90s Halloween | Nightmare Nostalgia

I’ve been reflecting lately on experiencing Halloween as a child in the ‘90s – why it was great and what made it special? It really felt as if every house on the street celebrated this whimsical, dark holiday that manifested our natural fascination with all things occult and paranormal that go bump in the night. TV offerings of seasonal specials were just as rich as the surprises to be found within my candy bag – treasures earned from surviving a scarecrow that came to life suddenly on someone’s porch. I’ve come to realize a recurring element to these memories: each was possible thanks to an individual’s effort. A parent, a relative or a neighbor who did their part in unknowingly cementing an experience that I’ll never forget.

Decades later, many of us can still pinpoint the house that gave out full-size chocolate bars, or with an elaborate garage setup of strobe lights and fog machines. Just as memorable was that specific year where your uncle & his partner (before they got married) put on a Treehouse of Horror marathon as you sorted through your haul, your vast array of goodies spread out on the living room floor. Nearby, a menacing Count Dracula standee over in the front hallway kept guard as the jack-o-lantern outside sustained the spirit of Halloween by burning just a little bit longer.

There are very simple ways that you can reintroduce these traditions and all the feels not only for yourself to enjoy but to allow a new generation of trick r’ treaters to experience what Halloween was like in the 1990’s! Here’s four simple, time-friendly practices that will make this Halloween a special one – ’90s style.

Keep it Spooky – Inside & Outside

Outdoor decorations are obvious (I’ll get to those shortly) but indoor ones are just as important! If you’re not someone like me who has a Universal Monsters circa 1991 Happy Halloween cover on their office door, then you should absolutely consider putting a few things out to help enhance the mood. Table-covers and garbage-bag-strip entrances are easy, and even with the vast amount of dollar store options nowadays, you can be creative: cut the bottom of a plastic jack-o’-lantern and shove in a fake flicker candle for a cozy night-light in the kitchen! Having a dedicated seasonal décor box adds to the magic feels of taking it out each Fall (even if you’re a year-round decorations person like myself).

It’s wild to think projected imagery and inflatable displays are what replaced far simpler outdoor options like hanging paper ghosts, Styrofoam tombstones or my favorite: pumpkin leaf bags! Is it just me or do these things seem to not be as popular anymore? You can easily go get leaves at a nearby park if you don’t have immediate access to any in your yard or on your street. Pumpkin leaf bags are also multi-purpose: keep the leaves to cover your garden or lawn, as they can support an ecosystem and even bring fireflies for the next summer!

Holiday Specials & Movie Frights

A big part of experiencing Halloween in the ‘90s was the season’s television content: holiday specials, horror movies and themed episodes were plentiful across many channels leading up to October 31st. While there are many more sources now than cable, take it upon yourself to arrange for movie nights leading into the end of the month. Have a back-to-back screening of Halloween & Halloween II so it’s one long movie! Reach out to distant friends and family for a remote watch-along session where you pick a few titles to scream over. If you’re looking for something to hit those spooky background vibes, consider snagging one of those 6 hour Here Lies Halloween Experience tapes!

Participation Setup & Indicators – Ring The Damn Doorbell!

If you’re committed to handing out candy this year, this is a vital area to prepare yourself for: you may get 10 kids at the most. I experienced this last year when I stood on the street dressed as Michael Myers attempting to gain attention from a nearby intersection while a van pulled up along a row of darkened homes to unleash a group of un-costumed kids who rushed my house like it was McDonalds circa 1993. Despite the small amount of visitors, it’s still worth the effort: those 10 kids are going to experience that ‘90s Halloween magic. It can be frustrating & disappointing to see far less trick r’ treaters these days and less houses participating, but here’s where taking the extra effort to collaborate with friends and neighbors can help – it’ll even make for a really fun experience for the grownups!

