There’s just something so calming about cooler weather, pumpkins, sweaters and the color orange.
For every year since I was kid, I wait patiently for mid-September to come around. Middle and late September meant fall was coming, and with fall came the Halloween festivities.
I started dressing up for Halloween when I was a baby. Rocking outfits like a bee at 1, all the way to a zombie cheerleader when I was 12, I loved dressing up in different costumes.
Halloween was the one day of the year that my parents let me go out with my friends from the neighborhood and meet all of the kids nearby. I was a kid, and Halloween meant friends and free candy. Is there even a better combo?
As I got older, I started to grow out of trick or treating and picked up a new favorite Halloween celebration: haunted houses. I love a good scare, and our neighborhood’s annual haunted house always left me shaken to the core for the rest of the night.
When I got to high school, our football team hosted a Trunk or Treat every year for the kids in the local community. I decorated my trunk every year with a different theme to include zombies, wicked pumpkins and a princess trunk for the young girls. This quickly became my favorite Halloween tradition and I still miss it.
Being in my 20s now, I opt out of trick or treating and love to decorate my house. Pumpkins on all shelves, a doormat that reads “It’s Spooky Season, Witches,” and all of the fall smells. As I’ve gotten older, I’ve come to love fall and all it encompasses.
Call me basic, but I’m a sucker for all things pumpkin. As soon as Starbucks releases their famed Pumpkin Spice Latte, I’m in line waiting for my share. I love to make pumpkin bread and the pumpkin donuts from Safeway have a special place in my heart during the season.
In Colorado it starts getting colder in late September. Being from Florida where even December has 70-degree temperatures, the Colorado fall is special. I take any opportunity I can get to walk around in the fall temperatures.
Halloween movies like “Hocus Pocus,” “Halloweentown” and the original “Halloween” movies are always streaming at my home during this time of year. A perfect day in my house involves watching “Hocus Pocus,” drinking a PSL and cuddling up with a blanket.
Over the years, it’s evident that my reasons for loving the season have changed. When I was younger, I loved the sense of community that Halloween brought, and the candy was an added bonus. But now, being in my 20s, I’ve realized that I love fall because it’s like a reset.
When fall comes around the theme of my home resets. The smells warming in the air turn to pumpkin, cinnamon and apple and the weather cools down. I think I love fall so much because it’s a full reset from summer and a chance to start over for a new season.
But don’t get me wrong; I will not turn down a piece of Halloween candy no matter how old I get!
