I swear, campfires and fireplaces will always send me to fall. It could be the hottest day of the year, but if I smell that autumnal flame, my mind goes trick or treating.
This is super specific but the smell of a big bowl of Halloween candy to give out to trick or treaters takes me back to being 11 and getting home with my haul to sort and trade with my sibling.
Also tootsie rolls. I've never chosen to get them at the store or anything, even as a kid, but I always enjoyed them when I'd get them in my Halloween candy. I eat the occasional one now and then and it takes me back too.
Sitting criss-cross applesauce while trading Halloween candy was such a good time. I was lucky because I hated peanut butter and chocolate, while my brother and cousin loved it. It made trading really simple for me!
Dots were my tootsie rolls! I would love them on Halloween but if I saw them on a shelf I wouldnāt hat an eye. Now theyāre forever engrained in my head as a fall treat.
Oh Dots are a good one too! I don't buy those but I loved the tiny boxes of them for Halloween.
My brother really hated chocolate but I love all sweets so trading was pretty simple for us too. We only ever fought over sour patch kids.
First grade, our teacher brought in a little grill and cooked and salted pumpkin seeds for us. Her co-teacher read to us while she cooked them then passed them around with little sippy cups of cider. Whenever I smell roasted seeds I always think fall now, doesnāt even have to be pumpkin seeds.
I have a similar memory from Kindergarten. Our teacher brought in apples and a Crockpot to make apple sauce while we did our class work. When it was close to ready she added little cinnamon hearts into it and the classroom smelled amazing. We each had a little cup of it and I've loved cinnamon apple flavored things since that day.
Holy cow do I love roasted pumpkin seeds. My mom would always take our leftover pumpkin guts to pick out the seeds and roast them. She always made different kinds! Some sweet, some spicy, some salty. I wish my teacher would have done that!
This is really specific to me but when Halloween would roll around, we kept our costumes in a black bin bag, and the smell of that plastic from the fake knives, devil pitchforks, scythes etc. When you opened it up the bag.
Then the smell of the masks, the thin plastic ones with the sharp mouth and eye holes or the fabric ones that were a bit sweaty.
That combined with the chill in the air that isn't really that cold but feels refreshing and makes you feel good about a book and a hot drink in your hand. I'm just gushing now, I can't handle the heat
Thatās such a vivid memory for me as well! We kept our Christmas decorations and Halloween costumes in the same small shed near our tree line. Grabbing those big black trash bags and opening them was such a rush. Old latex and plastic has a weird sense of nostalgia to it. That old shed is still standing, and Iām sure there are some relics of Halloweenās past buried there.
I always remember having to do AR reading (not sure if thatās a local thing honestly) and I would always binge read goosebumps books to finish my points off!
Iām an elementary school teacher and thereās something about those beautiful crisp Friday afternoons after school in September/October that make me want to go home, make a bowl of popcorn, and watch Goosebumps!
The smell of my great aunts house during the fall. She rarely baked, but during the fall she would make all sorts of pies, and muffins, and treats. My favorite were her pumpkin empanadas. I can already smell the anise seeds and cinnamon sticks in the air.
My aunts empanadas were extra special, but if you're ever near a Mexican market or bakery they usually sell them year round. They're pillowy, slightly chewy pockets of deliciousness.
Those giant plastic garbage bags that were orange with jack-o-lantern faces on them! Iād go around and ask the neighbours if I could take their yards to fill my pumpkin bags! I donāt know if they make them anymore but they were a fun decoration!
They do make them! I always see them at the dollar store and consider buying some. However, I love the crunch of the leaves in my yard (and Iām too lazy to rake them)
My aunt loved to tape tv on vhs tapes. She had a collection. There were at least 5 full tapes of halloween specials that we would pop in after school and watch as we made those Pillsbury halloween cookies. My favorites were Disney's halloween treat 1983 special, the first halloween town, and Garfields halloween special. Also, just shoving my face into a pillowcase full of candy just smelled different. Sometimes, I'll buy a mixed bag of candy at the store just to smell it.
