Alongside New Years Eve, Halloween is a time when parties are in abundance and drinking is excessive. There’s nothing wrong with going out if that’s what you want — but, for some students, they’d much rather stay at home. Here are some ways to enjoy your Halloween night at home if you don’t have plans.

First off, get some good food. If you like cooking, make a fancy dinner all for yourself. If you don’t, then indulge and order some greasy-ass pizza or MSG-packed Chinese food. Whatever your recent craving has been — satisfy it.

Now that you’ve got the good food and hopefully a good drink to pair it with, it’s time to figure out what you want to spend your evening doing. This could be the perfect time to start that book you’ve wanted to read for ages, keep with the theme of the night and watch a horror movie or to finally watch the last season of Gilmore Girls so you’re ready for when the revival comes out. This is prime time to pack in some serious TV series binging — I mean, you’ve got all night.

However, you do need to think about whether you’d like to greet trick-or-treaters at the door or if you’d rather not. If you do, you’ll need some sort of activity that is okay when interrupted often. So, I’d steer away from reading if this is the case — there’s nothing more agitating than getting interrupted constantly when reading. 

Instead, I’d recommend watching a show where you don’t have to pay much attention — so pretty much any sitcom. Whether Seinfeld or Friends, both can be mindlessly watched if you want to hand out candy but don’t want to commit fully to dressing up and turning your home into a haunted house for all the neighborhood kids.

If you’re feeling bummed about not having plans on Halloween and staying at home, don’t worry, you can still participate in the festivities. Still get a costume and look your scariest, because you can set up your house for all the trick-or-treaters. Make it the spookiest house on the block, with creepy music playing, spider webs, elaborate decorations and — if you want to really go full out — a smoke machine and a recording or shrieks and cackling.

It might sound kind of silly for a university student to do this, but honestly, it’s a lot of fun. For some reason, scaring young children is oddly satisfying — I mean, they kind of signed up for it when they decided to walk up to strangers’ houses.

If you’d rather not deal with trick-or-treaters at all, you can always be the house that all trick-or-treaters hate — the one that turns all the lights out, giving the illusion no one is home. That way you can spend your evening in peace without the constant ringing of the doorbell and sugar-induced hyperactive kids screaming at you for candy.

If you don’t want to hand out candy but don’t want to be a complete downer and deprive the kids of candy, just leave a bowl of it outside. Of course, you just have to hope for the best and that no one steals the whole thing. Still, the truth is, if you’re leaving a bowl of candy outside your house, at that point it doesn’t really seem like you give a shit if someone takes the whole thing anyway.

Whatever you decide to do, just do what you want. Enjoy the evening at home — trust me, the hangover you would’ve got from going out wouldn’t have been worth it.

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Bridget Morrison / Culture Editor

Graphic: Laura Underwood / Layout Manager