Scary, fun times

Halloween has always been my favorite holiday, even when I was a child. I love the free candy, seeing people dressed up and walking around Brownsville with my family as they trick or treat. 

And now, as a tia of four kids and an older sister to a 3-year-old girl, I am even more excited about the spooky holiday. I will get to see them running around Sunday night in costumes, scared of random teens dressed as this year’s latest horrors, such as the new series “Chucky,” or as classic things, like clowns and whatnot, all while annoying the heck out of their parents to go into haunted houses they know they cannot handle.

It is an overall wonderful holiday for my big family, who absolutely love all scary things. 

Because we have always been fans of spooky stuff–haunted houses, horror movies about paranormal events or with gore and scaring each other around the house–it is not a big deal when trick-or-treating is not an option.

With the pandemic still looming over us and my family being worried about themselves and the kids, we decided we can still have a great time with a horror movie night and scaring each other randomly around the house at night.

We have many Halloween traditions, especially since the start of the pandemic. 

I have watched horror movies since I was about 5 because my family loved them. So, my siblings and I grew to love them, too. And those movies certainly help with keeping the younger kids in their seats, which is a plus. 

So now, before we go out to trick or treat, we put on horror movies all throughout the day on Netflix, HBO Max and other streaming services. We are especially fans of “The Conjuring” and “Insidious” movie series. We even put them on for most of the month and we love it. We do it to pregame Halloween in a way. 

Another thing we do throughout the month is, whenever we are all watching something on TV and someone gets up for a bathroom break or to get snacks, we place a fake tarantula or jump scare them. A lot of times, the fake spider, sometimes even a real one, is the most effective, especially for me since I am deathly afraid of them, regardless of how big or small they are.

Then, if possible with COVID-19, we let the kids choose a haunted house to go into with one of the family adults, such as myself, my parents or older sisters and their boyfriends. Or, if they want to have a good time without being scared, we go to the Boo! at the Zoo event or events like the pumpkin patch or maze.  

This year, with my older sister moving out and everything seeming to be changing, I hope we will keep up with our Halloween traditions together.