October 1st may arguably be my favorite day of the year, as the colored leaves falling from trees and pumpkins gracing porches announce the official beginning of the holiday season. Eager children commence preparation for their highly-anticipated Halloween night, swiftly falling victim to daydreams of pop-culture costumes, candy-filled Jack-o’-Lanterns and “spooky” movie marathons with family and friends. Unsurprisingly, with candy-induced cavities on the line, there is no shortage of Halloween spirit across the younger generations of American suburbia —but then the question arises, how do adults feel about the arrival of spooky season?
On the surface, a successful Halloween celebration doesn’t appear to be dependent upon the age of an individual, but deeper analysis may uncover frighteningly harsh realities of how maturation affects the enjoyability of October…Here’s what I found:
- Expectation: As a young adult, Halloween night serves as the perfect opportunity to party hard in your sweet (or sexy) costume of choice!
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Reality: You were left out of your friends’ party planning, but that’s fine because Halloween is on a Monday night, and you are not about to go out on a school/work night. Plus, parties are sweaty and costumes are itchy, which doesn’t sound like any fun anyway, now does it?
- Expectation: Your best friends picked out the perfect group costume to wear to school on Halloween!
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Reality: Even though a confirmation text was sent the night before, you are the only friend to show up to school in an absurdly overpriced blow-up dinosaur costume. Who thought that dressing up as a pack of raptors was a good idea in the first place?!
- Expectation: Pinterest boards for fall home decor have sparked your inner interior designer, and now your dorm room/apartment looks more festive than the sets of Hocus Pocus!
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Reality: That Halloween PIN-spiration (see what I did there?) was super cute, but also super expensive for a broke college student. Instead, you decide to hang up a paper cut-out of a bat and call it a day.
- Expectation: With high hopes of being the “cool house” on Halloween night, you buy a box of King-size candy bars to impress those monstrously greedy trick-or-treaters.
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Reality: In a spur-of-the-moment self-pity session, you mowed through half of that king-size candy bar box and now don’t have enough for the flood of trick-or-treaters headed your way. Welp, they’re just gonna have to settle with pretzels and granola bars this year.
- Expectation: You’re going on a picturesque pumpkin patch date with your S.O. and picking pumpkins to carve on Halloween. Maybe you’ll check out the corn maze and apple bobbing booth, too!
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Reality: 1. No boyfriend. 2. No pumpkin patch. 3. Store-bought pumpkin. 4. Aforementioned store-bought pumpkin is left out too long, rots all the way through and smells putrid enough to induce severe vomiting as you clean it up. Such fun.
- Expectation: You’re super excited to join your younger sibling for a wholesome evening of trick-or-treating!
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Reality: Apparently, your sibling is “too old for that baby stuff” now and will be attending a Halloween party this year…without you (maybe peruse that king-size candy bar bucket again, I’m sure it’ll make you feel better after this devastating blow to your pride).
- Expectation: This is it, this is your year. You’re finally gonna get over your fears and watch high-rated horror flicks with your friends on Halloween night.
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Reality: The scary movie plan was good in theory, but your backup Halloweentown marathon just sounds…safer. There’s always next year.
Even though Halloween loses a bit of its luster as we grow older, the spooky season shouldn’t sour our sentimental childhood memories of trick-or-treating and costume shopping. Unfortunately, the holiday is geared towards the younger generations, but adults can still find enjoyment in the enjoyment of others. Trick-or-treating may be off the table, but witnessing the toothy grins of sugar-filled children is enough to warm my heart every year.Â
As young adults, we are simply taking on new roles in the realm of Halloween, so just give those kids your candy and anxiously await the day you get to take your own little tykes out to trick-or-treat around the block (if you want children, of course). P.S. Halloween may be over for us adults, but we can be all over St. Patty’s Day now! 🍀🍻Â