With Halloween right around the corner, cold weather, the leaves changing colors, many students have begun to make plans for the special night. Dressing up, trick-or-treating, and going to parties are all exciting activities during the fall season. Although this year Halloween is a bit up in the air because of COVID-19—trick-or-treating or going to a party may not be safe yet—dressing up and watching scary movies at home are safe and popular among many Tigard students.

     Some students have even figured out a way to do it all.

     “I am dressing up and having a movie party with friends, and doing a little trick-or-treating,” freshman Chloe Roberts said. 

     According to USA Today, 2021’s most popular Halloween costumes were a witch, a rabbit, a dinosaur, spiderman, Cruella DeVille, a fairy, a cowboy, and a clown. This year’s most popular Halloween costumes are characters from Squid Game, a gorilla, Britney Spears, Carnage, and Venom. There are so many creative ideas for Halloween costumes this year and so many ways you could make your own. Halloween isn’t just about the treats, dressing up as something scary is a great way to trick any kids passing by.  

     “This year for Halloween I am going to be a bush,” sophomore Hanna McAfee said. “I picked to be a bush because I think it would be fun to hide and scare the trick-or-treating kids.” 

     Halloween is all about the tricks and the treats in one night, but trick-or-treating could be complicated this year with COVID-19. Are people going to be passing out candy, leaving bowls of candy on their porch, or not doing anything at all? If kids are trick-or-treating this year will they wear masks while doing so? Students share their views on the safety of Halloween activities this year.

     “I feel like people should at least be careful, social distancing, and wearing masks when at people’s doors, being careful with other people around you if you don’t have a mask, and trying not to go out when you are sick to prevent other people from getting sick as well,” freshman Wajeeh Konge said. 

     Konge is not the only one who thinks caution is important.

     “With the delta variant and the still unvaccinated children, I don’t think it would be very safe to be trick-or-treating,” freshman True Kendall said. An article by Nara Schoenberg in the Chicago Tribune had some Halloween statistics. 

     Just 12% of U.S. households will trick-or-treat this year, down from 24% last year, according to a recent survey from NORC at the University of Chicago. 25% of families plan to give out candy, down from 38% in 2019.

     For students who plan on staying indoors some fun activities are Halloween baking, watching scary movies, and carving pumpkins. If no one knows what to watch, some Halloween classics are “Beetlejuice”, “Ghostbusters”, “Hocus Pocus”, “Coraline”, and “Monster House”. For whoever enjoys scarier movies that keep you up all night then “The Conjuring”, “It”, “Friday the 13th”, “A Quiet Place”, and “Midsommar” are all really good choices. 

     Baking scary treats is also a super fun activity. Layered candy corn pies, red velvet vampire cupcakes, Halloween cheesecake, and peanut butter spider cookies are just a few of the Halloween treat recipes from the Food Network website.