PHOTO BY ALLIE LEASK / THE SPUTNIK PHOTOGAPHY

Disclaimer: This post is taken from Waterloo campus’ student newspaper The Cord and is also featured on their website https://thecord.ca/. 

Halloween is undoubtedly going to look a little different this year.

With Premier Doug Ford warning against trick-or-treating, and the Waterloo Region District School Board asking kids not to wear costumes to school, the usual spooky celebrations may not be feasible and are at the very least being cautioned against. 

While most university students probably weren’t planning on trick-or-treating, most cities are recommending that we reduce our social bubbles, meaning that we can’t party with our friends like we would in a normal year.

As disappointing as it is, there’s more to Halloween than dressing up and standing around in a grungy student house with a bunch of randoms you’ll never see again. There’s an abundance of ways that Halloween can still be celebrated this year. 

With that said, here are few suggestions for those who still want to celebrate Halloween in a pandemic-friendly and virus-thwarting way. 

Have a Halloween movie marathon 

In first year, my friends and floormates all got together and watched Twitches—on the weekend that I decided to go home. Since then, I’ve never experienced a Halloween-themed movie night. 

This year, plan a movie marathon with your roommates. Each of you can pick a movie (or a few) and can watch them together. You can cram it all into one night, or space it out through the course of a few days. 

This of course can be altered to your tastes—whether you’re into scary movies, like The Conjuring, more family-friendly movies like The Nightmare Before Christmas, or somewhere in between, like Coraline. 

Make individual treat bags

As unjust as it may be (and this is worthy of its own article), most neighbourhoods aren’t particularly accepting of trick-or-treating university students.

It seems like Halloween fun just becomes unacceptable after a certain age. Regardless, there’s no reason that you can’t celebrate by making your own goodie bags for your friends. This is honestly something that should be more common, pandemic or not. 

Buy some of your favourite candy in bulk (maybe throw in some of the big chocolate bars), and hand them out to your friends the next time you see them. If you tell your friends in advance, then all of you can plan to make goodie bags for each other and trade them amongst yourselves, socially-distanced, of course. 

Host a virtual costume party

I tend to be a last-minute costume shopper, but some people may have had their costume planned for months in advance, in anticipation of Halloween this year. 

If you’re one of those people, or if you don’t have a costume yet but need a reason to go buy one, then think about hosting a virtual costume party with your friends. In an effort to maintain tradition, you can even think about carving pumpkins and eating candy together. 

Make Halloween-themed drinks

For some people, Halloween may just be another reason to party. You can easily make a few Halloween themed-cocktails from home. 

There are plenty—if not more—non-alcoholic, fall-themed drink ideas available as well such as homemade butterbeer, pumpkin flavoured lattes, hot chocolate, apple cider and more.

These can be customized to your liking and are likely going to end up being cheaper than any store-bought drinks you could purchase.