Guide to Halloween Activities: Illinois Edition

The time of the year you eat so much candy your insides explode.

Everyone loves this time of year, even the parents. But older teens have most likely grown up and stopped collecting little Tootsie Rolls and Snickers bars from the neighborhood, and have started thinking of more exciting things to do.

1. Scare the other trick-or-treaters.
Getting scared is one thing, but scaring other people is another. It's always fun to get your scary halloween mask on and have some fun scaring people around your area, but don't get too carried away with it, or you might find yourself in the middle of some very angry trick-or-treaters. It's fun if you're too lazy to walk around the block gathering candy, but are still looking for some halloween spirit.

2. Go trick - or - treating with all the other little children.
This can be a fun thing for anyone, so don't feel bad if you want to get back into that gladiator costume you had when you were 12, and go out trick - or - treating. Everyone loves doing this. If you have leveled off at a height of 4'6'', then you should be able to jump right into that suit you bought 5 years ago (Hey, there are benefits to being short too).

3. Make a haunted house.

This takes a little coin and a lot of hard work. Everyone loves getting scared like none other in a spooky haunted house. To make a simple haunted house, get a job and save around $100-$300, depending on how spooky you want it to be. Buy a large party tent, one of the ones about 15' by 20' or so. You could use your porch or patio if neccesary. Cover the outside in black garbage bags, and make sure you get black garbage bags. Cut them to make them cover a bigger area if needed. Then purchase some of the spooky looking cobweb stuff that you can buy for $2 a bag at Wal-Mart. Then buy something scary that pops out of the ground, or something that will scare people before they enter the haunted house/tent/thing. You can hide behind something and jump out if you want. Them buy a strobe light or 2, and a few fog makers, and maybe a few scary halloween masks. You also want to make sure you buy a scary music cd, that's one of the essentials. For a grand finally, once they make it out of the haunted house alive, chase them away with some $30 fake chainsaws you can buy off eBay.