By Leah Martindale, Film and TV Editor
The Croft Magazine // Halloween can centre around drinking, but there are plenty of ways to enjoy the festivities without heading to the club
If Sober October has taught me anything, it is that university is an alcohol-fuelled environment. Throw in an excuse to dress up, and it can seem impossible to avoid the booze.
For anyone like me embarking on the month sober, our friends who avoid alcohol in accordance with their faith, or just anyone sick of the hangovers and bank account depletion, I’ve compiled a handy list of Halloween activities that don’t centre around clubbing.
Costume Parties
Never one to turn down the opportunity for a costume (if you were at Freshers’ Fair you may have seen my adventure in Ellie the Epigram Elephant), I couldn’t neglect the best bit of Halloween from my list: dressing up.
Get some prizes in for best costumes, force your friends to do a catwalk, and vote for your favourites. Everyone gets to show off their creative side, pay homage to their favourite characters, and still get those Halloween-y insta pics. (Keep a look out for Film and TV’s list of iconic Halloween characters to dress up as this year!)
Trick or Treating
Okay, I know we’re a little old for this now, but hear me out! Trick or Treat is a phrase that could have so many meanings, and I for one think we need to reclaim it from children.
This is the perfect opportunity to set up tricks and traps for your friends, all under the guise of seasonal japes! TP your flatmate that uses all the bog role, roll a stink bomb under your smelliest flatmate’s door, draw a moustache on the first one to fall asleep – and, of course, give each other little treats and trinkets to make the tricks worth it.
Movie night
As your resident film-buff, it would be amiss of me to forget the cultural institute that is the Halloween film! From the tantalising to the truly terrifying, there is a Halloween film for all sensibilities and scare-abilities. Witches of Eastwick (1987), Halloween (1978), Scream (1996) … the list of spooky movies is never-ending, and your Halloween night doesn’t have to be.
Get all your friends over, make a spooky witches’ cauldron brew (non-alcoholic or with an extra potion added), and pull an all-nighter with the scariest that cinema has to offer!
Night of the occult
If you are a little braver of heart, why not indulge in what Halloween is really about: the occult. Palm reading, tarot cards, crystal balls, Ouija boards… let your most mysterious friend run wild and expose each other’s secrets with a night of teasing the beyond.
From reading the future to summoning the past, you can take this superstitiously seriously, or take some fun out of it! Disclaimer: I officially take no responsibility for any possessions that may occur.
At the end of the day, whatever you do – drinking or not – will be fun if you keep your friends around you, and remember to look on the spookier side of life.
Featured: Epigram / Leah Martindale
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