For Many Millennial Parents, Halloween Is a Reminder of Their Youth
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From '90s Halloween costumes and entertainment to (arguablably) some of the best candy, millennial parents experienced a different type of Halloween—one which they often feel nostalgic for.
Parents / Getty Images ' title='Collage of 90's kids during Halloween'>
Parents / Getty Images
The year is 1994: Crisp autumn leaves scatter the ground outside your living room window, many of them packed into jack-o-lantern leaf bags on your front lawn. You rewind your VHS copy of Hocus Pocus, hit play, and start putting the finishing touches on your Power Rangers costume. On your nightstand next to a McDonald’s McNugget toy, your Looney Tunes alarm clock strikes 6 PM. It’s time. With your plastic jack-o-lantern pail slung over your forearm, you snag a sour apple Warhead from the candy bowl and run out the door.Feeling nostalgic yet? No one could blame you! In a word, Halloween in the 1990s is almost impossible to describe. Magical? Iconic? Honestly, you had to be there—just ask any millennial. And for millennial parents, Halloween is a chance to revive some of those memorable '90s traditions that so many of us are longing to experience again.Here, we rediscover what Halloween looked like in the 1990s, the most popular costumes, and how the overall experience compares to Halloween celebrations today.Halloween in the '90s: A SnapshotWhat did Halloween look like in the 1990s? Let’s unlock some core memories. The decorBefore 12-foot skeletons and the ever present inflatable, Halloween yard decor took on a much simpler look. Now considered “vintage” (ouch), the '90s were big on blow molds—large hollow, plastic figures—often in the form of jack-o-lanterns, ghosts, and classic Halloween characters such as Dracula and Frankenstein. Many homes also decorated with spider webs: in trees, shrubs, and on doorframes.The entertainmentAround Halloween, millennial middle-schoolers were giving themselves nightmares reading the Goosebumps series, R.L. Stine’s kid-friendly collection of horror novels. (Quite the paradox, in retrospect.) From Night of the Living Dummy to The Haunted Mask, the Goosebumps book series was the likely catalyst behind your true-crime obsession as an adult.The ‘90s also gave us some of the best Halloween movies to date, including Hocus Pocus, the Scream franchise, The Addams Family, Casper, The Nightmare Before Christmas, Halloween, Practical Magic, Edward Scissorhands, Halloweentown, and Sleepy Hollow.The candyWhile the classics were always popular, such as M&M’s, Snickers, Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, Skittles, and Hershey Bars, there is some ‘90s-specific candy you may have forgotten about, including:Baby Bottle PopsNerds RopeWarheadsBubble TapeGushersHershey's Cookies N' CremePopular '90s Halloween CostumesOn a typical Halloween night in the ‘90s, kids roamed the streets trick-or-treating with their vision blurred by flimsy plastic masks held together by a single piece of string that closely resembled dental floss.Some of the most popular Halloween costumes were based on TV and movie characters (Terminator, The Simpsons, Jurassic Park, Dumb and Dumber, and Halloween), pop culture (Britney Spears, Spice Girls, NSync, and Backstreet Boys), the classics (witches, ghosts, and vampires), and even toys and video games (Super Mario, Barbie, G.I. Joe, Tomb Raider, and My Little Pony).However, there were certain costumes that stand out as the most iconic choices of the decade: SuperheroesMillennial kids dressed up as superheroes before it was cool—before the massive Marvel franchise took over the box office. Spider-Man, Batman and Robin, and Wonder Woman were the most popular, along with the semi-villainous Catwoman, whose status as a superhero is a bit murky.BarneyThe big purple dinosaur dominated television screens in the ‘90s, with Barney & Friends becoming PBS’s most-watched kid’s show of the decade. (Can you still hear that song? You know the one.)Barney was met with his fair share of criticism (to put it lightly), but the show’s popularity caused many neighborhoods to be swarmed with Barney-clad trick-or-treaters.Disney characters and princessesAny ‘90s kid will tell you that animated Disney movies were a huge part of their childhood—even if some of the storylines were a bit much for a kid. (Can we talk about Simba’s dad?)Aladdin, The Lion King, Beauty and the Beast, The Little Mermaid, and more inspired countless Halloween costumes for all ages, and still do to this day.Ghostface “What’s your favorite scary movie?” For many millennials, their answer was 1996’s Scream. The movie’s anonymous serial killer hides behind an oddly specific knowledge of pop culture and the infamous Ghostface mask—an eerie, bone-white, open-mouthed ghost with a freakishly extended jawline. The mask was everywhere in all its haunting (and somewhat disturbing) glory.Mighty Morphin Power RangersWith brightly-colored costumes and a fun (yet strangely long) morphing process, the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers were popular for simply being awesome. Millennial kids were drawn to the six teenage friends taking on an intergalactic villain and her evil minions sent to destroy them. Each Power Ranger was associated with a specific dinosaur power—and combining superheroes with dinosaurs is a surefire way to attract young fans.Teenage Mutant Ninja TurtlesLeonardo, Donatello, Raphael, and Michelangelo might be odd name choices for anthropomorphic turtles, but that didn’t stop their popularity from skyrocketing in the 1990s. Turtlemania was in full swing (cowabunga!), and kids, teens, and adults were excited to dress up as their favorite superhero turtle. (Or were they vigilantes?) The Ninja Turtle costume was exceptionally fun—complete with a muscular turtle body, shell, colorful mask, and some sort of plastic ninja weapon (arguably the best part).How Has Halloween Changed Since the 1990s?Today, Halloween is more elaborate than ever. Social media and its many influencers have completely changed how costume ideas are generated and marketed (and which ones are deemed offensive today). There’s no need to figure out a costume on your own anymore—DIY TikTok videos are endless. And thanks to constant decor and costume inspiration online, Halloween spending has reached massive levels, with an estimated 12.2 billion spent in 2023 alone.Although still a commercial holiday, Halloween in the 1990s was a bit more modest. There wasn’t the immense pressure of trying to keep up with what everyone else was doing online. Dressing up for trick-or-treating wasn’t for the ‘Gram; it was for a pillowcase worth of goodies and for parents to take dozens of poorly lit photos with a disposable camera (which took about a day to be printed at the local drug store, unless you splurged for one-hour processing).Kids were happy to show off their homemade costumes, many of which incorporated some type of cardboard element. (Classic!) The masks and makeup weren’t perfect, but the holiday sure was: pranks were in full effect, jack-o-lanterns were plentiful, and parents were fully immersed in their child’s overall experience without needing to document it all for social media.Halloween Will Always Hit Different For Millenial ParentsThere’s a reason millennial parents feel so nostalgic about Halloween—it represents a simpler time. The absence of social media allowed kids to be kids without the flood of online influence. Millennial kids will never forget their excitement upon seeing their friends’ costumes for the first time. They remember counting how many pieces of candy they scored on Halloween night rather than the number of likes on a Facebook photo. They reveled in the freedom of running door-to-door and staying up past bedtime, and couldn’t wait for school the next day to swap stories with friends.And if you’re a millennial parent feeling a little nostalgic this Halloween, try doing what every ‘90s kid did best: embracing the simplicity. Focus on the experience instead of the costume; on what’s happening in your own home instead of what’s circulating online. So, grab your favorite childhood candy, stream Hocus Pocus on repeat, and dust off those “vintage” (still stings) blow molds for decorating. Parents are under enough pressure as it is, so forget the stress of making Halloween perfect—make it memorable. Your kids (and your inner ‘90s kid) will thank you for it. For more Parents news, make sure to sign up for our newsletter! Read the original article on Parents.
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