick out candy they’ve never tried but you think that they’ll love! Such a yummy way to celebrate Halloween!
6. Make a Huge Pile of Leaves (and then jump in it)
Don’t think that this is just a childish thing to do! If you struggle with a lot of leaves falling on your yard, this definitely makes raking A LOT more fun! I like to have some hot chocolate or warm apple cider after jumping outside in the chilly air for a while, and it makes the experience feel more celebratory!
7. Buy All the Pumpkin Offerings You See at a Supermarket
We all know that companies go all out for the Halloween season with pumpkin offerings. So I have a challenge for you; buy all of the pumpkin themed things you can see. Some that I have seen are pumpkin spice Cheerios, pumpkin pop ’ems, and pumpkin Oreos. There should be plenty for you choose from, and you can do the challenge with your friends to make it more fun
8. Ghost Photoshoot
We’ve all seen this trend, right? People put a sheet over their heads, put some sunglasses over the sheet, and take a fall themed photoshoot. Some of them are creepier than others but yours can be silly! You don’t have to take it so seriously. Just have fun with it!!
9. Do a Blindfolded Candy Taste Test
Many different types of candy have different flavors, like Skittles or Sour Patch kids. Can you tell them apart without knowing what color they are? You and your friends can blindfold one another and take turns taste testing many different flavors of different candy. If you want to make it a contest, have the rest of the candy as a prize! If not, just have fun eating lots of candy.
10. Monster Mini Golf
Monster Mini Golf is a blacklight mini golf decorated with “scary” monsters. Wear all white and you’ll glow in the dark! It’s fairly inexpensive and there is one close to here! It also has a small arcade attached to it, so you can play some games (or spend all of your game money on rubber ducks, as I do). I love mini golf, and this is such a fun way to go out and do something for Halloween with your friends, but without being absolutely terrified.