After holding on to summer with my early October beach trip, the Halloween season festivities took off in full swing the rest of the month.

The green leaves were starting to tinge orange, and the air had the unmistakable fall chill to it. To cozy up inside away from the chill, I started my seasonal crochet project – a jack-o-lantern succulent plant pot. The orange pot and its one flowing lock of succulent hair hangs on my car’s rearview mirror ready to swing. The pattern would have you stitch the “soil” to the pot to close it, but I decided to leave the pot accessible so I could stash candy and other treats inside for a fun surprise.

I continued the festivities at work with a pumpkin carving contest. As part of team Pumpkin Spice, we were tasked with creating a unique design for our pumpkin. Coworker and team member, Aoife, came up with the plane which fit our prompt and matched Global Traveler with the travel theme.

We won the competition, and the carved space was great for our plane in the sky, but it wasn’t great for lasting outside. The elements got to it over the weekend, and it was caving in by the time Tuesday rolled around.

My parents and I stopped by Yardley’s Canal-o-Ween, where residents carve pumpkins to line the Delaware Canal. Volunteers come out each night to light the hundreds of pumpkins for visitors to admire. There was a range of creativity from traditional jack-o-lantern faces to multiple “23” carvings for Philadelphia’s newest Sixer, LeBron James.

I capped the month off on Halloween night in Philadelphia. I had no costume until three days before, then my friend threw out the Cheetah Girls as an idea. We managed to pull together our velour track suits and microphones for our most complimented costume to date. I felt like an actual Cheetah Girl from all of the excited comments we received.

The Cheetah Girl costume wasn’t the only Gen Z throwback this Halloween. I made sure to watch all the nostalgic Halloween movies, including the Halloweentown series, all variations of the Addams Family, and ,of course, the classic Peanuts’ TV special It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown.

The start of November doesn’t stop the Halloween festivities, either. There’s still time to roast pumpkin seeds, crochet pumpkin decorations and watch the spooky movies.

— Caroline Craig, administrative & advertising coordinator