Friday, October 31, 2008

How to rock a last-minute Halloween

illustration by neato coolville

I'm a total Halloween nerd who regularly plans her costume weeks in advance. Last weekend I was nearly worked into a snit when I had to throw together an impromptu costume. The horror, I know! But if you have such a full life that you haven't been able to devote that last few weeks to readying yourself for this most awesome of holidays, fear not! There's still fun to be had at the last minute.

Get your friends together for a scary story party. Flashlight under the chin required.

Visit your local haunted house. No, not the one put on by the Catholic Youth Group - the one where Old Man Jenkins lay undiscovered for a month before anyone noticed he was missing. Cwwweeepy.

Put together a costume from what you have in your closet and recycling bin. Yes, it's possible! Look here and here for ideas.

Stay in and hand out candy to all the be-costumed kiddies. 3 points for dressing up, 4 points for dressing up your dog, 10 points for responding to 'Trick or Treat!' with 'Trick' and then doing that 'removing your finger' bit.

Engage in a little harmless tomfoolery - Wrap saranwrap around your friend's car and draw on it with a sharpie.

Play a round of ouiji board with your friends. Try to get ahold of James Dean or Anna Nicole.

What are your plans?

5 comments:

sparkleandglitter said...

Some great ideas here! I'm going out to a party quite early, to scare the trick-or-treaters then make cocktails after they've all gone home!

Sal said...

My friend Annie lives in a real haunted house down in Hastings. And there is NO CHANCE of me visiting her tonight.

Great suggestions, though, lady! Another good trick for the treaters is "one of my arms is longer than the other." A classic.

The Dutchess of Kickball said...

There is an abandoned psych hospital in the area and I really want to go explore, but I don't really want to get arrested or anything.

Sarah Von said...

Dutchess - that is sooooo scary! My friends and I used to scare the sweet bejesus out of ourselves by poking around a condemed high school in the woods. Maybe not the greatest thing to do when you're 17 and drunk on Boon's Farm ...

House of Jules said...

I'm going to try to stop laughing at my old college roommate's story of how her husband scared the crap out of her in the middle of the night (read today's post on my blog). Then I'll probably count the hours until the Halloween candy goes on sale while drinking some kind of ghoulish punch at my neighbor's party. YAY for friends having parties! HAPPY HALLOWEEN!
Jules
House of Jules