Decorate Your Home

Whether cobwebs or pumpkins, decorations are a great way to get in the groove for this holiday. Some people choose to enhance their space in grand, extravagant ways, but there isn’t anything wrong with going simple. A great way to decorate is to carve pumpkins. Carving pumpkins is a fun activity to do with friends and family.  Just make a plan and carve away. Some have artistic talent and can free hand their design. However, if you are challenged in that department, Halloween stores sell templates to help. There are many ways to do this besides the classic smiling jack-o-lantern. You can create a cat, witch, ghost or anything that you want. The power is in your hands; but be careful, you won’t want any accidents with the knife! Another fun idea you can do yourself is making a string of ghost lights out of paper cups.  Grab some paper cups and add googly eyes on them and string them onto those Christmas lights you have in storage. An alternative to the paper cups is filling empty milk jugs with faces drawn on with a light. These DIY decorations can give you home spirited

Trick Your Friends and Family

A good scare can never hurt, but be creative. Not that there is anything wrong with jumping out at your sister wearing a scream mask, but you can always think outside the box. I’m not supporting giving your parents a pregnancy scare, but you can go for a clever candy apple trick. Get some onions and cover them with caramel like you are making a sweet dessert. Hand them out to your friends saying they are candy apples, but when they bite into them they will realize their treat is a trick!

Have a Scary Movie Marathon

Grab some popcorn, friends and your favorite spooky films!  Who needs to go out when you have Netflix and some buddies? It’s easy to organize for and is a lot of fun to do. Some recommendations are Nightmare on Elm Street, Insidious, Friday the 13th and of course, Halloween.  Some movies in theaters coming up are Insidious 2, Dark Touch, Carrie, Ghost Team One and I Spit on Your Grave 2. Insidious 2 is of course the sequel to Insidious, a movie surrounded by a supposedly haunted house. Dark Touch is a film about a girl who notices supernatural occurrences happening in her home. Carrie is the remake of an older movie made in 1976 about a girl who develops telekinetic powers for revenge. Ghost Team One is a documentary style comedy/supernatural movie.  I Spit on Your Grave 2 is a sequel about a model in New York who gets severely beaten. All these movies will be in theaters this October!

Bobbing for Apples

Bobbing for apples is a classic Halloween game. It is not as easy as it seems though.  You can play this game with time constraints or other rules that make it challenging for the player.  Be careful though: if you use a hot tub as your apple bath, you may start bobbing for apple sauce!

Go to a Restaurant

A restaurant may sound confusing for a Halloween outing; however, there are a number of eateries that have special deal for this day. The Melting Pot chain is having magicians stroll from table to table. There are also raffle tickets and prizes. If you come to the restaurant in your costume, you receive a free ticket!

Go to an Amusement Park

Almost all theme parks redecorate for holidays, and Halloween is no exception. Universal Studios Hollywood has ‘Hollywood Halloween Horror Nights’, where spooky actors walk around and its maze is decked out. This lasts through November 2nd. If you want something less scary, Disneyland is the right route. Disney has happy pumpkins decorations and singing characters to entertain visitors; it is a great place to visit with your family.  Disney’s entire park is decorated for this holiday through October 31st, and of course the famous Knott’s Scary Farm. Going to this park is even considered a tradition to some. With mazes and monsters at every corner, visiting Knott’s is exciting way to spend Halloween with friends. This attraction is there for your fun up through November 2nd. Those are the most popular parks but there are plenty more out there for your Halloween fun.

A Not So Scary Approach

There is what seems like an infinite number of scary ways to celebrate Halloween, but if that isn’t your favorite thing here are a few other activities to do. Dia de Los Muertos is on November 2nd. This is a Mexican holiday that gathers families together to remember their loved ones that have passed. You can celebrate in Hollywood Forever Cemetery from 12 pm to midnight.

Throw or Attend a Costume Party

Attending costume parties is a fun way to show your friends your costume. If you don’t know of any parties in your neighborhood, throw your own. You can combine a number of the previous suggestions to for this party like decorations, tricks, and apple bobbing. You can have costume awards like funniest or most original. You can organize some games as well like pin the face on the jack-o-lantern, a mummy wrapping game with toilet paper, telling scary stories, and hitting a Halloween-themed piñata. It’s a lively social event that allows everyone to be creative.

Binge on Candy

There are very few times of the year when eating tons of candy are acceptable. Trade with your friends and eat ‘til you’re as big as a pumpkin. While you can, pig out on Snickers, Kit-Kats, Sour Patch, Starbursts and candy corn! Just be sure there are no dentist appointments on November 1st!

Go to a Haunted House

Haunted houses are cliché but that’s what Halloween is about. Right?  You can go to an attraction or even a ‘real’ haunted house if you’re feeling supernatural. There are a number of haunted attractions like Halloween Haunted Hayride, Halloween Ghost Train, Queen Mary’s Dark Harbor, Old Town Haunt in Pasadena, The Haunted House at Haunted Hill, Paranoia in Santa Monica and Beacon House Haunt. To take it a step further go to a cemetery. Hollywood Forever Cemetery shows movies from earlier eras in a creepy graveyard. Spending your Halloween in a haunted area makes your evening much spookier.