By Anthony J. Machcinski
As the leaves change colors and the warm summer becomes the crisp cool of fall, millions of men, women and children get ready to celebrate Halloween.
As a child, I did what children all across America do: get dressed up and go door-to-door, saying, “trickor- treat” and hoping for candy in return. While I’m sure the sugar rush was wonderful, the better part was trying to figure out each year what I would be going out as. I was able to be an astronaut, a baseball player and even a Power Ranger.
Now that I’m older, I’ll admit that the Halloween has kind of lost its luster. Dressing
up has gotten old and watching the same half-dozen horror films on TV every year
just flat out gets boring and laughable.
Lets face it, when you’re over the age of 18 and do not have a child, Halloween just seems like another holiday made to generate revenue before the big rush to Thanksgiving and Christmas. However, there are plenty of reasons why Halloween is still fun.
Being able to go to Halloween parties, creating jack-olanterns, and haunted houses
still remain essential parts of any Halloween experience.
In that spirit, here are some tips to make Halloween more fun without much effort.
1) Costume: If you plan to go out to a costume party, or even one of the many sponsored events at bars, put some effort into your costume.
While it may be easy to put on an Eli Manning jersey and say you’re a football player, the lack of effort shows. Some eye-black, a bit of padding underneath the shoulders, and even team colored shorts can make your costume stand out.
2) Home decoration: Just because the economy has been rough on everyone doesn’t mean you can’t get your home or apartment ready for the holiday. It can be something as simple as a few “tombstones” in your front yard. These tombstones are easy to make, using some plywood, a saw, and some gray spray paint.
3) More people = more fun: While getting dressed up and decorating your house are fun activities, anything is more fun if you do it with others. While dressing up as a cowboy, it’s always nice to have a partner to duel against. Doing things in groups inspires the meaning behind the holiday, to have fun doing something you can’t
do on a daily basis.
4) Safety: No point can be reiterated more than safety. If you go out as Wolverine, using steak knives for claws isn’t going to enhance your experience. Have a plan. If you’re going to walk around the town with friends, go to areas that you know.
Most of all, have fun. Halloween is not just some government-produced holiday
in order to boost the economy. Bring back memories of when you went out as Mickey
Mouse, and create new memories.
