When someone says Fall, people usually think of trick-or-treating, spooky movies, Thanksgiving, leaves, and chilly weather.

I personally like the different ways of celebrating Fall, and I’m not alone. These are some of the Air Academy’s fall traditions, including what to do with all that leftover Halloween candy.

Meredith Clabaugh, a junior at Air Academy said, “We normally eat the candy [after Halloween] or my mom throws it away after, unfortunately.” 

Many people also throw their candy. Some parents like to allow kids to keep it a few days and then possibly bribe them with money or other things to soften the blow of the lost candy.

“My family is pretty boring when it comes to Halloween so we only have fall decorations which we keep up for the fall time and through Thanksgiving. After that, we decorate for Christmas!” Clabaugh added. 

Stores all over the world seem to be on track with Clabaugh’s family. Stores like Hobby Lobby and Costco bring out Christmas and Thanksgiving decorations long before Halloween is over.

English teacher Katie Klostermann said she had a tradition involving Halloween candy.

“My siblings and I would dump [the candy] all in piles and do a massive trading system! We’d come up with bogus rules like “I trade 3 smarties for the KitKat” or “Twix count as double ‘cause there are two bars”. We’d trade for hours and sometimes even play poker or other card games betting candy instead of money.”

Klostermann continued by saying if she made her costume and what she did with her costume after Halloween.

“My grandmum would help us sew stuff and I was super into stage make-up (no shock I ended up in the theater for a bit!) and the prep was part of the fun! ” she went on “we had a big bin in the crawl-space of things we might use again. A lot of them were repurposed for spirit days at school or theme birthday parties.”

After Halloween traditions are popular in my house after trick or treating my mom would let us bring our candy to our room and eat it as we pleased.  My younger sister and I would always have a candy counting competition to see who got the most treats.

When Halloween is over we switch right into decorating for Christmas. Our Christmas is pretty standard, but we like the feeling that comes with the holidays, so we pick a day on the weekend to decorate the whole house in a theme, whether that be red and gold or silver and blue, and turn on a Christmas playlist on Spotify. 

When it comes to Thanksgiving, my family is pretty stuck on the traditional meal of turkey, mashed potatoes, and stuffing. What is Thanksgiving without it?

Fall and winter traditions are pretty broad at Air Academy. Whether you stick with the simple turkey and presents at Christmas or your family likes to shake things up a little this time of year, holiday traditions are fun no matter what. Hopefully, everyone had a fun Halloween and are ready to move on to the next season!