I can’t tell you how often I’ve seen parents / kids decide to skip a house only because they didn’t have a particular indicator to make it clear they were handing out candy (despite even outdoor / indoor decorations). Be it a jack-o-lantern, adequate lighting, or even a person standing outside with candy: people will still be picky and impatient. If you’re going with the doorbell method (which honestly needs to come back more), ensure your lighting is appropriate for kids to see where they’re going and obvious enough so their parents don’t decide to skip your place. Music helps quite a bit here – if you don’t have a boombox, play an old Sound FX tape off some wireless speakers. Go the extra mile with the previously-mentioned scarecrow bit or garage of horrors if you have one!

Treats – Candy, Pencils, and Soda Cans

One of the most topical parts of the nostalgia around Halloween, treat offerings have seen a significant shift in what’s been handed out over the years. Peanuts in a ziplock bag sounds absolutely ludicrous but this was actually a common enough thing up until the 2000’s. Boxes of mixed fun-size candy were not common, so you saw much more variety and MANY more Chiclets. Nut-free options are incredibly important to consider now, as more kids have more food allergies – their experiences are equally as essential to consider! You can get creative with treat baggies consisting of a variety of goodies, including those classic orange n’ black pencils or novelty vampire teeth! If you really want to get inducted into the Halloween Hall of Fame, take the initiative to become the full-size candy bar or soda-can house (I hand out full-size Mars bars, which are nut free).

Halloween only comes once a year but there’s a reason why those memories continue to stay relevant. Take it upon yourself to make some new ones in the spirit of the 1990’s – have a safe & happy Halloween!

Every year around this time, I think about how Halloween was when I was a kid and how so much has changed over the last 20 years. I think many of us can collectively agree that the ’90s were probably the last great decade that gave the Halloween holiday its proper due. As a young kid in the 80s in October, I can vouch that era, in particular, is yet to be unmatched except for perhaps the 70s (but I was only a twinkle in my dad’s eye in that decade, so I can’t speak on that); but as an older kid, and teen in the 90s, Halloween fucking rocked then. And I refute the accusation that I’m looking at the times through rose-colored nostalgic glasses.

Growing into a young adult, a mom, and into now just a grumpy 40-year-old witch, I’ve watched the holiday slowly lose its lackluster and excitement. Modern-day paranoia along with today’s technological advances and a lazy attitude brought on by corporate America all have a filthy hand in this. It’s quite rare these days to see a kid wearing a homemade Halloween costume, and what’s worse, is that the Halloween whore costumes have become so goddamn ridiculous that when you come across a Sexy Ronald McDonald costume, you gotta know that the Halloween holiday has taken a turn for the worse.

Yep. This dumb shit really exists. I would, however, like to know who actually thinks this is sexy because I’d like to get a restraining order on you, thanks in advance.

Halloween Costumes

Anyway, Halloween in the 90s looked a lot different from decades prior. It was a lot more colorful, loud, and in your face. Much like, well, the 90s as a whole. And damn it was fun. The costumes became much bolder for us kids, while still suffocating under cheap plastic masks, and more creative than ever before. The homemade Halloween costume was still in effect, however, you’d see more than your fair share of Batmans’, Ninja Turtles, and Power Rangers throughout the day/night. As for the girls, a sea of Disney Princesses and later in the decade, Spice Girls were the popular choice. Of course, the slasher would always reign supreme among both boys and girls who knew their Halloween shit, especially with the addition of Ghostface in the mix.

I still think to this day, those Beavis and Butthead masks were more terrifying than anything on the market.

Halloween TV/Snacks

Halloween TV went hard. Every other commercial was dedicated to Halloween, and every brand got on the spooky bandwagon. The Pepsi and Doritos collab in the early ’90s, is one that many from that generation remember the most.

Speaking of Universal Monsters, they had one hell of a revival during the decade, and I think the PEPSI CO giant may have had a hand in that with these commercials- making them “cool” for the new generation. As if they ever weren’t... The Universal Monsters massive VHS set came in around this time as well, and Frankie and Drac just exploded into pop culture all over again like it was a brand-new thing. Now, I had been watching these movies since I was in diapers, but it was definitely nice to see Bride of Frankenstein cookies in my lunchbox.