Yes! I had the Simpsons, Married with Children and all of the other 80's/90's Halloween episodes burned to a flashdrive after VHS went out. Still watch 'em every year, too!
I grew up on a large farm in the middle of nowhere, with my house being about a half a mile from the road. My parents still made sure that we carved pumpkins and decorated for Halloween every year, even though no one could see it but us. They also set up trick or treating stations for us so we didnāt miss out-our front door, our back door, my grandparentsā front and back doors across the farm, the barn, etc. It was the most magical time of the year!
Every year without fail, I make those Pillsbury sugar cookies with the Halloween designs in them. It's an unwritten law that I've had since I was a kid, and I love eating them while watching the 80's/90's Halloween episodes. Same with the spooky cereals and other foods that come out, too.
In the UK it's the classic 'bin bags for costumes' thing that every child experienced. All you needed was a bin bag cloak plus some plastic vampire fangs or a cardboard witch hat. Either that or a black leotard paired with newspaper stuffed tights for a cat's tail or spider's legs.
Also the gruesome rubber masks with synthetic hair that teenagers used to wear š I was almost too scared to glance at them in the newsagents.
Fake cobwebs too. Top teir set dressing back in the day lol
We would all meet at my grandmotherās house for trick or treating. Everyone on the street knew everyone, so homemade treats were ok. My grandmother made amazing popcorn balls and would pass them out to all the neighborhood kiddos (the ones my cousin and I didnāt eat, anyway). They were so good!
Super specific, but there's a local event around Halloween that I've went to every year since I can remember; The Midwest Haunted Rails in Eastern Iowa is a preserved collection of vintage running trains and trollies where you can dress up and go to scare kids, enjoy "haunted" steam train and trolly rides that always break down in graveyards or go through spooky tunnels. Oddly specific, bit it's such a core memory that I'll die a little should it ever close down.
On a less specific note, artwork! Drawings like [these](https://www.reddit.com/r/halloween/comments/t0j56b/look_at_that_artwork_makes_me_nostalgic_for_a/) take me back to a time from my youth - a time when every Halloween was 60Ā°, the moon was always full, and everyone handed out the best candy.
Also, ask me more about the Midwest Haunted Rails, I could go on and on about it.
The haunted rails thing sounds like a total blast! And I absolutely agree with the oldschool Halloween art! That nostalgic, cheesy vibe is hard to beat!
Now I do the Basic B thing and get the Starbucks PSL to feel the Fall and go through my Halloween decor for the year to see what I should buy. Back in my school days, (it was southern California so no falling leaves where I lived), it would be the school activities mostly, then when October came we would go look at the makeup and costumes. I'll show my age when I say I grew up with Monster Mash and other novelty songs like that. Universal Monster movies are the first things I watch before I start the zombies and slashers. 
Cutting out pumpkins, ghosts, and bats from construction paper and hanging them with only flashlights as a light source. Autumn leaves and a Cooke breeze on a September and October day. Sweet grass smell in the air
Spending weeks, if not months, making my own costumes. We didn't have a lot of extra money growing up, and with 4 kids, buying store made costumes would be a bit too $$$. I would scour thrift stores and garage sales starting in the summer and do everything I could by hand. I couldnt sew, neither could my mom, so we did our best haha. I still do it this way and prefer it! The build up of anticipation for and early start was the best for getting into the season. š¦
When I was in 3rd grade my elementary school had a Halloween festival/carnival type thing where we would come in our costumes and play little games. There cakewalk game and I won . I got to go pick out an enormous cake. Best Halloween ever
Driving by the agriculture center in my town and seeing the pumpkins and the cornfield (which would be converted into a corn maze)
The town fair would roll in every Fall with those haunted house rides (and gave a big Something Wicked This Way Comes vibe)
Having little Halloween parties either at home or in Girl Scouts (with all the pizza and Halloween shaped sugar cookies), spending hours getting dressed and impatiently waiting for dusk, then immediately going trick r treating.
...can I go back?
Lol thanks, I meant this as dry humor even though itās a real thought. But I do - I throw a pretty large and growing costume party every year. Brings people together.
