As far back as late 2019, people were already getting excited about Halloween 2020 falling on a Saturday:
Halloween 2020: 6 Distanced Ideas for a Night That Doesn't Completely Suck
Ideas for a safe, distanced Halloween this year (Gabby K/Pexels)
...and it's fair to say even that when the COVID-19 pandemic first took hold, and shelter-in-place orders were imposed in the Bay Area, many of us weren't imagining that social distancing mandates would still be in effect by Halloween.
But here we are, in late October 2020, with no end to the pandemic yet in sight. It's no wonder then that this changed Halloween might symbolize everything about 2020 that's been denied us.
Skip to:
- Advice on lower-risk trick-or-treating this year
- Making a distanced candy chute
- The benefits of horror movies for body and mind
Certainly, the state's advice for safely celebrating Halloween during the COVID-19 pandemic focuses mainly on what you can't do. For a start, traditional trick-or-treating is heavily discouraged.
"The whole act of going door-to-door in groups, ringing doorbells, digging into buckets of delicious candy … create a risk of spreading COVID-19," said California Health and Human Services Secretary Dr. Mark Ghaly earlier this month.
Large Halloween parties are out too, because of the high risk of transmission. If a small gathering isn't with a household's pandemic "pod," then it should be distanced outdoors, include no more than three separate households and limited to two hours, Ghaly said.
It's also worth noting that October and November mark the beginning of other holidays that center social gatherings, including Día de los Muertos, Diwali and Thanksgiving. So it's especially important to heed ongoing guidance about wearing face coverings, maintaining social distance with people outside of your household.
Ultimately, public health officials want you to know that the safest way to celebrate Halloween this year is at home or virtually. But given how much of the pleasures of this holiday are about gathering to celebrate, how can you make the most of of the holiday if you're distanced from others, or at home?
Glad you asked. We have six ideas for you that we hope might make Halloween 2020 suck a little less.
How Local Health Officials Suggest You Trick-or-Treat at a Distance
The COVID-19 pandemic doesn't mean that all forms of trick or treat are totally off the table this year. On the understanding that some folks will still head out with their kids on Halloween, Bay Area's county health officials have categorized "one-way trick-or-treating where individually wrapped goodie bags are lined up for families to grab and go" as a "moderate risk" activity — as long as trick-or-treaters continue to physically distance "such as at the end of a driveway or at the edge of a yard."
Bay Area health officials recommend that distanced trick-or-treaters do the following while kids are out:
- Bring hand sanitizer and use it frequently, and also wash their hands the minute they return home — especially after handling candy or goodie bags
- Keep their distance from other trick-or-treaters, and wear a face covering
- Don't eat the candy they take while you're outside, because that means they're removing their masks and touching wrappers.
Remember, per official guidance, any kind of trick-or-treating this year still holds risk during the pandemic. With that in mind, taking costumed kids on a safe, distanced neighborhood stroll to look at house decorations and enjoy the autumnal chill without collecting any candy might ultimately be the safest, lowest-stress activity a family could plan this Halloween.
As Día de los Muertos occurs a few short days after the Halloween weekend, the official guidance also includes guidelines for how to celebrate safely. Officials encourage you to honor loved ones who've passed while staying at home, sharing music and memories, preparing family recipes with members of your household and creating an altar for your ancestors within the home.
Design Some Distanced Candy Delivery
What if you're staying home and anticipate such distanced trick-or-treaters at your door and don't want to leave them empty-handed? It might be time to get creative with distanced candy delivery.
Phoenix Artifex is a Bay Area educator whose Phoenix's Curiosity Cabinet program teaches young people about science through design and manufacture. Right now they're virtually collaborating with their students to build a grand trick or treat candy catapult — one that could launch sweet treats without the need for physical proximity between giver and taker.
Since a catapult probably isn't suitable — or safe — for the average front yard, Artifex recommends that if you're contemplating building a distanced candy delivery system for your own home, you should think about simpler options: like a slide or a chute. You might consider constructing a rudimentary slide out of cardboard boxes — or a pipe made from connected mailing tubes — and then work on adjusting the angles for a truly “practical candy delivery system," Artifex says.
Whatever you decide to build, Artifex recommends you think about the scale of your project, the kind of distance you're hoping to cover with your design and the "scatter field" your contraption will result in. For safety reasons, bear in mind the force with which you're planning to launch the candy at trick-or-treaters, not to mention the hardness of your candy or goodie bags.
Daly City residents Beau Logo and Kayla Golub are one of those who've built a haunted candy chute outside their home, and shared their method with KQED. It's a length of 4" PVC pipe, selected for its long length. An earlier prototype was made of smaller sections of pipe connected together, but test deployments of candy kept getting stuck in the joints. The black pipe was then covered with orange duct tape, for a suitably "Halloween" look.
Completing Golub and Logo's yard is their graveyard display through which trick-or-treaters can approach, which was inspired by their favorite Halloween movie, "Hocus Pocus." They've also placed markers on the ground 6 feet apart, "in case a line forms," Golub says. The whole thing is a way for the pair to safely continue inviting people to "come have fun and enjoy [Logo's] labor of love, especially during this time when we all need a feeling of normalcy and community connection," she says.
