My Literary/Artsy Halloween Bucket List

So, I know I've already done a fall-themed bucket list post. But I can't really think of anything else to post this week and of course, since Halloween is this Saturday, I have to do a Halloween-themed post.

I'm planning to have a pretty exciting Halloween. My campus gets really into Halloween. I may have mentioned it before, but Sarah Lawrence is like Tumblr in a college. We've got your social justice people, your artsy people, your fandom nerds. There are some people in here who only speak in memes; I wish I was kidding about that but I'm not. Anyway, so much like Tumblr, we get really freaking excited about Halloween. We have a Rocky Horror showing at midnight (at least, I think we do- I just checked my email and it doesn't say anything about it... but probably. Don't take my word for it) and trick-or-treating back at my old dorms this year (because OF COURSE they wait until I move out of that awful building to do one nice thing there) and what appears to be free autumn food all day at one of the campus dining places, according to the email I got. And that's just the tip of the iceberg, as far as I can tell.

But the thing about Halloween is that I build it up so much in my head throughout the entire month of October that it's bound to be pretty disappointing. I'm obviously way too lazy to actually do anything about it until, like, the night before, so I usually end up with a half-done costume and no party plans or whatever. And I expect it to be a MYSTICAL NIGHT of witches flying against the moon and ghosts dancing on skeletons or whatever, and it's obviously not, so it can get pretty irritating.

So I decided to make a bucket list to try and figure out what exactly my grandiose Halloween expectations are and list a few things I can actually do. Since I'm into the literary/artsy/hipster side of Halloween, it'll be more in tune with that kind of Halloween aesthetic. And unlike the previous bucket list, it is not the Ultimate Halloween bucket list, but just some stuff I think would be cool.

Costumes I want to do

1. Dress up as a famous poet. I think it would be really cool to dress up as Emily Dickinson, since she's kind of my new hero or whatever.
2. Dress up as a Greek goddess. I'm dressing up as Demeter this year, so I got that one covered.
3. Dress up as one of my own characters. That could be fun! No one would know who I was and it would seem really self-centered, but it would bring out a lot of creativity. I could be Holly, the wishmaker with blue robes. That would probably be the most fun choice.
4. Dress up as a season of the year. I've already dressed up as winter this past Purim (a Jewish holiday that involves costumes) but it could be cool to dress up as a season for Halloween, too.
5. Dress up as a character from one of my favorite TV shows. Obviously, I've been fictional characters for Halloween before, but it was only recently in my life that I actually started watching TV. I could be Rose Quartz from Steven Universe, or Korra from Legend of Korra, or Regina from Once Upon a Time. Or something without magic, I don't know.
6. Dress up as a Harry Potter character that I haven't already done. I've dressed up as Hermione and Bellatrix before. Possibly others, but I don't remember them. That leaves, like, at least a thousand more costumes to do. I need to be everyone in Harry Potter.

Events I want to participate in

1. Dead poets reading. I actually went to my school's Dead Poets Slam last week. But that's mostly for people in the theater program, I think, or people who enjoy the company of other humans. I'm talking more like gathering at night in a secret location to read poetry by dead poets.
2. Pumpkin carving. Yes, I've never carved a pumpkin. It would be fun though.
3. Tour to Sleepy Hollow and other creepy literary locations. Now that I live in the Westchester area, I'm actually pretty close to Sleepy Hollow. I want to go to old cemeteries and sites of ghost stories and things like that on Halloween night.
4. Hold a Halloween party. I could go to a Halloween party, but let's be real, the vibe of most Halloween parties is "let's get blackout drunk while listening to mostly normal music with Monster Mash in there once." I don't mean to judge those who drink alcohol, but I would like to have full usage of my brain while I listen to exclusively Halloweeny music and do exclusively Halloweeny things. So I would like to create my own Halloween party one year that is 100% Halloween-y.
5. Go on a haunted nature walk. The thing that makes it haunted is that it's Halloween, and at night. For the people reading this post who identify as my mother, if I did do this, I would be sure to go in a group of people I trust and wear reflective clothing and, like, carry a knife to protect me, I don't know. But it sounds really cool and spooky and full of crunchy leaves and creepy moonlight.
6. Haunted house visit. Another thing I've never really done. I would love to check out some seriously well-done haunted houses. Or just some creepy old Gothic mansions or something.
7. Reenact Halloween-y literary scenes. Like the three witches in Macbeth, or something from the House of the Seven Gables (I honestly don't remember anything from that book except that there's ghosts in it), and definitely Harry Potter stuff. Complete with costumes and music and everything.

Foods I want to eat

1. Apple cider churros. I forgot about this until I checked my Tumblr food tag just now for ideas. Apple. Cider. Churros. I mean, that sounds perfect, honestly.
2. Pizza. I always had pizza as a kid after trick-or-treating, and I usually put M&Ms on it. It's better than it sounds. For the authentic nostalgia experience, I'd get Costco pizza.
3. Halloween-shaped appetizers. Like, I don't know. Definitely NOT those awful jack-o-lanterns with guac coming out of their mouths so it looks like they're vomiting it. But... I would have guac, still. But not vomit guac. Anyway. Forget about vomit guac. Instead, think about cute little cookies shaped like witch hats or something!
4. Hot chocolate. With like, marshmallow ghosts. I'd also probably have hot cider and other such autumn-y drinks.
5. Fondue. But in a CAULDRON! With broomstick-shaped breadsticks to dip or something.
6. Other stuff in a cauldron. Witches' brew stuff. Soup, punch, stew, etc.

Media to consume (music, movies, poems, etc)

1. Double Trouble from the Harry Potter soundtrack. You know, "Double, double, toil and trouble" from the third movie? Tie-in with that Macbeth scene two sections ago.
2. Typical Halloween music. Monster Mash, This is Halloween, Addams Family soundtrack, all that stuff.
3. "Scary" movies or actually scary movies. I'll be honest, I haven't seen a lot of scary movies. Or even cute "scary" movies. But there's a few I want to watch. Coraline, Nightmare Before Christmas, the Addams Family maybe. (That's a movie, too, right? I keep seeing gifs from it). Just anything really fun or with a good plot.
4. Halloween episodes from my favorite shows. I listed some of them in my other bucket list post, linked way up at the top of this one.
5. The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman. I wouldn't read the whole thing, but maybe excerpts.
6. Halloween-y poems. I can't think of a lot, but I know I read a Dickinson poem a few weeks ago about dying in the autumn. And I'm sure there's others, just on the tip of my brain but I can't remember them.

Anyway, I probably will think of fifty way better ideas for this post as soon as I've published it, but for now, I think this is a pretty decent list. What are your Halloween plans? What sort of stuff would you put on your own Halloween bucket list?
Thanks for reading,
Ariel