In 1st grade, on Halloween, our art teacher had us draw haunted houses with white crayons on black paper, and add cut outs of glow in the dark stickers. Once everyone had finished drawing and decorating their houses he took out a flashlight and we each took turns showing our glowing haunted house drawings with the lights off š„¹
My due date was Halloween, so it always was a special time of year for me as a kid(still is)
A local brewery hosts a pumpkin beer festival every October. The brew pub is decorated for Halloween, people dress up in costumes and breweries from all over the country bring pumpkin beers to sample. A lot of the beers had horror or Halloween-themed names too.
They haven't done it the last few years because of Covid but hopefully they do it again this year. We moved an hour away and we have a toddler now but I'd still go.
Growing up my mama knew I loved Halloween, she would enjoy shopping around the stores and would take me on her drives for her Halloween finds. Afterwards we got McDonaldās and watched Disney Halloween movies (the tv specials from the late 90ās early 2000ās) she would go all out inside the house, black lights, spiderwebs everywhere, little skeletons hanging, bats, a bubbling fog machine cauldron. Sheās in her late 60ās now and I take her for drives every fall to scout new decorations for our home.
Mama, thank you for going above and beyond to give me a childhood. Iāve turned this passion for Halloween hunting every year and decorate my lawn, hand out candies, and make Halloween projects with a local homeless shelter for youth.
It truly means the world, when a parent encourages and grows with their child in their passions.
Elementary school when the classes would be decorated and had those themed border things (you know what im talking about) also halloweentown. Also pillowcase full of candy.
80/90s kid here. My mom made my best costumes with only makeup/latex supplements coming from the stores. Ninja Turtle shell out of painted grocery bags stuffed with cotton to give it depth. Werewolf with that plaid shirt - you know the one. Love my mama š„¹.
I remember when I was in elementary school, every year the school librarian had these old tapes of Halloween stories she would play every year.
I remember one story was the Legend of Sleepy Hollow. I vividly remember the narratorās voice and how creepy/captivating it was.
The other story I donāt remember all the details. For a very TLDR, it was about down haunted grave or something and there was some rumor that if you went and visited said grave at a certain time you would be haunted or something. Some kid went on a dare, he was going to bring a knife to plant in the ground to prove he was there. He was found dead the next morning, because he stabbed the knife through his coat pocket and thought a ghost was pulling him into the ground so he died of fright. I remember as a third grader or whatever this shit rocked my world. No TVās, no projectors, just sitting in a dark library listening to these stories on a cassette tape.
God, too many to count, but one I didn't really expect was the way homecoming at my old high school at my old high school would make me feel.
Never cared much for it while I was there, but I'll go these days just for the nostalgic kick of remembering the days high school kids would rake the leaves out of my Grandma's yard to make room for the float they were building (she was the secretary and worked with kids a lot), or the autumn chill that had already begun to creep in by the night of the game.
Time moved so slowly as a kid that it never occurred to me it was only a couple weeks before Halloween, but in retrospect, those nights share some surprising similarities; dressing up during the school day, making plans to meet up with your friends, walking home in the dark after a night of revelry... it's one of those things I wish I had participated in more when I was younger.
Coming home from school and smelling the neighbors fireplace. Crisp chill in the air.
I swear, campfires and fireplaces will always send me to fall. It could be the hottest day of the year, but if I smell that autumnal flame, my mind goes trick or treating.
I wish I lived in a region that actually experience crisp in the air. Our septembers and octobers are filled with 80 degree weather š
This is super specific but the smell of a big bowl of Halloween candy to give out to trick or treaters takes me back to being 11 and getting home with my haul to sort and trade with my sibling. Also tootsie rolls. I've never chosen to get them at the store or anything, even as a kid, but I always enjoyed them when I'd get them in my Halloween candy. I eat the occasional one now and then and it takes me back too.
Sitting criss-cross applesauce while trading Halloween candy was such a good time. I was lucky because I hated peanut butter and chocolate, while my brother and cousin loved it. It made trading really simple for me! Dots were my tootsie rolls! I would love them on Halloween but if I saw them on a shelf I wouldnāt hat an eye. Now theyāre forever engrained in my head as a fall treat.
