I have a confession to make…I am elated that my kids are now officially too old to trick or treat. Its not that I don’t like trick or treating, my body doesn’t like it, more specifically my arthritic ankle that broke almost two years ago, my asthma, and my social anxiety doesn’t like it. Then there is the pandemic that is like a cousin who shows up for the holidays uninvited then doesn’t leave until mid January…long story short, my family has come up with some different ways to celebrate Halloween without trick or treating.
Eat Junk Food
Just because we don’t trick or treat doesn’t mean we skip the fun of eating too much candy. We usually hit the store closer to the beginning of October so they aren’t out of the good candy yet and I stash it somewhere my kids and husband can’t find it until Halloween.
Play Scary Games
Pictured above is the best present my husband has ever given me, Horror Trivial Pursuit, and every year we play it on Halloween. There are many horror/Halloween themed board games to chose from for all different ages. The only ”game” I don’t suggest is the use of an Ouija Board, yes I am going all Mama Witch on you right now and telling you that just because Ouija Boards are sold in the game section, it is most certainly not a game and you can suffer some serious repercussions from playing with one.
Watch Scary Movies
Now some of you might pull the hypocrite card on me right now because my motto is ”Halloween isn’t just a holiday, it’s a way of life”, but there are certain horror movies we only watch on Halloween in our house. We save the movies, ’Trick r’ Treat’, and ’Hellfest’ because they happen on Halloween, also they are movies you usually don’t see played on a loop during the month of October like the ’Halloween’ or the ’Friday The 13th’ movies are (not that we don’t love them too). Also, please use your best judgement when picking out movies for your kids, my kids are teenagers and I know what their limits are when it comes to scary stuff and we pick movies accordingly.
Tell Scary Stories
This suggestion, is one that we don’t really do anymore because what teenager wants their mom reading them a scary story? Still, it was a tradition we did when they were younger so I will list it here. Again, pick stories accordingly, but my favorite books still to this day to tell scary stories from is ’Scary Stories To Tell In The Dark’ series by Alvin Schwartz, and because my son is a huge Five Nights At Freddy’s fan, I have also read stories from the FNAF books by Scott Cawthon.
