By Marti Schodt
Growing up my best friend Kate had a Halloween party every year. This started when we were five years old and continued until our senior year of high school. These were not the wild, reckless parties that you see on television where teens gallivant around the city wreaking havoc on unsuspecting, law-abiding citizens. It was pretty much a group of close friends sitting around a bonfire and poking each other with hot smores sticks until someone decided it was time to unleash the scary stories.
We never drank, smoked, or committed any crimes, we just talked and laughed and ate unscrupulous amounts of candy. You don’t have to make bad decisions to have a good Halloween. You just need friends, food, and a plan. I can’t help with the food or friends, but I can give you a few ideas on how to have an awesome, and legal, Halloween.
1. Just go to the pumpkin patch. I know that picking out a pumpkin in a muddy field isn’t supposed to be fun past the age of eight, but it totally is and always will be. You get to jump around with your friends and crunch through fresh fallen leaves while you hunt through endless rows of orange blobs for the perfect, prize winning pumpkin. You can probably even have hot apple cider and pet some goats if you play your cards right.
2. Carve that pumpkin. Making a Jack-O-Lantern is an essential part of any good Halloween. It’s also a great reason to throw a party. Lay down some newspaper, grab some knives (carefully) and invite your friends over to slice through some pumpkin guts. If you’re feeling creative you can locate designs online to make something super artistic and instagram worthy.
3. Have a bonfire. Nothing says Halloween like sitting around a blazing ball of flame. It’s cold, it’s dark, someone is probably making ghost noises, and you have all the marshmallows and graham crackers you could ever hope for. It’s the perfect setting for a scary-story-off and everyone knows that bonfires are actually ‘bondfires’ because everyone ends up telling their best secrets.
4. Cook something festive. Everybody loves caramel apples and pumpkin bread. You could spend a bunch of money and buy that fabulous fall food at the store, or you could make it yourself. Cooking is a great way to bring people together, and the promise of an edible reward is pretty much a guarantee that your friends will be down to dance around the kitchen in fuzzy socks with a mixing bowl while “Monster Mash” plays in the background. Tasty pumpkin and squash recipes can be found in this ThurstonTalk article.
5. Attend a haunted house. Haunted houses are crazy cheesy, but also crazy fun. If you have a significant other to cuddle, a haunted house is the perfect place to be united in fear. If you’re flying solo, it’s a great place to see which one of your friends has the most earth-shattering scream. Either way, you will be scared out of your mind in the best way possible. Try the My Morbid Mind Haunted House (4548 Marvin Rd SE in Lacey) for a worthy scream fest. The Rutledge Corn Maze turns into a creepy location after dark. Find haunted maze information here.
6. Have a Halloween movie marathon. Movie parties are always a great fallback when you don’t have an organized plan. They’re cheap, they’re easy, and they’re always fun (as long as there’s food). A Halloween movie party is the best kind of movie party because you are totally justified in munching on candy. There’s a couple different ways to go about the Halloween movie party. You can go the obvious route and watch horror movies, or you could bask in nostalgia and watch a bunch of old Disney Channel flicks (Halloweentown and Hocus Pocus are excellent at any age).
7. Do something ridiculous in costumes. If you’re reading this, you’re probably too old for trick-or-treating, but that doesn’t mean that your days of being a fairy princess or a fearsome lion are over. (Thrifty costume ideas can be found here.) Dressing up is always an option. Throw on that tiara and go out to dinner. Tie that cape around your neck and go bowling. In fact, do everything on this list in costume. It’s Halloween, gosh darn it. Unleash your inner child.
