Halloween is a favorite holiday for many. It marks the start of the holiday season, with the following months of November and December full of traditions and breaks from school.
As kids get older, many feel as if they’re too old to participate in the normal Halloween traditions, especially trick or treating. It turns into parties or just dressing up to hang out with friends on Halloween nights.
“I’m kind of growing out of the habit of trick or treating,” Edward Li said. “For me especially during the common app season, November 1st is the deadline, I’ll probably be busy with that.”
Throughout the month of October, many kids get in the “spooky spirit.” Stores sell cookies with ghosts or pumpkins on them, people decorate the interior and exterior of their houses with skeletons, and pumpkin patches are a hot spot for those looking to participate in fall activities.
Each year, Halloween costumes are highly impacted by the current trends. Whatever movies are popular, whichever celebrities are in the news, etc. This year, Barbie and Oppenheimer costumes are expected, as well as Spiderman and other movie characters.
Isabella Gayle and Paige Gregory agreed that both Barbie and Taylor Swift would be in style. For couples, a Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce costume would be seen.
“Barbie. We’re gonna be seeing a lot of Barbie and Ken, a lot of Travis Kelce and Taylor Swift, and maybe like, something spooky,” said Emily Marincic.
Every year, students struggle to think of what to dress up as. Much of their inspiration comes from Tiktok, where there are accounts whose sole purpose is to provide costume ideas. Accounts show costumes for groups of anywhere from 2-8 people, with links to Amazon products to buy.
With some students having a laid back Halloween, also comes the students who are enthusiastic about celebrating Halloween. “Yes of course I’m wearing a costume, I’m being Scooby-doo,” Caleb Janikas said.
For many high school seniors, this Halloween is a bittersweet one as for many, it is the last year they will be able to trick or treat in their neighborhood and keep the traditions from childhood going.
One student, Maria Boltz, is taking her nieces trick or treating, who are dressing up as Mario and Luigi. “I feel like there’s gonna be a lot of Spiderman, because even when it’s not Halloween people have been putting on a lot of Spiderman costumes,” Boltz said.