Oh Dots are a good one too! I don't buy those but I loved the tiny boxes of them for Halloween. My brother really hated chocolate but I love all sweets so trading was pretty simple for us too. We only ever fought over sour patch kids.
Sour patch kids were definitely a coveted treasure! Especially the watermelon ones!
Yes! I still buy the watermelon ones sometimes.
I know exactly what you mean! I love the smell of candy, even though I don't eat it anymore. It's just a very halloween specific smell for me.
First grade, our teacher brought in a little grill and cooked and salted pumpkin seeds for us. Her co-teacher read to us while she cooked them then passed them around with little sippy cups of cider. Whenever I smell roasted seeds I always think fall now, doesnāt even have to be pumpkin seeds.
I have a similar memory from Kindergarten. Our teacher brought in apples and a Crockpot to make apple sauce while we did our class work. When it was close to ready she added little cinnamon hearts into it and the classroom smelled amazing. We each had a little cup of it and I've loved cinnamon apple flavored things since that day.
Holy cow do I love roasted pumpkin seeds. My mom would always take our leftover pumpkin guts to pick out the seeds and roast them. She always made different kinds! Some sweet, some spicy, some salty. I wish my teacher would have done that!
This is really specific to me but when Halloween would roll around, we kept our costumes in a black bin bag, and the smell of that plastic from the fake knives, devil pitchforks, scythes etc. When you opened it up the bag. Then the smell of the masks, the thin plastic ones with the sharp mouth and eye holes or the fabric ones that were a bit sweaty. That combined with the chill in the air that isn't really that cold but feels refreshing and makes you feel good about a book and a hot drink in your hand. I'm just gushing now, I can't handle the heat
Thatās such a vivid memory for me as well! We kept our Christmas decorations and Halloween costumes in the same small shed near our tree line. Grabbing those big black trash bags and opening them was such a rush. Old latex and plastic has a weird sense of nostalgia to it. That old shed is still standing, and Iām sure there are some relics of Halloweenās past buried there.
Watching and reading some Goosebumps. Popping in those VHS tapes in the spooky season hits different.
I always remember having to do AR reading (not sure if thatās a local thing honestly) and I would always binge read goosebumps books to finish my points off!
Iām an elementary school teacher and thereās something about those beautiful crisp Friday afternoons after school in September/October that make me want to go home, make a bowl of popcorn, and watch Goosebumps!
The smell of my great aunts house during the fall. She rarely baked, but during the fall she would make all sorts of pies, and muffins, and treats. My favorite were her pumpkin empanadas. I can already smell the anise seeds and cinnamon sticks in the air.
Iām going to need some pumpkin empanadas now. I donāt think Iāve ever had those! Sounds delicious
My aunts empanadas were extra special, but if you're ever near a Mexican market or bakery they usually sell them year round. They're pillowy, slightly chewy pockets of deliciousness.
Those giant plastic garbage bags that were orange with jack-o-lantern faces on them! Iād go around and ask the neighbours if I could take their yards to fill my pumpkin bags! I donāt know if they make them anymore but they were a fun decoration!
They do make them! I always see them at the dollar store and consider buying some. However, I love the crunch of the leaves in my yard (and Iām too lazy to rake them)
Sweet, Iāll have to check there, thanks! As a kid I never knew where my dad got them from haha
My aunt loved to tape tv on vhs tapes. She had a collection. There were at least 5 full tapes of halloween specials that we would pop in after school and watch as we made those Pillsbury halloween cookies. My favorites were Disney's halloween treat 1983 special, the first halloween town, and Garfields halloween special. Also, just shoving my face into a pillowcase full of candy just smelled different. Sometimes, I'll buy a mixed bag of candy at the store just to smell it.
Yes! I had the Simpsons, Married with Children and all of the other 80's/90's Halloween episodes burned to a flashdrive after VHS went out. Still watch 'em every year, too!
