Favorite Halloween Activities as an Adult

The first somewhat major holiday, as celebrated in the United States, in the autumn is Halloween. It was probably my second-favorite holiday (after Christmas) as a child. I loved to dress up in costumes and go trick-or-treating. I relished the resulting bag of sweets, as my parents desperately tried to ration the candy over a longer period of time (it never lasted long). As I got a bit older, I delighted in decorating the house and attempting to scare away other trick-or-treaters in the hope of keeping the candy bowl for myself! 

I still enjoy Halloween, even though I’m unfortunately too old to go trick-or-treating myself. Here are a few things I like to do this time of year as an adult: 

1) Decorations and Pumpkin Carving 

Get into the Halloween spirit with your decorations! And, if you tend to forget which month it is, the decorations double as a helpful reminder!  

Decorations don’t have to be intricate or fancy. Grab a mini pumpkin from the local store for your mantle. Have some cling stickers for your window. Stretch a spider web near your front door. Make a fake gravestone out of a spare cardboard box. You can get creative with simple craft items you already have at home without spending a fortune. 

Another fun and simple thing to do is to carve a pumpkin. Grab a medium or large pumpkin and plan your design. I’ll admit, I hate cleaning out the pumpkin seeds and stringy insides (so much to take out!), but the carving itself is fun. And it’s so much easier with adult strength and coordination than it was as a kid. Once done, put your light or small candle in the pumpkin and enjoy at night! (Please observe safety protocol though!) 

2) Handing Out Candy 

I may be too old to go trick-or-treating, but I can certainly hand out candy. If you want to get fully in the spirit, you can be in costume as well! I enjoy seeing the costumes the kids choose each year…and also to help make their holiday more special. Strangely, I was the only person in our apartment building handing out candy pre-pandemic…so yes, if you’re home and available, take a candy shift for your neighborhood kids! 

Is it a bad sign that the scariest costume for me was the kid dressed as a dirty laundry hamper? I guess I’m old now…

3) Baking Muffins and Other Goodies

One simply cannot forget the all-important sense of taste—and this is where pumpkin spice comes in! If you like your pumpkin spice lattes, now is the time to get them. However, I prefer pumpkin baked goods. I love baking pumpkin chocolate chip muffins (see recipe here) and pumpkin pancakes.  For any pumpkin recipe, you’ll need pumpkin purée at add to the batter. 

Another snack favorite is the Belvita Pumpkin Spice Breakfast Biscuits. A limited edition flavor, the biscuits are the perfect mix of sweet pumpkin spice and the biscuit’s nutritious whole grain. With four biscuits in one serving packet, this snack is the perfect grab-and-go breakfast for fueling a few morning hours! 

For more flavors of the season, don’t forget the apples…it is apple picking season! It is the perfect season to make apple pies, applesauce, applesauce bread, and more!  Like pumpkin, apples go wonderfully with cinnamon, nutmeg, and maple syrup. A perfect warming combination for the cooler weather! For ideas on what to do with your stash of apples, please visit this post. 

4) Visit Local Halloween Events

Halloween can also come with some special events, so definitely check out your local event calendar. Whether it is a haunted house, light show, or play, each town usually has something on. Here in New York, my favorite event is The Great Jack-O-Lantern Blaze. You can probably guess that it has something to do with carved pumpkins—and you would be right! Set up as a sort of outdoor museum and fair, this event features displays of carved pumpkins by multitudes of artists. Arranged as part of sculptures (like a dragon), a pumpkin bridge, or as part of a backlit painting, this pumpkin exhibit is a great family-friendly walk-through event. For those of us with very young children, however, I may suggest waiting until the child is a old enough to remember it and not be petrified by glowing pumpkin faces in the dark. Tickets are sold in advance and generally sell out quickly—be sure to pick a time that is completely after dark to best enjoy the jack-o-lanterns! 

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Another New York spot to visit is the small town of Sleepy Hollow. You probably have heard of it due to Washington Irving’s fictional story The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, featuring a headless horseman. As the story is the town’s main claim to fame, Sleepy Hollow puts on extra Halloween events, such as a play and after dark tours of the cemetery (you can find Washington Irving buried there among other recognizable names). If that doesn’t suit you, you can also visit Washington Irving’s “Sunnyside” home and the nearby Rockefeller home Kykuit. 

Okay, so I admit I left off the costume party, but as I’m a bit of an introvert that isn’t really my thing. So I stand by the four ideas listed—which I do enjoy to some degree every year. Some years I go all-out and other years I am a bit more muted in my Halloween celebration. But I always do something. Even if you aren’t as keen on the holiday as I am, I find doing something seasonal helps to break up the monotony of the work year and at least helps me enjoy the autumn season more. 

Related Posts: 

The Best Pumpkin Products at Trader Joe’s 

5 Places for the Best Fall Hiking In New York 

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