Halloween still spooky fun

By BRITTANY VITNER

No one is too old for Halloween.

For many people, the first thought related to Halloween is trick-or-treating. This is partially designed for young children, although many college students still trick-or-treat themselves or escort younger trick-or-treaters. Either way, it is a nice excuse to get dressed up and collect free candy.

Decorating a house or living space for the holiday, especially for trick-or-treaters, is also a lot of fun. There is pumpkin carving, filling trees with ghosts, fake bats and corpses, setting up fog machines and countless more spooky designs. It’s also another excuse to get dressed up in costumes and role play for trick-or-treaters.

Getting dressed up is ten times more fun for older folks. The costumes and make-up can even be better made, with a lot more diversity in choice and imagination.

Professional make-up artists and costume designers are adults, not children, and with the advent of the Internet, especially YouTube and blogging, it is much easier for these professionals to spread their knowledge.

There is also more content for people to consume, like television shows, films and comics, for inspiration. Adults have access to more stores to buy products for costume creation and funds to provide for costume creation.

Walking around in a costume or hanging out with friends in a costume does not lose its fun over time, and there are more excuses to be in one, beyond simple personal pleasure.

Adults can work at haunted houses, Halloween-themed events and theme park nights or attend costume parties.

Costumes are a neat way to learn things about friends, like what their interests are or what skill sets they have for costume assembly.

Halloween is always fun on campus because so many people dress up for class and it brightens the room to see people going out of their way and having a little fun.

Halloween is also a great time for cooking.

There are a ton of fall and Halloween-themed recipes that are fun to try: cakes decorated with black cats, ghosts, leaves, corn, scarecrows and other fun toppings.

One also can’t go to any store without seeing pumpkin flavored treats such as pies, cookies and coffee.

Pumpkin carving is also a very big art and semi-sport for the older age group of people at the moment.

Scuba divers carve pumpkins under water, carvers create statues out of pumpkins.

Jack-o-lanterns come in every different design now, from flying Tinkerbell to copies of Vincent Van Gogh’s “Starry Night.”

There are also many arts and crafts still fun for college-age students, such as making decorative ghosts or mini-scarecrows, drawing on mini-pumpkins and helping younger trick-or-treaters create their costumes.

An adult with a good hand for arts and crafts is a gift for younger holiday participants, and the smiles and cheerful laughter of younger generations is a reward in itself.

All the festivities and tradition surrounding Halloween, makes it a holiday impossible to grow out of.