Her Campus Logo Her Campus Logo
This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at Akron chapter.

It is no secret that the COVID-19 pandemic has affected our lives for the undetermined future, but there is still a way for us to celebrate Halloween with some friends without partying it up like immature college students to the detriment of others’ health. Here are the five ways you can stay safe while still celebrating Halloween with your friends.

Facetime

This is actually how I am planning to celebrate Halloween this year! Facetime, Messenger Video Chat, Skype and several other video chatting platforms are a tool you can use this year to still have a lot of fun. I am planning on facetiming with my friends from San Diego. You can still dress up, drink if you are of age (and would like to) and hang out with people. My friends and I are planning on watching some spooky Halloween movies over video chat while drinking some wine in our Halloween costumes!

Give Out Candy

If you want to give out candy to Trick or Treaters this year, you can still do that while social distancing! Make sure you wear a mask (it is the perfect holiday to do so!) and maybe get your DIY on and create a slide to give candy to kids! A friend of mine decided she wanted to still give kids some joy during the pandemic and used some pipes purchased from her local home improvement store to create a slide that was six feet away and came shooting off her porch to slide candy down to the waiting kids. Genius, right?

Virutal Pumpkin-Carving

There are still a ton of activities to do on Halloween, but one of the best things to do for the autumnal season is to carve a pumpkin. Why not do it with your friends via video chat? You can put on a spooky playlist, grab some hot cocoa and carve away with some friends while chatting about some of your favorite scary movies!

TeleParty

At Her Campus Akron, one of our favorite activities to do is use the chrome extension TeleParty (formerly Netflix Party) to watch movies together. Who says you can’t do that this year for Halloween? I know I am planning on watching movies like The Sixth Sense and The Conjuring with my friends using TeleParty, and it is always a ton of fun. You can sit down in your costume, eat some popcorn and watch some scary movies with your friends.

Virtual Spooky Story Session

What is more reminiscent of Halloween celebrations than sitting around a virtual campfire (YouTube has plenty of videos with real campfire sounds!) while telling some spooky stories with your friends? Gathering in-person would be ill-advised given the state of the pandemic, particularly in the United States, but virtual ghost stories would be a fun time to still keep up that spooky spirit while remaining safe in these trying times.

Dorian Mayenschein is a non-binary senior at the University of Akron who majors in English while also minoring in Women's Studies. Their passions include pop culture, literature, social justice, LGBT rights and feminism as well as the Black Lives Matter movement. They hope to one day become a Senior Editor at a book publishing house in Chicago, Illinois and have people other than their aunts read their stories and support them.
Madeline Myers is a 2020 graduate of the University of Akron. She has a B.A. English with a minor in Creative Writing. At Her Campus, Madeline enjoys writing movie and TV reviews. Her personal essay “Living Room Saloon” is published in the 2019 issue of The Ashbelt. Madeline grew up in Zanesville, Ohio. She loves quoting comedians, reading James Baldwin, and sipping on grape soda. She fears a future run by robots but looks forward to the day when her stories are read by those outside of her immediate family.