With Halloween already a few days away, the community of Kootenai County is getting ready! All around, people are putting up decorations and stocking up on candy. Children are getting excited to wear the costumes they have been planning, and others are filling their late nights with horror movie watching.
“This year, I am handing out candy with friends at my house,” Libby Hatcher said. “I am dressing up as Mario.”
Trick or treating is one of the many fundamentals of the joyous holiday. Many love dressing up in costumes and getting candy or passing it out. For some people, such as Libby, it’s their favorite part.
“When I was little, I loved going to rich houses and stocking up on candy with my siblings,” Gracie Taylor said, who is dressing up as Mia from The Princess Diaries this Halloween. “This year, I am celebrating my dad’s birthday and hanging out with friends . . . every year we go to a friend’s house and all celebrate together,” Taylor said.
One of the best ways to celebrate Halloween is with friends and family. The community has so many events going on this time of year, ranging from local trunk or treats at churches to haunted houses and fall festivals and dances.
Another great way to celebrate is movies! “I really like It’s the great pumpkin charlie brown,” said Evan Hensyel when asked about his favorite thing about Halloween. Many people spend their late nights watching spooky movies this time of year.
How Old is Too Old?
Halloween, for many, is such a fun day, and there are so many different ways to celebrate and fun things to do.
As a kid, there was the excitement of going home from school if it was on a weekday, about to explode with excitement because of going out later that night.
School would consist of a Halloween party filled with costumes, snacks and laughter.
At about 6 p.m., cheerful children begin to get in costumes to walk around the neighborhood with friends and parents.
Children walk outside the front door, ready to embark on a yearly adventure, not a bit worried about the freezing temperatures.
They run door to door and get various types of candy, boosted with pure joy when full-size candy bars are given away.
Now, this is mostly for kids. Being out in the cold to get candy that could be bought at the store seems unnecessary, especially when teenagers could be inside watching Halloween movies or at a haunted house with friends.
Trick or treating is not as fun after elementary school or middle school.
In high school, Halloween is celebrated less and less.
Going to a scary movie or baking Halloween cookies is more common than teens going trick or treating. As well as going to costume parties.
“My friends and I normally go to a haunted house instead or just hang out,” Brody Walters said.
Sometimes, this is not a personal choice, adults get weird about seeing teens out trick or treating.
Some parents and peers think there is a point where people are too old to trick or treat.
“Fifteen is when you are too old to go trick or treating,” Parker Bird said.
Some think there is no limit, which I disagree with. I believe that the line must be drawn after we transition from a young adult to an adult. Going with kids one day is different, but until then, going as a grown adult is just abnormal.
Plus, costumes are not as fun to get now.
Teenagers do not have the same little kid perspective that we did then. Halloween is just another day now.