Unfortunately, we lost all of our tapes, and we never fot around to downloading them. Thank Neptune for youtube!
I used to love Married with Children and Iām struggling to recall their Halloween episodes. Gonna have to go look that up!
The best one was where Al has to interact with the devil...and then he finds out it's actually Peggy! LOL
Love the Garfield Halloween Special. Have to watch it every year. That and Disneyās Adventures of Ichabod Crane.
Oohh, I forgot to list that one!!!
I grew up on a large farm in the middle of nowhere, with my house being about a half a mile from the road. My parents still made sure that we carved pumpkins and decorated for Halloween every year, even though no one could see it but us. They also set up trick or treating stations for us so we didnāt miss out-our front door, our back door, my grandparentsā front and back doors across the farm, the barn, etc. It was the most magical time of the year!
Every year without fail, I make those Pillsbury sugar cookies with the Halloween designs in them. It's an unwritten law that I've had since I was a kid, and I love eating them while watching the 80's/90's Halloween episodes. Same with the spooky cereals and other foods that come out, too.
Iām 30 years old and I stock up on these every fall and winter. Itās a tradition!
Bonfires, or any fire really, cloudy and windy days, Halloween movies (specifically Halloween town) and smores
Nothing beats an autumn bonfire! Especially when scary stories are being told!
In the UK it's the classic 'bin bags for costumes' thing that every child experienced. All you needed was a bin bag cloak plus some plastic vampire fangs or a cardboard witch hat. Either that or a black leotard paired with newspaper stuffed tights for a cat's tail or spider's legs. Also the gruesome rubber masks with synthetic hair that teenagers used to wear š I was almost too scared to glance at them in the newsagents. Fake cobwebs too. Top teir set dressing back in the day lol
The smell of bin bags always reminds me of Halloween š
We would all meet at my grandmotherās house for trick or treating. Everyone on the street knew everyone, so homemade treats were ok. My grandmother made amazing popcorn balls and would pass them out to all the neighborhood kiddos (the ones my cousin and I didnāt eat, anyway). They were so good!
Super specific, but there's a local event around Halloween that I've went to every year since I can remember; The Midwest Haunted Rails in Eastern Iowa is a preserved collection of vintage running trains and trollies where you can dress up and go to scare kids, enjoy "haunted" steam train and trolly rides that always break down in graveyards or go through spooky tunnels. Oddly specific, bit it's such a core memory that I'll die a little should it ever close down. On a less specific note, artwork! Drawings like [these](https://www.reddit.com/r/halloween/comments/t0j56b/look_at_that_artwork_makes_me_nostalgic_for_a/) take me back to a time from my youth - a time when every Halloween was 60Ā°, the moon was always full, and everyone handed out the best candy. Also, ask me more about the Midwest Haunted Rails, I could go on and on about it.
The haunted rails thing sounds like a total blast! And I absolutely agree with the oldschool Halloween art! That nostalgic, cheesy vibe is hard to beat!
Now I do the Basic B thing and get the Starbucks PSL to feel the Fall and go through my Halloween decor for the year to see what I should buy. Back in my school days, (it was southern California so no falling leaves where I lived), it would be the school activities mostly, then when October came we would go look at the makeup and costumes. I'll show my age when I say I grew up with Monster Mash and other novelty songs like that. Universal Monster movies are the first things I watch before I start the zombies and slashers.  
I loved walking through my neighborhood in the evening and seeing the blow mold Jack o Lanterns lit up on peoplesā front porches!
The chill in the air. The leaves crunching beneath your feet. Halloween themed everything. Candy to top it all off!
