From the east coast to the west, many of our Arts & Culture writers carry different meanings and experiences with them during the Halloween season. Here are some of our favorite (and least favorite) aspects of the holiday and what it means to our staff.
Madelyn Lass
As I’ve gotten older, Halloween has become a time to make fun memories with my best friends. In college, my roommates and I have had matching Halloween costumes every year. We watch a lot of television and movies together, so it’s always fun to pick our favorite characters and go costume shopping.
This year, we’re going as the Ninja Turtles. I can’t wait to make more memories with them, and I think that being with the people you love and being able to share your interests is what Halloween is all about.
Bridget McGuire
Growing up with two brothers only 2 years apart from me, Halloween was always the time for my mom to plan extravagant group costumes. Each year of our childhood she planned and executed trio costumes that we look back on and laugh at.
With how much effort she put into our costumes each year, you would think she cared a lot about getting pictures. But my mom only cared about us having fun. She would laugh with us while we walked up to each house, and sit with us on the living room floor after trick or treating for our annual sibling candy trade.
Now that I am in college, I don’t have my mom with me to celebrate the Halloween season. When I go home for Thanksgiving break, she usually still has a bucket of candy on the dining room table, and will force our dog into his costume so we can see it in person. Halloween is a sentimental holiday for me, because it makes me think about how much effort my mom put into making sure we had fun.
P.B. Jernigan
Halloween has always been my favorite holiday since I was a kid. I always loved going to school in my costume and watching the Cartoon Network Halloween specials. Growing up in Oxford, I would always trick-or-treat with my friends in the neighborhoods around the Square. When we all got home, we’d trade candy and make deals with each other like professional barterers.
I obviously love the candy aspect of it all, but my favorite part of Halloween is picking out a costume and seeing everyone else’s. Usually my costumes have a DIY factor to them, which makes it all the more fun. This year, I’m going as Ripley from “Alien” (unfortunately not including her flamethrower). After three failed Amazon orders, I’ve finally gotten all of my supplies to put my costume all together.
Taylor Hill
My dad’s birthday is on Halloween, so we always have a fun family dinner, and then spend the afternoon watching scary movies and doing fun fall activities like carving pumpkins and baking pumpkin seeds.
To me, Halloween is a very fun holiday that I get to spend with my family, and is a prerequisite to my favorite holidays, Thanksgiving and Christmas. I loved trick-or-treating as a child, but now, I prefer to spend that time at home and watching movies.
Lauren Best
Halloween is quite literally my favorite holiday, ranking slightly above the vibes of Christmas. I have less traditions I partake in than Christmas, mainly because my family doesn’t like Halloween as much as me. Growing up in Oxford, Halloween on the Square was one of the highlights of my childhood, with all the nearby neighborhoods going above and beyond with decorations and activities for kids back then.
I love celebrating Halloween through several mediums, mainly through the fun decorations, dressing up as my yearly obsession and baking themed sweet treats for my friends and myself. As much as I love dressing up in fun costumes, I am notorious for coming up with ideas so last minute not even Amazon can help me out, so it allows me to get creative, with me thrifting and sewing together my own costume most of the time.
Ada C. Richardson
Every year for as long as I can remember, my family and I have always made a tradition of watching “It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown.” It has become something that I look forward to every fall. Halloween makes me feel cozy, nostalgic and I love revisiting the things I used to do as a child with my family.
I love all the spooky decorations, and carving pumpkins with my siblings. Halloween helps me to realize that fall has finally come at last, and I welcome it with open arms. It is a way for me to creatively spend time with all the people that I love and to revisit old memories while making new ones.
Luisa Barsaglini
Halloween has always been one of my favorite holidays. As the daughter of the youngest sister in a large family, I vividly recall how all of my older cousins would take me out for trick-or-treating, and nights were filled with incessant laughter, since their plans to scare me always worked.
Costume contests at my school were taken very seriously in my household; my mother would buy wigs, headdresses and all my unique costume ideas were put together with hot glue. I always loved Halloween because it was an excuse for everyone — from infants to the elderly — to dress up and have harmless fun. I believed it was the most fun bonding time families engaged in, and I adored asking my friends at school about their plans.
Now, Halloween has changed from family-centered activities to parties with my friends, but the same excitement still runs through my veins as I pick my costumes and get ready, thinking about the many photos I will take in them.
Taf Flanders
I really loved Halloween as a kid because it meant going house to house with my friends and getting a bucket of candy to eat later that night. So, it’s hard for me to enjoy Halloween without the candy. At this point, Christmas and Easter outpace Halloween based on the amount of candy I get and, maybe, that’s why I enjoy them more.
There is one type of candy that Halloween does best, though, and that is candy corn. I can house a pack of candy corn. Brach’s Mellocreme Pumpkins are even better, though, because they smell like marshmallows and vanilla.
The best part of Halloween, though, is that I get to put my Christmas tree up as soon as it’s over.
Charlie Slusher
I like to read some of Stephen King’s stuff in October. My favorite of his is “Needful Things,” and I’ve re-read it a couple times, although this year I read “Mr. Mercedes.” To me, Halloween is a month-long excuse for me to read and watch as much horror stuff as I want. In the past, I’ve binge watched classic horror movie franchises like “Saw” and “Scream,” and this year I’ve been consuming a lot of creature features as inspiration for my costume.
When I was a kid, I took costumes and trick-or-treating very seriously. These past few years, I’ve consistently gone for a minimal-effort costume, so this year, I’m trying to have some fun with creating something a bit more out there with lots and lots of fake blood.
Gracie Hudson
Ever since I was a little girl, Halloween has always been my favorite holiday. I start planning my costumes months in advance and make sure to have at least three different looks for the weekend. This year, I spent hours handmaking my costumes. I love the process of creating something myself, getting ready with my friends, doing each other’s makeup and dressing up. Halloween gives me an excuse to get creative and become someone else for a night, which is one of my favorite parts of the holiday.
One of my favorite traditions is rewatching all of my favorite spooky series and films every year. I usually watch these while I decorate my home with cheap Halloween decorations and bake cookies to keep the spirit of Halloween alive as I get older. It’s always something to look forward to especially as the days get shorter and the weather gets colder.
Madeleine New
One of my favorite things about Halloween is the movies. I have always loved horror movies. No matter how good or bad — and a lot of them are bad — horror movies are just so comforting and nostalgic to me. There is not much that beats a cheesy jump scare or outdated special effects, especially when paired with the Pillsbury Halloween sugar cookies.
My other, most favorite thing about Halloween is that it is the season of black cats. My family has had cats for as long as I can remember, and several of them have been black. I have always felt for them. All of ours were from the shelter or rescued, left unwanted simply because of their fur color and its connotations. But I think they are the sweetest and cutest members of my family, and it would not be the same without them.
