We’ve lost count of the number of times we’ve said [insert jovial activity here] won’t be the same this year, but Halloweening at home seems like a particularly sorry state of affairs.
No trick or treating or large gatherings (boo), no eerie encounters in your local haunt navigating p*ss poor decorations suspended from windows and doorways, dipping themselves in your pint a little bit. Like Emily In Paris, the Halloween pub crawl was so bad, it was good.
But all is not lost, and Halloween is far from cancelled. The holiday can still be celebrated from home and not suck. In fact, it could be great. Think about it. No paranormal punters – here for it. Happy hour turns into a Happy Night of cheap booze, and no queuing to get served – we love to see it. Your costume can be as pants or as extra as you are willing to make it because you’re just swanning about at home – ok, jomo officially wins.
Ready to raise a devilish glass to the tail-end of 2020? Show us one witch who isn’t! Here are a few ideas for how you can make the most of Halloween from home this year.
Carve pumpkins
Whilst scooping out the innards of a pumpkin may not scream high-key hoot, it’s a classic Halloween activity and this year of all the years, we need to maximise the spirit of the holiday.
Whether you pick up a pumpkin from your local patch or round up a few for the whole family from the supermarket, you’ve ultimately failed at October 31 if you’re not carving out teeth, fondling the pulpy anatomy of a ribbed Winter squash and arguing about whether it’s a fruit or a vegetable. Happy Halloween.
Have a dinner party
Dress your pad up all spooky and invite a few people over for a feast. Just make sure you’re abiding by the rule of six. Pumpkin cannelloni, anyone?
Make ghoulish cocktails
Make happy hour come to you with warm homemade apple cider to soothe your soul and Halloween-themed tipples. Check out a few of our favourite drinks to sink, here. Cheers, witches!
Tell ghost stories
Make a duvet fort, huddle round, grab a torch and spin that hair-raising Bloody Mary yarn.
Have a Halloween movie marathon
For a bit of mellow magic, there’s Hocus Pocus, Coraline and The Nightmare Before Christmas. Yeah, the debate rages on about whether Tim Burton’s stop-motion masterpiece falls into the Halloween or Christmas movie category, but we say it’s a unique hybrid that deserves to be played as soon as the first crispy leaf falls from the tree, right the way through to December.
For high stakes terror, there’s Roald Dahl’s The Witches. It’s still petrifying all these years later and the remake starring Anne Hathaway is set to drop October 26, just in time for Halloween. It will be available to stream on Premium Video On Demand (PVOD), so be there or be scared.
There’s also creepy classics such as The Exorcist, The Sixth Sense and A Nightmare On Elm Street if losing sleep and needing someone to escort you to the toilet in the middle of the night is your thing.
Get your bake on
Move over banana bread, the crown belongs to pumpkin spice latte cake now. Cackles.
Snack like tomorrow doesn’t exist
Skeleton Fingers, Mr Kipling Toffee Terror Whirls, chocolate eyeballs. If it’s got a Halloween pun on the packaging, we’re like putty in those chocolate-makers’ hands.
Make a spooktastic playlist
You shall go to the monsters’ ball. A playlist full of eerie tracks and must-play jams will get you in the Halloween mood. Alexa, play Bette Midler, I Put A Spell On You.
Dress up, still!
Hey, even if you just get someone to throw a stockpiled toilet roll at your head and torso, a half-arsed effort is better than nothing.
Indulge in a bewitching bath
Welcome to the hangover-free club. Ditch the plans and celebrate the spookiest time of the year with a good thriller and a long soak in the tub until you’re wrinklier than the Grand High Witch herself. It’s the ultimate jomo ritual.
Go ghosting
Rule of 6 got you feeling all kinds of trick or treat FOMO? Make up a bag of Halloween-themed treats and leave it on your friend or neighbour’s doorstep.
