By Catrina Thomen, Arts Editor
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic and poor air quality caused by the wildfires, trick-or-treating and partying may not be the safest way to celebrate the holiday this year. So we at "The Shamrock" came up with 10 fun halloween activities to do at home or with household members!
1. Do Halloween inspired makeup.
Opposed to dressing up to go nowhere, play around with some halloween makeup and test some looks.
“I think it’s a lot nicer to do makeup because halloween is the only time all year you could look like anything,” sophomore Lillianna Castro said. “If halloween is supposed to be a day where u can be anyone sure dressing up is a part of that but changing facial features i think is the cherry on top it really completes a costume.”
2. Make Halloween treats.
Bake treats with a Halloween twist, whether it be with the decorations or a festive ingredient. Baking ideas include Halloween shaped cookies like pumpkins and gravestones, or Halloween decorated cakes and cupcakes.
3. Binge Halloween classics.
Get a list of your favorite Halloween movies and have your own movie marathon. There are family friendly classics like "The Nightmare Before Christmas," the "Hotel Transylvania" series, and "Corpse Bride." More graphic films include "The Ring," "Carrie," "The Shining," and "The Blair Witch Project."
4. Carve pumpkins.
With immediate family, have a pumpkin carving contest or set up a relaxing area outside and carve a pumpkin. Find a pumpkin carving kit to have the necessary tools and a large, easily cleanable area to clean out, design, and carve your pumpkin.
5. Read a scary book.
Get comfortable with a good scary book to help pass the time.
“My favorite scary book to recommend is ‘The Amityville Horror’ by Jay Anson,” English teacher Katrina Tweed said. “There are a few moments in the book that will make you rethink walking around in the dark at night.”
Recommendations from Tweed also include “The Exorcist,” “Carrie,” “Dracula,” “Goosebumps,” and “Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark.”
6. Play Halloween games.
With immediate family, set up a variety of different Halloween inspired games. Some game ideas are Pin the Hat on the Witch, Bobbing for Apples, and other games like Bean Bag Toss or Tic-Tac-toe but with a Halloween flare.
7. Put up decorations.
In the beginning of the day, put Halloween decorations throughout the home. Easy at home decorations can be paper ghost or skeletons on the wall, cotton for spiderwebs, and even adding black & orange decorative accents to popular rooms.
8. Go ghost hunting.
Believer or not, try to see if you can find traces of the other side. Online you can find plenty of apps and websites made to track ghosts. There's a variety of games and activities online you can find depending on what you want to do.
9. Have a scaring contest.
With the members in your household, try to scare each other throughout the day and crown a winner. Set up some basic guidelines & rules and find creative ways to startle each other. Play by amount of scares, or extremity of scares. May the best scare win!
10. Do a scavenger hunt.
Have one person set up a Halloween inspired scavenger hunt and have fun. Have a variety of mind working and fun physical tasks working towards a common goal, such as solving a riddle or a puzzle, and possibly even revealing a Halloween story along the way.
Whatever your plans for Halloween this year, remember to keep it safe.....and spooky!
Great work on the articles that you guys posted!