How can we celebrate Halloween 2020, COVID-free? Don't let "The Corona" (as my momma calls it) make you cancel having a good time, especially for the kids!

How to best celebrate Halloween in 2020 is a dilemma for many parents (and probably you, too) who are rightly concerned about anyone in their family catching the coronavirus. It is going to be tough not feeling "safe" enough to go back to having giant Halloween trick-or-treating events and parties.

The subject of how to best keep Halloween alive during these trying times came up as a post last week in a Facebook group I am in. There are a lot of high-risk people living in your neighborhood, so the last thing you want to do is go marching up onto their front porch "scaring" them with the thought of catching the coronavirus from Trick or Treaters.

Some of the suggestions in the Facebook group definitely did not disappoint. I am going to use pretty much each of these ideas for me and my 9-year-old daughter, Willow, and I hope at least one or two of them will be great for you to use, too.

Just remember to turn on your porch light if you decide to give out candy and please for the love of PETE, turn your porch light OFF if you aren't. In the meantime, check these out: 8 ways to celebrate Halloween without worrying about catching COVID-19:

  1. "Backyard Treasure Hunt in costume." I love this idea because you can run inside the house if your body starts to get too cold, or you can run inside to grab a beverage and some snacks! I still haven't decided what I am going to wear this Halloween but I know it will be something Harlem Renaissance-y. Willow says she wants her costume to be Chucky from the 1998 movie Child's Play so that she "can scare people!" How she found out about that little demon-possessed Chucky, I guess I will never know!
  2. "Social distance pumpkin carving in costume." You can readily find pumpkin carving kits for cheap at just about any dollar store. I found mine at Dollar Stretcher on Lincoln Ave. I got lucky today and spotted a battery-powered pumpkin carving power drill set at the Union Gap WinCo grocery store for about 5 bucks. It was the last one left, but I am sure they will be restocking them closer to Halloween.
  3. "Stay home and watch horror movies all night." Since Willow is 9, I have to be careful of which "scary" movies we watch on Halloween, and it's not because I worry that she will have nightmares. She wants to be Chucky and she's been begging me to watch Child's Play, as I mentioned before. My concern is that I will never hear the end of it, she will be quoting lines from the movies for the next several weeks. I don't want to come home from work and hear her saying things like, "Hi, I'm Chucky-Willow, and I wouldn't talk if I were you." (Child's Play is available to rent for $3.99 on YouTube Movies, Prime Video, and Google Play Movies.)
  4. "Maybe listen to a little devil music like AC/DC or Guns 'N Roses and possibly play the albums backward." Whoever it was that said that comment on Facebook is too silly! But they could be on to something fun. Now I've just got to find a working record player (and some GNR on vinyl).
  5. "Buy your own bags of candy and play trivia games with the kids." I still have a nearly full bag of candy leftover from LAST Halloween. I am pretty sure that is not acceptable to eat anymore, but I'm surely gonna try it! Here is a link from IceBreakers.com that has some Halloween trivia questions.
  6. "Dressing up as Catwoman's fat aunt and eating a bowl of candy in front of the TV." The lady who gave this suggestion has it all figured out. This is actually my Halloween dream--to stay at home, not get dressed up in a costume, and plop in front of my television watching stuff that I want to watch and eat up all my snacks, and scream "Leave me alone!" every time the doorbell rings on Halloween night, even though I'd have the porch lights turned off.
  7. "Hey, do your own Halloween at-home party for adults (the fam and the kids)." As much as I want to be a Halloween Grinch, I have already RSVP'd to a pumpkin carving party at my friend's farm in the Lower Valley. It will be a fun, small, intimate gathering of a few friends and our kids in costumes.
  8. Find a Social Distancing Trunk or Treat event. I know there will be several trunk-or-treats close by in your neighborhood, you just have to look around a bit. I heard there is one in Yakima at 915 Summitview Ave at 5 p.m., behind the One Stop Mini Mart.

With all of these great ideas, I already know this year is going to be one of your most memorable Halloweens ever, one for the ages!

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