Every year in America, there’s that one person talking about their upcoming Halloween costume while lounging on a beach in June, or coming up with ideas while huddled over a bowl of chili in February. There seems to be a constant dialogue of Halloween ideas running through the collective psyche at any given point of the year, and sometimes it’s bewildering.
But regardless of across how much of the year your Halloween enthusiasm spans, it’s September now—and it’s high time for serious planning, because Halloween requires a lot. Luckily, we’re here to help. With over a month before the big day, here are a few things you should be thinking about in preparation for having the best possible October 31st.
Costume Design
Let’s just start with the most obvious: the costume. You need to start planning now if you want to have the coolest Halloween costume and impress your friends, enemies, and frenemies alike. As is the case with most things that rely on creativity, you need not just your boring old brain: the Internet is a much more useful tool.
Your costume is the most important piece of the Halloween formula, and it will most likely take some time to plan. If you’re one for spontaneity, you can always throw something together at the last minute, but poor planning can lead to embarrassing costume malfunctions or, worse, a lame outfit.
Home Decoration
This is another no-brainer, as giant pumpkins and sticky white spider web synthetics strung on houses are always early harbingers of the Halloween season. Friendly competition and collective aesthetic are some of the coolest aspects of Halloween and its ability to bring neighborhoods together. If you’re too old to go trick-or-treating that doesn’t mean you should spurn your responsibilities as a contributor to the ambience for the younger generation. Make the most of your capabilities—both budget-wise and given the layout of your home—to ensure that the youngsters get a good scare out of your abode.
Good Treats
Speaking of trick-or-treating, the most important aspect of the experience for the young ones, maybe even more so than the decoration, is the quality of the goods. Every kid heads out the night of Halloween, adorned with suffocating alien mask, pillowcase in hand, with one thing on their mind: candy. Let’s just forget about diabetes, childhood obesity, and those horror stories of creepy old ladies at the end of the block poisoning children with caramel apples for one second, and emphasize that having the most creative and interesting treats is a wonderful trademark of the Halloween spirit.
Haunted Houses
In addition to turning your own home into a scare zone, it’s always nice to take the kids to one of the scary haunted houses located in your area. Every once in a while it’s nice to get scared absolutely senseless by the pros. Not to mention the fact that you can get some great ideas for your own homemade haunted house from these places.
Halloween Activities
Whether you’re looking to entertain kids at school to celebrate the holiday, at home, or want something fun to do for yourself there plenty of fun Halloween activities you can look into. How about putting various foods inside a paper bag and telling the kids that they are body parts (peeled grapes for eyeballs, cold spaghetti for intestines)? Maybe that one’s a little over the top, but admit it: now you’re intrigued. There are plenty of useful resources for coming up with good activities if you look in the right place. Don’t miss out on the opportunity to scare your kids and yourself out this year.
As you can see, Halloween is not something to be taken lightly. Even if you’re not the friend talking about their totally awesome Pac-Man Halloween costume idea in March, it would behoove you to do a little bit of preplanning. Hopefully, with these tips you’ll be on the right track.