Halloween for Seniors

Halloween is traditionally thought of as a children’s holiday, for dressing up in a costume and going door to door trick or treating for candy, but just as many, if not more, adults have a deep appreciation and love for the holiday. For older adults, thinking they can’t participate in Halloween festivities anymore can cause them to miss out on a real opportunity for fun and family bonding.

There’s no icon more strongly associated with Halloween than that of the Jack O’ Lantern, a face carved into a pumpkin to light walkways and front porches. For seniors with mobility issues, carving a pumpkin can be difficult or even dangerous. Fortunately, many stores sell hollow pumpkins made from dense foam. This material is much easier to carve. And failing that, they can draw the face on with a marker for a more able family member to carve for them. Pumpkins can also be painted, allowing seniors to indulge their creativity with as many colors or patterns as they want. The patterns of skulls and characters from the Mexican Day of the Dead can be a good inspiration. 

Many seniors will have fond memories of Halloween, and would have a good time recalling those days. A marathon of the horror movies they grew up on might help older adults get into the spirit. An internet search can pull up lists of horror movies from any given year, and streaming services make renting almost any movie a snap. For less than the price of a bucket of popcorn, a night in can be spent watching all their favorite horror classics, enjoying a good scary walk down memory lane.