I love Halloween. It’s my favourite holiday. I love dressing up (obviously), spooky stories, fun decorations, parties, trick-or-treating, all of it. I do wish Halloween was still the same way it was when I was a kid – it’s become really watered down over the past couple of decades. Sad.
Also, there is absolutely jack for grown-ups to do unless you go to a bar or somebody’s party. We’ve tried other events and they’ve all been lame.
When I was really little, my parents would walk me around the neighborhood and then I’d be deposited over at my grandma’s so my parents could have their annual Halloween party.
One year I was Scrappy Doo. What the heck.
My Grandma made some of my costumes, including Rainbow Brite, Glinda and She-Ra. My She-Ra I don’t have pictures of, but I apparently told my grandma I wanted my She-Ra to be blue and white and silver LOL
Glinda:
By this point I’d progressed to going around the neighborhood without parental supervision. Generally, I’d go over to my cousins’ house, and we’d all trick-or-treat together, the four of us. Those Halloweens were awesome. We’d be gone for hours. We’d get lost. We came home with pillow cases so full we were hunched over under the weight of them.
I was a Tigers cheerleader one of those years:
Then Ash and I started running around together most years. I got lazy about costumes and went as a hippie through most of my teens. One year we were Men in Black, though, and one year I was Groucho and Cat was Harpo:
Most people thought I was a preacher….
In 1999 I decided I wanted to be Quistis and my grandma and mom helped me put it together.
At this point I was still trick-or-treating and still getting away with it since my cousins and Ash were younger than me; I finally stopped when I got more than one person who asked me, “aren’t you too old for trick-or-treating?” (I don’t think anyone should ever be “too old” for dressing up and getting free candy.)
So the next year, Cat and I decided to attempt to throw a Halloween party. We had fun, as Sailor Jupiter and Super Sailor Moon.
I rewore Jupiter in 2001, and then in 2002, we had a whirlwind of activities.
We had a Halloween “party” which was mostly just our group sitting around playing DDR and a murder mystery, went as a group to my cousin’s college Homecoming dance, and went to a showing of Rocky Horror. Since by then I had a large choice of costumes, I wore Padme, Lum and my new one, Arwen’s Chase dress.
2003… gosh 2003 was kinda lame. The best thing I did was volunteer at Nightmarez Kids Day (Star Wars day). Otherwise I hung out at home – I think I wasn’t feeling well that year. I made my Quidditch uniform for Halloween and I think I wore it to school maybe? I also put together a Samara (from the Ring) and lurked around the yard a bit, but we don’t get a lot of trick-or-treaters out in the middle of nowhere, so it was boring.
2004 was probably the best year.
My school had their Halloween party at a popular gay bar. It was pretty amazing. Afterwards, we went and crashed my cousin’s game of Capture the Flag over at her school, messed everybody up when they forced us to play and ran away before they could get mad at us.
Kevin and I did trunk or treat at my aunt’s church as Link and Hermione, and then I went with my parents to a Halloween party as Leia, which was my new costume that year.
2005 was a massive letdown after 2004. Volunteered at a small kids thing, then we went out and did trunk-or-treat again – I wore Belle. Kevin was Napoleon Dynamite. Ash wore Stitch and got to lead the kids in a costume parade. After that we decided to go out and find something fun to do – I put on ceremonial Leia and we ended up having dinner at Joe’s Crab Shack and going home, because there was nothing to do besides bars.
2006 I split between Nashville and Memphis – got to do Pumpkinfest and Ghouls at Grassmere in Nashville with our 501st group – I did Leia and Belle, and that was a lot of fun.
Halloween night we hung out at my aunt’s house and helped hand out candy. I wore Dorothy for that, and also to work that day – that was my new one that year. Kevin was a jedi.
2007 we were in Nashville the weekend before Halloween, so we did Ghouls at Grassmere again, and I wore Belle again. That was such a great event to do, I wish we could go again one year!
Since we liked doing the Nashville zoo so much, we decided to go check out the Memphis zoo’s Halloween thing. Maybe it was because we paid to get in instead of volunteering and didn’t have kids, but it wasn’t much fun at all. We wandered around, no kids asked for pictures, all the activities were kids based… waste of money. But we took some funny pictures in the parking lot.
We also checked in at Trunk-or-Treat as usual. I wore Wonder Woman, and Kevin as Fabio.
2008 we tried going to the zoo again – because this year they had a brand new “halloween party” instead of just the kids stuff. It was awful. There was just a handful of people there, it was freezing, people were just standing around. And we didn’t even place in the costume contest. It was so boring we didn’t even take pictures.
We of course did trunk-or-treat again, and helped hand out candy at my aunt’s house. I wore my new Sleeping Beauty and Kevin was the Joker – and scared some of the kids, they wouldn’t come near him.
2009 was our first year in our house! We did a little Twilight group for work – Kevin was Edward. I wore Snow White for Trunk or Treat (also for handing out candy) and Kevin was Harry Potter.
And that same weekend our fav local bookstore had a Graveyard Party, and invited people to come as their “favourite dead historical figure.” So Ash and I went as Anne and Teddy.
2010, I did a half-hearted Ariel for work, and Kevin was Julia Child, hahaha. For Trunk or Treat and handing out candy, I wore my new Briar Rose. That was all we did that year.
2011 was a fat lot of nothing. We did trunk-or-treat, I wore my new Wonder Woman and we handed out candy. What has become the norm. Kevin and I did casual Jean Grey and Wolverine costumes for work.
2012, I don’t even think we did Trunk or Treat. We did a Mad Scientist theme for work and I was Dr Forrester. Wore Belle to hand out candy at home.
Last year, we actually made a little bit more of an attempt. I decorated the entryway to look like Hogwarts and Kevin and I wore our uniforms.
We also went to a showing of Hocus Pocus at the baseball stadium (which I won tickets to), and to Lauren’s party, where I wore Jane!
This year? I have no idea. I kinda threw our Halloween stuff out but didn’t really decorate. No clue what to wear while handing out candy, or to Lauren’s party. Probably won’t dress up for work. We’ll see!