The commercials went hard, but the Halloween specials went even HARDER. We still had old faithful airing every year like It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown, and Garfield’s Halloween Adventure, but the 90s brought in into syndicated programming that was already encased in the blocks. Series TV like Roseanne, The Simpsons, and Home Improvement had Halloween specials every year that every single damn one of us tuned in for. The early 90s in particular, brought prime cable channels to more homes than ever before and with newer kids channels like Nickelodeon and Disney having their own network stations, new programming came along with that. Shows like Are You Afraid of the Dark, Rugrats Halloween specials, Pete and Pete and AAAH! Real Monsters were just a few that were a mainstay in October.

But, that being said, Nick or Treat/ Snick or Treat was where it was AT, because we all wanted to win those prizes so badly.

The contests were usually sponsored by McDonald’s and the one I remember the most in particular is the one where you would pick up an entry form at McD’s and if Nickelodeon called you, you would winsome cool prizes. The anticipation of the phone ringing and answering every phone with “Nick Or Treat!” was, by far, both anxiety inducing and exciting. I never won, but damn, I tried, and it was pretty hilarious when salespeople would phone the house and I would answer like that.

Also, Disney religiously played Disney’s Halloween Treat all through October, whereas it’s not even on their oh-so-mighty streaming service. LAME!

Since Halloween snacks and TV sort of go hand in hand, the cereals released during Halloween in the 90s were on par for some of the best. Of course, we had our Monster cereals, but we would also get Halloween themed versions of Rice Krispies, Fruity Pebbles, and hell, even Waffle Crisp if you remember that one! Actually, before someone shoots me, Halloween Waffle Crisp was introduced in 2000, but the OG was a 90s cereal so I’m letting that one-year difference slide. Sure, we still have that today. But we don’t have Halloween Waffle Crisp. And that, my friends, is a Halloween catastrophe.

Also, we had Addams Family cereal. Can’t beat walking around your house at 2 AM with your Cousin ITT flashlight, rummaging through the cabinets for snacky-snacks.

Halloween Books

If you were a bookworm like I was in the 90s, series like Goosebumps and Scary Stories To Tell in the Dark were must reads all year-round of course, but essential during spooky season. It was even better when they were featured outright in the Fall Scholastic Book Fair.

While I’m here, special shoutout to the Scary Stories For Sleepovers series that always got overlooked because those were damn, good books.

Halloween Decorations

The 90s were also the last year of true die-cut and paper decorations, along with lawn leaf jack-o-lanterns. I want to say I’m wrong, but after the new millennium hit, you just didn’t see these as often as you would, if at all. Gel clings have taken over the Halloween window market these days, and well.. let’s just say the art of the matter doesn’t compare here.

Hefty. Be smart here. You’re sitting on a nostalgic gold mine. Bring these back. Thanks.

Trick-or Treating

Trick-or-treating was nowhere near as cool as in the 90s. It seems that more and more people forego that old-fashioned, door-to-door trick-or-treating in lieu of trunk-or-treating. Instead of enjoyable neighborhood candy-soliciting, the kiddos can go to a parking lot to collect their wears while the pumpkin spice latte-fueled parents’ pretty much ignore their kids.

Trunk-or-treat sounds more like a threat than a good time to me.

Kids in the ’90s celebrated all day with school parades and activities, and we immediately went out after an hour intermission between school and home, to obtain a shitload of candy. We were out all night for hours at a time, staking rich houses for those full-size candy bars for hours. My parents usually had to buy three bags of candy to keep up. These days, you’re lucky to get a handful of kids. Last year, I got ONE trick-or-treater. It felt like the end times for me. Now, I know this isn’t in every neighborhood, and maybe I’m exaggerating a little based on my own bitterness about present practices, but I’m not far off here.

Seriously, the last time I saw anyone give out homemade treats was in the 90s. Popcorn Balls are underrated, and a lost art, folks.

The ‘90s were arguably the best and, for what I feel, the last time for a kid to have a real Halloween experience the way it should be. Unfortunately, in these weird and wild times, I don’t know if things will get better or worse. But at least we have memories and those of us that still have that nostalgic Halloween spirit, can continue doing things our own way. That is, at least until dementia kicks in for me.