5 Affordable Ways to Celebrate Halloween at Your Apartment Community
The holiday is a lot of fun, and there are lots of ways to celebrate with your residents that aren't expensive or labor-intensive.
It’s that time of year already: Halloween. Yay! Time to grab your costumes and your candy and get in the spirit. Haha, get it? Good, clean fun, folks. Halloween is a lot different for me now that I have kids. Now, instead of going to a bar, staying up late and shivering all night because a jacket totally ruins my look, I’m planning on dressing up my children and forcing them to wear jackets while trick or treating because I don’t care if it ruins your look, I don’t want you to get sick!, and eating all of the Snickers bars out of their plastic pumpkins under the guise of “checking for razor blades.”
Anyway, Halloween is a lot of fun, and there are lots of ways to celebrate with your residents. And if you’re a Scrooge (I think I’m mixing my holidays a bit here, but whatever) and are anti-fun, do it for all the great photos you can get for your community Facebook and Instagram pages to help with your apartment marketing and resident retention.
And, yes, we all have work, and may not have the time or budget to throw a TV-sitcom-worthy Halloween party. But all work and no play makes apartment living rather dull. Your efforts don’t have to be expensive or labor-intensive, either. Here are some things simple—and relatively cheap—things you can do around your community during Halloween:
Stranger Things Light Display—Welcome to the Upside Down, property managers. Even if you haven’t watched Stranger Things on Netflix, you’ve heard the hype. It’s super easy make a tribute (read: ride the coattails of its popularity) to the show by putting the alphabet on your wall with Christmas lights strung across, ala Winona Ryder. And the show is already in its second season, so people will definitely be talking about it.
It Balloon—Want something easier than stringing up some Christmas lights? I don’t blame you. Anyway, get one red balloon and tie it a vent. There you go—the horror of Stephen King’s It, and it costs practically nothing. Don’t you want to check out this apartment? We all float in here.
Trunk or Treating in the Parking Lot—This one is a little more work, but still relatively easy. If you’re not familiar, trunk or treating is when people decorate their cars and give out candy. It’s safer than trick or treating because you don’t have to go to strangers’ homes, and then if people don’t want to participate or give out candy, they won’t be bothered by people ringing their doorbells. Plus, if kids egg you, you can just go to a car wash, and you can turn your headlights on to scare away all the little punks. Everyone wins. Put up notices, email your residents and post on social media that you’re hosting a trunk or treat event, and block off your parking lot during that time. Then the residents who want to participate will do the rest of the work themselves! (And, if your property doesn’t have many kids, you can always suggest people hand out mini liquor bottles, or something more adult. As long as no one is driving after, of course.)
Scary Movie Screening—If you have a screening room, why not use it. The idea is a classic for a reason: It’s cheap! Oh, and it’s fun to watch movies and make friends and all that. I vant to save you money!
Cupcake Decorating—Everyone. Likes. Cupcakes. Pick up some chocolate and vanilla cupcakes, and a couple jumbo bags of M&Ms and sprinkles, and put them out for everyone. If you’re feeling really ambitious, you can get some Halloween-themed table cloths and napkins. And, if you’re evil, you can put out some raisins next to the chocolate chips. Actually, don’t do that. Some things are too scary, even on Halloween.
What are some things you’re doing around your community for Halloween? We’d love to hear your thoughts! Post your comments on our Facebook page or send a tweet to @MHNOnline or @jfiur.
