When are you too Old to Dress Up for Halloween?

By Maria Perry |Staff Writer|

It’s Halloween, the full moon is out, the ghouls are dancing and you’re stressing out. Kids up and down the block seem to be in disguise as cats, mice, ghosts, and all sorts of ghastly critters.

So what’s the dilemma? Every year we get older yet we ponder the question: Am I too old to dress up?

Dressing up for Halloween has no age limit because it is a way for many people to get in the spirit of this holiday.

Many students I interviewed still dressed up, but some students, such as Jasmine Magee, Ricardo Ramirez, and Adam Ghossein either thought it pointless to spend money on an outfit that would be worn only once a year or were not raised in a culture that celebrated Halloween.

The following students share their similar views.

“As I’ve gotten older, I don’t really dress up anymore,” said Magee. “I don’t see the point of spending money I don’t have on a costume I’m only going to wear for one night.”

“I dress up for Halloween sometimes but just a mask that I already have I don’t like wasting money on a costume that I am only going to use once a year,” said Ramirez.

“No, I never dressed up for Halloween when I was growing up mostly because I was overseas and they didn’t celebrate Halloween,” said Ghossein.”So I am not used to dressing up for Halloween. I am not against it though.”

Most students interviewed also agreed there was no age limit to dressing up for Halloween.

Just because a person has no age limit on dressing up, doesn’t mean there isn’t an age limit on trick-or-treating.

“I don’t think that there is an age limit for dressing up,” said Ramirez. “There’s costumes for all ages who else is going to where those revealing outfits. When it comes to trick-or treating now that is a different story. Trick-or-treaters should have an age limit of 14 since that is when most start high school.”

There is a difference between dressing up and trick-or-treating because while a person may never get too old to dress up, they can get too old to go from door to door asking for candy.

“Nobody over 10 years old should ever go trick-or-treating,” said Steve Perry, an AP English teacher at Beaumont High School. “It’s just not cute to have teenagers or adults come to your door begging for stuff.”

Ghossein, who was partial about the trick-or-treating age limit said, “Trick-or-treating is mostly a kid’s activity. Trick-or-treating is a community activity where kids can go from house to house. An adult doing this is like an adult going into a bouncy house for six-year-olds.”

It is simply odd to see two completely different age groups together because a lot of small children won’t understand that the guy dressed up as a bald guy with the beard is portraying Walter White.

Student Tyler Nguyen thinks differently, “It might be a little weird to see an 80 years old knocking at your door asking for candy, but I’d also give him more candy as a kudos for all the effort he put into it.”

I think the difficulty is that as we get older dressing up for Halloween becomes more of a social function.

No matter what, one thing stays the same, Halloween is a fun holiday no matter the age.