If you're at home facilitating any form of distanced candy delivery, Bay Area health officials recommend you:
- Wash your hands with soap and water for at least 20 seconds before and after preparing candy or goodie bags
- Keep your distance from trick-or-treaters, and wear a face covering
Get a 'High' from a Horror Movie...
Sitting down to watch a horror movie on Halloween might sound like kind of an obvious recommendation. But according to Margee Kerr, a sociologist and author of "Scream: Chilling Adventures in the Science of Fear," it could be a surprisingly great way to reap some physical and psychological benefits
Why? When you choose to watch a horror movie, and commit to around two hours of thrills, jump scares and screams, you've made the decision to "suspend disbelief and enter this kind of fantasy world where you're going to get scared," Kerr says.
That means, she clarifies, all of your regular focus "essentially is re-prioritized away from critical thinking" and your day-to-day reality. You're not thinking about your groceries or your bills (or the pandemic, or the election), and your body is instead going into "fight or flight mode."
The effect on your body is a highly grounding one, Kerr says, and can make movie-watchers feel extra present and focused. What's more, Kerr says, study participants she's worked with have reported "higher mood" after choosing an activity — like watching a horror movie — that brings them into that fight or flight state.
Among those people, Kerr says their improvement in positive mood was rooted in feeling like they actually challenged their fears and learned about themselves. This feeling of empowerment, control and resilience, Kerr says, might feel especially good right now, in the middle of a pandemic with a contentious election looming.
"I think we could all use an opportunity to feel like 'we can do it.'"
...or Any Intense Movie, Really...
Kerr reminds you that that it's okay not to enjoy certain types of scary movies; 'body horror,' for example, or violent slashers. You might also decide to choose a lighter, comedic horror movie instead for fewer scares or less gore. If you're watching with younger members of your household, you might opt for a more kid-friendly Halloween movie like, say, "Hocus Pocus" or "Coraline" (or "The Nightmare Before Christmas," if you're prepared for the inevitable arguments about whether it's a holiday movie or a Halloween movie.)
But what if you're a fan of Halloween who really doesn't like any horror movies? If that's you, you shouldn't force yourself to watch one, or allow anyone else to bully you into it, Kerr says. That's because those physical and psychological benefits that can come from watching a horror movie occur because you've chosen to watch it.
It's mainly about seeking out a viewing experience that's going to bring you an experience of intense emotion. For you, that might be more about crying at a romantic weepie or laughing hard at a beloved comedy than screaming at a slasher movie.
"Whenever we choose to do something that takes us to a place of intensity, it's going to make it get us to that point of feeling centered in our body, and feeling like we are more in control," she says.
Sponsored
Find Ways to Get Spooky With Others — Virtually
Speaking of watching scary movies, if you've ever watched one in a movie theater surrounded by strangers experiencing the same gasps, shrieks and laughs as you are, you'll know how fun and meaningful that collective experience can be — or how good it feels to watch an intense movie with a group of people at home with the lights off.
That transformative feeling of belonging that comes from togetherness in one place, Kerr says, is what French sociologist Émile Durkheim called "collective effervescence." And unfortunately, with the need to maintain social distancing this Halloween, no parties means no watch parties for shared movie-viewing with multiple friends — outside of your pandemic pod.
If you're hoping to recreate the feeling on Zoom with a virtual watch-party — or an online costumed dance party with friends — you should go into it knowing that it can't be 100% the same as getting together in person, Kerr says. And that you shouldn't feel dejected when it just doesn't feel the same as a "normal" Halloween.
Nonetheless, being online together can still help you build some "strong social connectedness," she advises. Especially if all participants commit to really being present, to preserve that idea of a completely shared experience. "I do think that's critical and important that we use any mechanism to stay connected that we can," she says.
If you can't safely be with other people outside of your household because they're not in your pandemic "pod," and you really want to leave your house, Kerr suggests investigating drive-in movie theaters near you.
The West Wind drive-in in Solano County, for example, is showing scary movies like "I am Legend," "Carrie" and "IT" during Halloween week (plus movies like "Monsters, Inc." for younger moviegoers.) It's a way to get a sense of that shared collective experience — "where everybody's attention is on the same thing," Kerr says — while maintaining social distancing from the comfort of your car.
Finally, Take the Day (and Night) Off 'Doomscrolling'
Halloween is meant to be a time of pleasing terrors, but perhaps consider taking online "doomscrolling" off the monstrous menu this year — especially if you're staying home.
The term itself — popularized by investigative journalist Karen K. Ho — refers to that compulsive social media browsing and headline consumption we can all fall prey to. In the words of KQED's Nastia Voynovskaya: it's "the habit of obsessively refreshing your newsfeed and losing yourself in headlines, tweets and comments about the pandemic, the wildfires, the election and systemic racism."
So why not commit to making Halloween the one night you don't read bad news on Twitter?
Whether you decide to occupy yourself with operating your homemade Halloween candy contraption for any trick-or-treaters you receive, or dedicating yourself to watching a spooky movie with the lights off, consider trying to stay off the internet and keep away from the doomscroll. Our guide to avoiding doomscrolling has practical tips for achieving this goal, including which apps might help you limit your consumption.
Happy Halloween!
Sponsored