5 Safe Halloween Activities To Do During COVID

It’s so easy to feel lonely and bored during this pandemic, but October gives us a whole month to celebrate even harder than ever and find an excuse to try to be more positive. Having something to celebrate and look forward to can be really important and helpful, especially after midterm exams and stress brought on by coronavirus. You and your sorority sisters need activities to treat yourselves with (and of course, who can say no to unlimited chocolate and fun Fall festivities?) So, here are 5 easy (and totally safe!) ways to bring the Halloween spirit to life this month with your sisters

Tie-dye masks outside! 

This idea was brought on by my chapter’s HR Director after our other sisterhoods got cancelled due to safety reasons for this semester. It’s a fun and creative way to still be surrounded by sisters, while promoting safety and wearing masks. We are planning this sisterhood outdoors, most likely in smaller group sessions, following safety guidelines during the pandemic and spacing all of our sisters outside evenly on the grass. We can even tie-dye the masks with Halloween or Fall colors to really get into the October spirit!

Go to an outdoor pumpkin patch/apple-picking orchard

Just last week, a couple Theta sisters and I decided to drive down to Eckert’s Country Store & Farms in Belleville, Illinois from our school campus in St. Louis. The half-hour drive was definitely worth it! We got to explore and spend a day in nature, picking a wide variety of different apples from their orchard, doing cartwheels on the grass, and having those cute photoshoot ops together while being away from other people. We even got to buy some of our favorite cider donuts! All in all, it was a great day and we got to hang out safely outside together for the first time in a long time, making the experience even more special. I highly recommend doing this at least once this semester!

Decorate some pumpkins! 

This is an artistic way to really get into the Halloween spirit! Put on some of your favorite jams (Spotify has a lot of cute fall playlists!) and whip out those paintbrushes and carving knives. This can be done solo or with a friend inside your dorm or apartment, and you can either paint or carve your pumpkin. I know I personally have a lot of fun acrylic paint left over from Big/Little reveal, when my sorority sisters and I were painting canvases for our littles. What better way to put that extra paint to good use than painting funny faces on pumpkins for your room?

Watch Halloween movies with your sisters in your dorm/apartment

This is such an easy and cozy way to avoid the temptation to go out and party, eliminating the risk of exposure to COVID-19. Instead, you and your sisters can make a countdown to Halloween list together and plan different movies for different nights, maybe even leading up to this year’s Halloween on Saturday, October 31st! I know that a couple of my sorority sisters and I are planning on putting together Harry Potter costumes (as I am still very deep into Draco Malfoy TikTok) and having a movie-night in to celebrate Halloween. We have a list of spooky Netflix films and funny Disney movies to watch, and I honestly cannot wait!

Bake Halloween-themed desserts

Pumpkin-spice flavored everything is always the way to go for October! Trader Joe’s, Target, and many more stores are offering different dessert recipes that are easy to make and inexpensive to purchase. My roommate in Phi Mu is planning on baking pumpkin bread really soon as well, and I am so unbelievably pumped for it. TikTok and YouTube also have easy recipes to follow along with that do not require a high skill level to have fun and be successful in baking those tasty desserts.

All in all, there is no reason that we all still can’t be in full Halloween spirit during this uncertain time. My roommate and I have both gone full-on Halloween crazy, even making a run to Target yesterday and setting up cute string lights and decor in our apartment. Since we’re spending a lot of time indoors with online classes, it’s comforting to have small autumn decorations and activities that really remind us of what we’re grateful for during this stressful time. I hope these ideas help inspire you and your sisters to still fall in love with Fall, and be innovative with safe ways to hang out and spend time together. After all: what’s Halloween Spirit without your favorite boos? (Sorry friends, I promise that’s the last Halloween pun I’ll make today.)

Take care and Happy Halloween!

Xx

Maria Cieslarczyk

Kappa Alpha Theta

Saint Louis University