Halloween is one of my favorite holidays to celebrate. When we were kids, we got to dress up as our favorite superheroes or witches to trick-or-treat for candy around the neighborhood. We indulged ourselves in carving pumpkins with our families, eating as much candy as we wanted, and watched the best Disney Halloween movies over and over. As we get older, Halloween is celebrated very differently. Here’s how this spooky holiday changes as we get older:
1. Planning your Halloween festivities
As children, we excitedly prepared our costumes months in advance (with our mother's help, of course) and planned which neighborhood to trick-or-treat in, based on who gives the best candy. When we're older, we put together last-minute costumes and party plans because we're either too lazy or busy to think about it.
2. Trick-or-treating
Going from house to house for free candy was probably the best idea ever, right? Holding open your pillow case to receive a handful of candy was the highlight of the holiday. We would eat treats until we thought we were going to be sick, and we didn't care. Now, we binge eat candy that we buy ourselves because we're too old to trick-or-treat.
3. Costumes
From wearing an innocent princess costume that your mom made for you to wearing lingerie with animal ears, costumes aren't the same when you're older. Showing as much skin as possible is the main goal for your Halloween costume and we focus on looking sexy rather than cute.
4. Matching Costumes
Along with that, seeing someone with the same costume as you was so exciting as kids. These days, if you see someone that matches your outfit you try as hard as you can to avoid being anywhere close to that person.
5. Partying
When you're older, especially if you're in college, Halloween is one big party. Everyone dresses up and goes from house to house looking for drinking and dancing in their revealing and funny costumes.
6. Party Activities
Bobbing for apples turns into drinking alcohol poured down an ice luge or through a funnel.
7. Celebrating all weekend
Halloween is traditionally a one night affair when we're kids, but it's a different scene when we're older. We make the most of an excuse to party and spend the entire weekend celebrating.
8. Halloween movies
One of the best parts about Halloween was watching the many kids movies on TV, such as "Hocus Pocus" and "Halloweentown." Although we still love these movies as adults, we focus on watching the scary movies that chill our bones and make us cringe.
9. Carving Pumpkins
We used to have so much fun carving pumpkins to create fun faces and characters. We can still do this as we age, but we stick to other ideas such as carving our sorority letters or even a vomiting pumpkin.
10. Haunted houses
When I was a kid, going inside my middle school's haunted house was more fun than anything. Because we were young, they didn't try to scare us but mainly made us laugh. These days, haunted houses are horrifying from all of the zombies that chase after you and don't care if you're on the verge of tears. You have to walk through complete darkness knowing that something will pop out at you around every corner.
11. Traditional treats
Even though we had bellies full on candy, we still ate the delicious treats that we made with our families. We made cake pops that looked like eye balls and pudding cups with gummies that resembled dirt and worms. Because we're older now, we stick to our budget and our diets. Sure, we can make creative cupcakes, but we can also get a burrito from Chipotle for $3 if we wear our Halloween costumes.
12. Nostalgia
Lastly, Halloween changes the most as we get older because of the great memories that we had as a kid. Every year, as we get older, is an opportunity to reminisce on the great times we had in the past. We think about the costumes our mom made us wear year after year and how great Halloween was as a kid. Even though we still have fun as adults, nothing compares to Halloween when we were younger.
Overall, Halloween activities, traditions, and even foods change for everyone as we get older. Fortunately, our inner-kid will always remain in our hearts as the holiday comes upon us every year. Keep this in mind as "All Hallows' Eve" approaches us, and have a happy Halloween everybody!
