With Halloween right around the corner, it’s time to make some plans for what to do in the coming spooky holiday season. We have some suggestions to get you started: 

Pumpkin carving is a fun, artistic activity that also provides you with some solid seasonal decorations. It’s also a classic fall group project. Get some friends together, buy a pumpkin at a grocery store or farmer’s market — or go out to a farm if you’re feeling up to it. As with any artistic endeavor, a lot of how you carve pumpkins is up to your own vision, but the Midway has a video tutorial to teach the basic techniques you’ll want to know. 

The Halloween movie is a central part of the Halloween experience. Generally, Halloween movies are either horrors or comedies. Classics like “The Nightmare Before Christmas,” “Beetlejuice,”  and the “Halloween,” and “Texas Chainsaw Massacre” series, have everything that you’re looking for in a good watch when sitting at home with the lights out, hoping no one else will ring your doorbell. This year has some new releases, including the most recent entry in the Halloween franchise, “Halloween Ends”  in theaters and streaming on Peacock, and a sequel to the 1993 classic “Hocus Pocus” is streaming now on Disney+. The quality of these newer movies isn’t guaranteed, but regardless they should make for an enjoyable watch anytime during the Halloween season.  

Attractions, like roller coasters, that offer a thrill have always been big with teenagers. Haunted houses are the Halloween equivalent of this trend. For people who are interested, Chicagoland has many haunted houses, with one of the closest being in Wrigleyville. Entrants under 18 must be accompanied by a paid adult. Tickets run around $40. The general haunted house experience is to go through a building that has been set up for the activity with the appropriate caution tape and fake blood splatters. Actors dressed as the standard Halloween spooks, zombies, clowns, evil doctors and more will put on performances as you move through the house. A lot of haunted houses have special nights where the lights are off or where the actors aren’t there. Haunted houses aren’t for everyone, but if you or some of your friends want to give it a try, then it’s worth doing. 

A lot of people put time and effort into decorating their homes for Halloween or making the perfect costume. Luckily, for those of us who aren’t interested in all that hard work, you can still enjoy the fruits of their labor. A casual walk around the neighborhood on this weekend or on Halloween night is an easy way to get into the vibe of the season. See the work that people have put into this holiday, the stunning decorations, the brilliant and original costumes. See how people have turned out to encapsulate the spirit of this magical season. Then head home and have some candy.

Costumes are probably the most iconic part of the Halloween experience. They also present a conundrum for the average teenager. Halloween, particularly trick-or-treating, is a ritual that is a huge part of our youth. As we move away from that stage in our life, people are unsure if they should keep dressing up if they also want to seem cool and mature. It’s up to you whether to dress up, but some ideas for what to do if you decide are participating in a costume contest, taking out your younger sibling, and if the party invitations really aren’t forthcoming, you can always go trick-or-treating yourself.