It can still be fun to decorate for Halloween as an Empty Nester.
Like many families, Halloween is one of my family’s favorite times of year. Growing up in the south, I had a lot of fun during Halloween. BUT, living in Alexandria, Virginia, when my daughter was young, we enjoyed not just the holiday, we celebrated cooler weather, changing leaves, pumpkin patches and fall festivals.
We went all out to host our annual Halloween Party with both kids and adults dressing up in costumes. It was a party everyone looked forward to attending because of Halloween Empty Nester Style.
Moving back to Texas, we continued our Halloween Empty Nester Style Tradition for only a few years. My daughter’s sports commitments began to interfere with our favorite yearly tradition. However, my husband and I still hoped one day…
Now as empty nesters, we have the freedom to begin new fun fabulous traditions. We haven’t started our traditional Halloween Party yet, but we make plans to celebrate in other ways. Keeping the “spirit” alive.
Here are some fun ways in “witch” we like to celebrate Empty Nester Style:
Entertainment:
1) Instead of a party, making plans with friends to go to dinner and a movie. Houston has a great rooftop cinema theater. Or make your own outdoor theater at home with a white paint tarp and projector. Or just have a cocktail and spooky movie – Jessica’s favorite.
2) Do a game night with friends and serve a fun Halloween cocktail and an easy take-out pizza. Don’t they sometimes refer to dice as “bones”? We love to play Left, Right, Center. It’s a game that can be played at one table with all your guests.
3) Plan a simple and quick “book club” meeting with your friends and read a classic or something new and plan a “Spooky Happy Hour” to discuss the book. Menu planning could be easy by asking each participant to bring their favorite appetizer and bottle of wine.
Decorating:
I love to decorate for any holiday. When my daughter lived with us, we would decorate for both Fall and Halloween. Pumpkins, fall colored pillows, fall plants in our yard and inside, a front door fall wreath and family pictures of past years during this time would begin to appear around the living areas of our home. Currently as I’m doing Halloween Empty Nester Style, my goal was to keep our decorating tradition, but at a smaller scale. I have my “Halloween display,” but mostly decorated for fall which carries me through September to November.
This year we are planning to attend a Halloween 70’s/80’s Costume Party Fundraiser. You know you are getting old when a costume theme is when you were a young adult.
To my family, Halloween is a multi-generational event. By sending pictures of our Halloween Empty Nester Style fun to my daughter, her starting to decorate her home and her planning her own annual Halloween party, we continue our fun family traditions.
