TV
Maybe it’s the Minnesotan in me, maybe I’m a little juvenile, but I have always thoroughly enjoyed a good, old “Charlie Brown” holiday TV special. Each year when it comes on the air, I am flooded with nostalgia. When I hear the familiar piano riff and see the uncanny shuffling of the Peanuts’ feet, I get all warm inside. I can’t help but get a little excited each holiday, knowing the Peanuts gang will be back to visit, even if only for a little bit. I miss the always unenthused Charlie Brown, the secret adventures of Snoopy and the first real mean girl you knew as a kid, Lucy.
“It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown” is the Halloween special that features Charlie grumbling about getting rocks instead of candy, Lucy and her signature “good grief!”, Sally getting real with Linus by teaching him a lesson on how to treat a woman and Linus himself, who clings to the idea of the Great Pumpkin—a magic pumpkin that rises from the patch and brings presents to children. Charlie Brown is not just a character or a show, it is a preservation of Midwest childhood. If you have some down time from partying this weekend, you should revisit some good memories and have a watch.
—Ben Golden
Movies
“Halloweentown,” “Twitches,” “It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown.” If mentioning any one of these things doesn’t get you excited for Halloween, then I don’t know what does. With Halloween mere days away, the television guide is locked and loaded with every Halloween movie imaginable. If you fancy the horror genre, “A Nightmare on Elm Street” will do the trick, but if the “scary” side of Halloween is not your thing, delightfully cheesy Disney classics like “Twitches” will be an equally amusing treat.
No matter the day or time, there’s always a festive film to enjoy. This time of year has always been a highlight for me because it gave me a good excuse to curl up in my blanket, popcorn in hand, and watch the wonderfully endless stream of movies on Disney or ABC Family with the rest of my family. Even now, we still talk about what our favorite “Halloweentown” movie is, and whether Kimberly J. Brown or Sara Paxton played Marnie Cromwell better—it was Kimberly, no question. Halloween is the time for tricks and the time for treats, but it is also the time to enjoy the best holiday-themed films.
—Samantha Marz
Video games
There are so many spooky games that I have to start with the best spooky game, “Undertale,” which has cute ghosts, bone brothers, one bad mother and loads of weird frogs. It’s excellent and cheap, and it’s for your computer. Digging back in time a bit, you’d be remiss to not spend a one Halloween day in the walls of “Amnesia: The Dark Descent’s” terrifying castle, and the game requires a limited “skill” level beyond being able to survive the horrifying.
Prefer to take the night and be the scary one? I’d be remiss not to mention “Bloodborne” even though I haven’t yet played it, as it’s considered one of the year’s best games and primarily centers around Gothic horror imagery. Consider either “Dishonored,” which allows you to take the role of a skull-faced assassin who becomes the nightmare of his foggy city’s corrupt. And for the youthful, check out “Costume Quest,” which is a humorous game more akin to “Hocus Pocus” than “Halloween.”
—Alex Lovendahl
