Halloween has been my favorite holiday hands-down since I was little. I loved coming up with the most inventive and elaborate costumes possible that would wow everybody during the annual Halloween parade at my elementary school and, let’s admit it, middle school… and high school, too. I was a fully-operational candy store in 4th grade, the house from Up in 8th grade (with balloons and the handprint mailbox), and finally, in my senior year, I was a shooting star complete with streamers and star-shaped garlands that swept behind me.
If you couldn’t tell already, I was pretty dedicated to my hardcore costumes. Halloween brought out the craftiest side of me, and I didn’t feel an ounce of embarrassment or shame when I was wearing the most complicated and often difficult to walk in costume while trick-or-treating with my friends. Now that I’m old and grey (not really), my costumes have gotten a lot less complicated and frankly, less creative. Freshman year, I was a Schrute Farm hand which pretty much meant I wore my overalls, bought some beats, and printed out a logo from Google that I slapped on a baseball cap. Last year, my boyfriend and I were Marty and Doc from Back to the Future, which I admit turned out pretty well considering I bought all the costume pieces from Goodwill the day before.
This year, I am faced with a difficult conundrum. Do I even dress up if I’m not going out anywhere? I’m torn between going all out and coming up with a great costume just for my own satisfaction or simply letting this one Halloween be my chill year. To be honest, I’ll probably just throw on a striped turtleneck, black pants, stick paintbrushes in my hair, and call myself an artist. I’ll see if I can come up with something better by the 31st. The one thing I am committed to this year is not buying any additional materials to make my costume, because my eyes have been opened to just how much we waste in terms of plastic each Halloween. Frightening stuff.
Besides committing to a zero-waste Halloween costume, I’m determined to make this year as fun as possible considering it’s just going to be me and my roommates. They are all big horror movie fans and I am the odd one out, but this year I might try to sit through one (if my stomach can handle it). I also bought us a beautiful pumpkin to carve, so I’m sure that will keep us occupied for a while. I’m thinking that we should all choose a different design to carve around the pumpkin so all of our artistic styles are represented, but we might just go with a classic jack-o-lantern design for tradition’s sake. Knowing us, that probably won’t be the case!
One thing is for certain about this year’s festivities…there will be an endless stream of Halloween music playing throughout the night! With that being said, here is my official Halloween 2020 playlist for your listening pleasure. I made a pretty great playlist last year if I do say so myself, so this year I knew I had to go a different direction. Last time, I centered the theme around witches and ghosts but this year it’s all about werewolves and monsters. This is because my roommates and I randomly decided to start watching the Twilight series again and let me just tell you that they do NOT age like a fine wine––but they are so bad that it makes them good. This playlist has got your classics like Warren Zevon’s “Werewolves of London” and Bobby “Boris” Pickett and the Crypt-Kicker’s “Monster Mash,” but I also added some new hits like Childish Gambino’s “Boogieman” and Muse’s “Supermassive Black Hole” (which also doubles as an ode to Twilight, sorry, not sorry).
Even though Halloween is definitely taking a backseat this year because of something a whole lot scarier, let’s not forget the spirit of this holiday! Halloween has been about getting together with your friends and family and eating a ton of candy (at least since the 30s), so this year it really doesn’t have to feel much different. Trick-or-treating has been out of the picture for years and house parties kind of suck anyway, so why not embrace the fact that you can have a scary and wholesome time from the comfort of your own home?
I hope you all enjoy a super spooky and super SAFE Halloween this year no matter where you are!
xoxo,
Emma :)
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