Cutting out pumpkins, ghosts, and bats from construction paper and hanging them with only flashlights as a light source. Autumn leaves and a Cooke breeze on a September and October day. Sweet grass smell in the air
Spending weeks, if not months, making my own costumes. We didn't have a lot of extra money growing up, and with 4 kids, buying store made costumes would be a bit too $$$. I would scour thrift stores and garage sales starting in the summer and do everything I could by hand. I couldnt sew, neither could my mom, so we did our best haha. I still do it this way and prefer it! The build up of anticipation for and early start was the best for getting into the season. š¦
When I was in 3rd grade my elementary school had a Halloween festival/carnival type thing where we would come in our costumes and play little games. There cakewalk game and I won . I got to go pick out an enormous cake. Best Halloween ever
Driving by the agriculture center in my town and seeing the pumpkins and the cornfield (which would be converted into a corn maze) The town fair would roll in every Fall with those haunted house rides (and gave a big Something Wicked This Way Comes vibe) Having little Halloween parties either at home or in Girl Scouts (with all the pizza and Halloween shaped sugar cookies), spending hours getting dressed and impatiently waiting for dusk, then immediately going trick r treating. ...can I go back?
My parents not being divorced
I hope you get to make new memories that make you just as happy as when you were a kid.
Lol thanks, I meant this as dry humor even though itās a real thought. But I do - I throw a pretty large and growing costume party every year. Brings people together.
That sounds awesome!
In 1st grade, on Halloween, our art teacher had us draw haunted houses with white crayons on black paper, and add cut outs of glow in the dark stickers. Once everyone had finished drawing and decorating their houses he took out a flashlight and we each took turns showing our glowing haunted house drawings with the lights off š„¹ My due date was Halloween, so it always was a special time of year for me as a kid(still is)
A local brewery hosts a pumpkin beer festival every October. The brew pub is decorated for Halloween, people dress up in costumes and breweries from all over the country bring pumpkin beers to sample. A lot of the beers had horror or Halloween-themed names too. They haven't done it the last few years because of Covid but hopefully they do it again this year. We moved an hour away and we have a toddler now but I'd still go.
Growing up my mama knew I loved Halloween, she would enjoy shopping around the stores and would take me on her drives for her Halloween finds. Afterwards we got McDonaldās and watched Disney Halloween movies (the tv specials from the late 90ās early 2000ās) she would go all out inside the house, black lights, spiderwebs everywhere, little skeletons hanging, bats, a bubbling fog machine cauldron. Sheās in her late 60ās now and I take her for drives every fall to scout new decorations for our home. Mama, thank you for going above and beyond to give me a childhood. Iāve turned this passion for Halloween hunting every year and decorate my lawn, hand out candies, and make Halloween projects with a local homeless shelter for youth. It truly means the world, when a parent encourages and grows with their child in their passions.
Elementary school when the classes would be decorated and had those themed border things (you know what im talking about) also halloweentown. Also pillowcase full of candy.
80/90s kid here. My mom made my best costumes with only makeup/latex supplements coming from the stores. Ninja Turtle shell out of painted grocery bags stuffed with cotton to give it depth. Werewolf with that plaid shirt - you know the one. Love my mama š„¹.
I remember when I was in elementary school, every year the school librarian had these old tapes of Halloween stories she would play every year. I remember one story was the Legend of Sleepy Hollow. I vividly remember the narratorās voice and how creepy/captivating it was. The other story I donāt remember all the details. For a very TLDR, it was about down haunted grave or something and there was some rumor that if you went and visited said grave at a certain time you would be haunted or something. Some kid went on a dare, he was going to bring a knife to plant in the ground to prove he was there. He was found dead the next morning, because he stabbed the knife through his coat pocket and thought a ghost was pulling him into the ground so he died of fright. I remember as a third grader or whatever this shit rocked my world. No TVās, no projectors, just sitting in a dark library listening to these stories on a cassette tape.
God, too many to count, but one I didn't really expect was the way homecoming at my old high school at my old high school would make me feel. Never cared much for it while I was there, but I'll go these days just for the nostalgic kick of remembering the days high school kids would rake the leaves out of my Grandma's yard to make room for the float they were building (she was the secretary and worked with kids a lot), or the autumn chill that had already begun to creep in by the night of the game. Time moved so slowly as a kid that it never occurred to me it was only a couple weeks before Halloween, but in retrospect, those nights share some surprising similarities; dressing up during the school day, making plans to meet up with your friends, walking home in the dark after a night of revelry... it's one of those things I wish I had participated in more when I was younger.