Our Cup of Tea: Halloween Edition

Our Cup of Tea is Annmarie Skin Care’s monthly series featuring the team members’ favorite things! From recipes to workouts to nights on the town, we’ll share the things we love with you. You’ll get to know our team a little better and who knows, you might just find a new favorite thing.

This month we learned something about the Annmarie Skin Care team. All of us love Halloween. As in… it’s collectively our favorite holiday and many of us define the autumn season as “halloween season” in our minds.

We knew we all had little bit of uniqueness (read: weird) in us but we had no idea that we had such a cool mind-meld when it comes to the holiday of trickery, the days to celebrate the thinning of the veil, the serious love of candy (okay, we knew about the team-wide sweet tooth).

Here are our favorite Halloween traditions and tales! Please feel free to share yours in the comments.

Jasmine

When I was a kid, my mom would always sew our costumes that would then be added to the dress up bins to be played with for years to come, always reminding us of that Halloween. My favorite costume that she ever made me was, of course, Princess Jasmine. 🙂 My brother and I would go around with our little plastic pumpkin buckets and collect mountains of candy. When we got home, we’d pour it all out on the floor and categorize the candy, and trade the pieces we didn’t like. I honestly don’t know what happened to all that candy after eating as much as we could stomach that evening!

As I got into my teen years, my friends and I played heavily on the ‘trick’ aspect of trick or treat, and we would play little pranks on our neighbors while trick or treating with a giant pillowcase. We would dare each other to do different things.. once I had to knock on someone’s door, and when they opened the door I had to ‘accidentally’ trip into their house and tumble onto their floor. Silliness!

Leah

As the Will Durst quote goes “Halloween is redundant in San Francisco.” There are occasions year round to dress up in the Bay so I have a storage container at the ready for costume possibilities. I also enjoy the thrill of the hunt by finding accessories/small details that really complete the outfit. While Halloween may be redundant in San Francisco in terms of dressing up, it is not redundant in the variety of street fairs, festivals, and neighborhoods that go all out celebrating Halloween. I also love going to Dia de los Muertos which is shortly after Halloween in November.

Gwen

My absolute favorite time of year ! My parents made a huge deal out of this Holiday when I was a kid – our house was always full of uniquely spooky decorations and my mother hand sewed all of our costumes. I am still a huge fan of Halloween traditions and make it a point to carve pumpkins, listen to silly music like Monster Mash and Ghostbusters, and of course decorate the house with spiderwebs and skeletons.. To this day, I do DIY costumes by thrifting and/or crafting – last year I was medusa and made the most fabulous golden snake headpiece. Click here for the tutorial. Trust me, you will feel like the snake goddess herself and receive TONS of compliments.

Courtney

Halloween is literally my favorite time of the year. I keep halloween decorations up for over a month (sometimes year round. I do have a pretty fantastic collection of creepy skull stuff that I’m quite proud of). Something about the cooler weather and darker skies just makes me really happy. My traditions around this time are definitely to watch more movies. Hocus Pocus anyone?! I also absolutely love to bake in the fall. Pies, tarts, cookies you name it! My ideal fall day would include some substantial lounging in a warmly lit space with lots of blankets, watching a fall time-y movie, with a spicey candle lit near me, perhaps with a cup of tea in hand. That’s my little slice of heaven right there 🙂

Aub

Hallows is such a special time for me. My family comes together to put on a trick-or-treating delight for the kids in their northern Michigan neighborhood. The Wallace women dress in our best witching attire and stand singing around a cauldron (ie. a campfire) in the front yard (Have you seen Hocus Pocus? “Come, little children / I’ll take thee away / Into a land / Of enchantment”) The rest of the family are around being spooky, jumping out or playing fun faerie games with the locals.

Michon

Halloween was the day I was born, 25 years ago this year! Food is always a very big part of any celebration for me, and Halloween season means watching the Addams Family, Hocus Pocus, Beetlejuice, & Harry Potter while making yummy treats. And then eating them, of course 🙂

Rachel P

I like to stay in, watch a movie and eat a yummy meal. Pretty much have a great date night with myself and decompress as the world is crazy outside. 🙂

Lisa

I have a 9 year old son and a 4 month old daughter. Halloween has taken on a new level of fun since my son was born. Our neighborhood is a hub for trick or treaters, so we have a blast handing out treats (usually Annie’s Halloween fruit snacks or Yummy Earth lollipops) and walking around the neighborhood to see everyone’s costumes. When we get back home, my son can pick out 3 small pieces of candy (sugar + my child do *not* mix well) and the rest goes to the Switch Witch – she takes the candy overnight and leaves money or a small toy. We’re excited to get my daughter involved in the fun this year!

Nataly

Oh Halloween <3. More than anything I love the movies that play around this time. They feel so nostalgic! Harry Potter + Hocus Pocus. I recently stumbled across a Paleo Pumpkin Brownie recipe that may or may not become a tradition! http://ahealthylifeforme.com/paleo-chocolate-pumpkin-brownies/
My boyfriend and I have carved pumpkins the last few years together. They never turn out that great but it’s fun to put on a Halloween movie, drink some delicious cider and carve out a couple triangles. 🙂

Abby

My obsession with everything pineapple has me feeling some type of way on Halloween. Last year, my inaugural “Disco Pineapple” costume really re-defined this holiday for me… and now, I am planning my next pineapple theme costume to keep this tradition going (I really feel it’s my spirit fruit). I am definitely carving my jack-o-lantern in a pineapple this year – save the pumpkins! 🙂

Lauryn

Being the music lover that I am, in years past I would usually see concerts on Halloween. Its so fun to dress up and go mingle in a crowd of disguised people, it adds such an exciting element of mystery. This year I will have a 9-month-old on Halloween, so we will probably just dress him up and take some cute photos before his bedtime, maybe go hang out with some friends as well. Watching Halloween movies and making nourshing, grounding soups with seasonal root veggies like this one here is one of my favorite ways to celebrate this nostalgic time of year.