Halloween is a fun and spooky time of the year. The days get shorter and colder, and the leaves on the trees change to many beautiful colors. It is also football season, when we get to cheer on our Bills, our local Lancaster football team, and any college football teams you may love.

Trick-or-treating is a tradition that started in the 1930s and ’40s as a way of curbing destructive Halloween behavior but really grew in popularity following the Peanuts comic strip in 1951. The goal for many kids is to get to as many houses and get as much candy as possible, which has not changed over the years. Some fun Halloween costume ideas are a Tic Tac container, a jellyfish, E.T., a crayon box, a ghost, and more.

When my grandparents were little, they would go trick-or-treating on Beggars’ Night, the day before Halloween, and on Halloween they would have a party. Or they would go trick-or-treating on both nights.

Before I go trick-or-treating, my family comes over to celebrate my birthday! Having a Halloween birthday is cool because I get candy, gifts and get to dress up every year.

My favorite Halloween traditions are decorating the house with my family, baking cookies with my grandma, carving pumpkins and, of course, going trick-or-treating and seeing all the scary and elaborate decorations that can be seen throughout the neighborhood.

Some other fall traditions I have include going apple picking. My favorite place to go is Smith’s Orchard. They have several varieties of apples, and they also have an apple press to make their own cider on site. They also have apple cider slushies and apple cinnamon donuts.

In the fall, I also go to Jellystone camping park every September, where you can participate in a Halloween costume contest. Last year, I won a contest dressed up as Dark Helmet from Spaceballs. They also have haunted houses. There is a kid-safe area where the lights are on and nobody can jump out and scare you, and one for the adults where there are no lights and people jump out and scare you. Also, there is a hayride where either Yogi Bear, Cindy Bear or Boo Boo Bear comes on the hayride, and we sing songs and go around the park.

My favorite Halloween movie is The Nightmare Before Christmas. It is a movie about a skeleton named Jack, who is the “Pumpkin King” of Halloween. He was playing fetch with his ghost dog and stumbled upon different trees that had different holidays on them that led to that world. Jack found one that had a Christmas tree on it with a shiny doorknob. He looked in to find nothing, then got sucked into the tree and fell into “Christmas Town.”

When he came back from Christmas Town, he started to change his town, called Halloween Town, and everyone was getting upset. Then Jack tried to take over Santa’s job in the real world, where, after Santa came, Jack replaced everyone’s toys with scary ones. Soon he realized that he couldn’t change, so he went back to his town and renewed his appreciation for his own unique identity and talents.

As this Halloween approaches, I hope everyone has a wonderful fall season and we have good weather for trick-or-treating. I wish all the kids good luck in getting a ton of candy this year!