Halloween Traditions

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Being Asian American, Halloween was pretty much the only Western holiday we celebrated. Sure, we decorated for Christmas, maybe bought some Valentines to pass out for Valentine’s Day, but Halloween was an actual celebration. We would dress up, buy candy (or non-candy items) to pass out, and a bunch of us would go trick or treating together.

Prior to college, I would dress up and bring my younger brother and his friends out with me (with or without my friends as well) to go trick or treating. Celebrating Halloween during and after college meant dressing up and going out dancing or going to some parties. No sexualized costumes for me though! I always dressed as accurately as possible, within my own interpretations of each character, and continue to do so to this day.

Nowadays, Halloween consists of prepping pumpkins with the kids, toasting pumpkin seeds, baking treats, participating in family/kid friendly Halloween activities, dealing with trick or treaters as well as trick or treating, and watching Halloween movies!

There are a ton of Halloween movies to choose from, ranging from cult classics to franchised series. Here are a few of our favorites!

Family & Kid Friendly

Hocus Pocus - Because who doesn't want to know what yabos are?
The Addams Family - While there are several movies in this franchise, our favorite is Addams Family Value where Wednesday and Pugsley go to summer camp!
Beetlejuice - It may be a bit on the creepier side for littler ones. Try and get them dancing to "Jump in the Line (Shake, Senora)” at the end, and they may forget about the disturbing faces of Adam and Barbara!
Ghostbusters - My little one loved meeting Slimer, but was scared of Zuul and Vinz in demon dog form. Luckily, this movie is a comedy so she was giggling more often than not.
Nightmare Before Christmas - We love watching this during Halloween AND Christmas! The kids love singing along to all the songs too.

Adults Only

Evil Dead - If you’re into campy movies and lots of gore, and haven’t watched any movies out of this cult classic series yet, I highly recommend you start immediately! Groovy!
Saw - This is one of my favorite horror/Halloween franchise movies! One of these days, sooner rather than later as my daughter isn’t getting any smaller, I hope to dress her up as Billy the Puppet.
Child’s Play (aka Chucky)/Friday the 13th/Halloween/Scream - All of these are classics! You can’t mention Halloween without thinking about Chucky, Freddy Krueger, Michael Myers, and Ghostface!
The Lost Boys/Interview with the Vampire - You can’t really compare the two, but both are great movies if you’re into vampires. Plus, there’s something about Lestat…
The Crow - They just don’t make movies like this anymore. The dark, the gritty, the visuals, the emotions. I don’t have to say more.

While all of these films mentioned are old classics and have probably been watched a million times already, you just can’t celebrate and let Halloween pass without watching them.

Let me know what your favorite Halloween tradition(s) and Halloween movie(s) are in the comments below. I’m always open to new suggestions!