Our 2020 Socially-Distanced Fall Bucket List
October is here! Fall is in the air! The ‘ber’ months (September, October, November, December), are my absolute favorite months of the year. I love how the greens of summer fade into rich colors of leaves falling, the crunch sound of acorns underneath my feet as we go on walks, the brisk air nipping at my face as it beckons sweater weather, and pumpkins beginning to take over home decor and local church yards. I love it all. This year, it’s different though.
I won’t be out and about watching stores change out their seasonal aisles. I won’t be frequenting a pumpkin patch, getting lost in a corn maze, or hanging out on a hayride as we venture out to a bonfire. It’s going to be a quieter fall, a silent transition even. We’re saying a lot of hard no’s right now from our “normal” fall rhythms and our annual anniversary weekend trip, to watching football with friends and celebrating weddings. It’s begged the question in my mind of how to make this fall just as special, just as unique as the season itself is. I’ve scoured my mind for our past season ‘must-do’s and perused Pinterest to see if there are any fresh ideas that we can bring to our table.
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Decorate
Decorate the inside of our home for fall. I love our fall decor second only to our Christmas decor. Really though, who doesn’t love Christmas decor? We have a loose camping/fall nature theme going on most years. This year is no exception. I love the thermoses, plaid backgrounds, wooden ducks, and pumpkins. It’s definitely not the decor for everyone, but it makes me happy.
Decorate our front porch. We actually haven’t done a ton in the past, but we do have the cutest Halloween ghost dog that we’ll put out along with a pumpkin.
Get pumpkins. What’s fall without some pumpkins? I love tossing them around in our home decor - mantle, bathroom, kitchen window, front porch, kitchen table, and anywhere else they land to provide some seasonal love.
Go on a fall walk + collect leaves/branches/pinecones. I’m not quite sure how many branches we’ll collect as recent rains have provided plenty in our own yard, but we’ll be looking for pretty-colored leaves and some pinecones we can add to our current decor.
Make a fall/halloween playlist. I actually have a Halloween party playlist on Spotify already. After listening to the episode of the That Sounds Fun Episode 116 with Myquillyn Smith of The Nester, I’ve loved the idea of seasonal playlists that can play in the background and feel like the season. I’m working on a fall playlist currently, which I’ll be keeping separately from my Halloween playlist, because I love Thriller - but on November 14th, it just isn’t the same. If you have any ideas, I’d love to know.
Light our fall candles. We’ve got a ton of candles from Bath and Body Works that I’ve been storing waiting for the season to start. Some of my favorites are cinnamon spiced vanilla, sweet cinnamon pumpkin, tree farm, and spice apply toddy. I also love Trader Joe’s vanilla pumpkin.
Things to Do + Ways to Celebrate
Give myself a fall inspired manicure/pedicure. I have the cutest sparkly black nail polish that screams October to me. I also love this wine color too.
I’m always up for a good board game night. This time of year is the perfect time to break out an old favorite like Clue or dive into a new favorite like Horrified or Betrayal at the House on the Hill.
Go on a Fall Foliage Drive where we drive out to see the array and variety of colors of the fall leaves changing. We’ll probably have seasonal drinks in hand.
Do a gratitude challenge. I’ve done the 100 Days of Happy Challenge (#100happydays) where you post a photo of something you’re grateful for or that makes you happy and post it on instagram. I won’t be doing this challenge exactly, but I will be continuing to document my Sunday nights #akgrateful roundup of a few things I’m grateful for from each week that I post over on instagram.
Writing thank you notes can get you into more of a thankfulness vibe. You could even make it into a thank you note challenge where you write one a week. I haven’t quite fleshed out how this will happen for me, but I’d love to take a few days out to honor some people that I’m thankful for whether it’s family, friends, or our H.E.B. curbside team.
Fall makes for a perfect campout. We’re staying home, but that doesn’t mean we can’t do a campout themed date night complete with s’mores out on the patio.
Host a Halloween Night Party. This is pretty much the most low-key “party” we’ll ever throw. We’re grabbing some of our favorite pizza and candy (which we won’t be putting together a la Princess Diaries), and will watch Hocus Pocus and whatever Halloween movie fits our fancy that evening.
Do some pumpkin painting. Have y’all seen the gorgeous paintings on pumpkins on Pinterest? From super elaborate to very minimal. We grew up painting pumpkins every year and rarely carved ours, but this seems like the perfect year for some artistic flair for our pumpkin friends.
Watch the Thanksgiving Day Parade. I know it will be different this year, but it’s a historic year to watch. I can’t wait to see how they do it - here’s how to watch it.
Take some family photos. Send them in Christmas cards if you want, or just treasure the photos for yourself to see your family grow year after year.
Make a Christmas list. Check it twice. Get it to Santa, because I’ve been pretty nice.
Start Christmas shopping early! I’ve got a gift closet that I collect things like stocking stuffers year round. This year stocking stuffers pose a struggle, but I no longer feel crazy for buying some in early March.
Eat + Drink
Grab a pumpkin cold brew from Starbucks with our giftcard or the monthly splitshot from A 2nd Cup.
Bake something fall-inspired. For us, that’s something with pumpkin in it or at least pumpkin pie spice since we accidentally have collected a few different bottles of that spice that we need to clear out of our cabinet.
Drink hot cider. We love Trader Joes apple cider and will be making a hard cider out of it too.
Drink a chaider. It’s a chai tea + cider concoction of spicy apple goodness.
Make a good pot of chili. Rick has an excellent recipe that we have already made and devoured during the first cold snap of the year - aka that day it dipped under 90 degrees.
Make some tailgate-y foods for a football game/reading day. I don’t really watch the game, but I love reading with the noise on in the background. It reminds me of good memories growing up with my dad watching football. I have no idea what tailgate-y foods we’ll need to make, but it’s really the best reason to go to a football watching party.
Make pumpkin mac + cheese. My dad and I combined a few recipes to make our masterpiece the last Halloween we spent together, so every October it’s on my list of things to make and remember that sweet memory of us.
Bake a pumpkin pie and a pecan pie. I love both of these on one plate at Thanksgiving, so I’ll most likely make them around the same time so that I can savor both as the flavors of fall meld together.
Make Halloween cookies. I’ve never made Halloween cookies before, but I have the cutest cookie cutters I picked up years ago, and it’s the year to give them their chance to shine.
Have some fall cocktails. Fall seems like a great time to have an old fashioned.
Eat Halloween candy. Confession time: I do not need this on our list, because the bag of Reese’s we bought for this season may be gone by next Monday.
Make a mulled apple cider sangria.
What to Watch
Watching Fall TV, Halloween specials and Christmas anything (but that’s a different blog post) are some of my favorite things to watch to get in the spirit. Sometimes I’m glued to the television and other times, they’re on in the background as we clean, cook, or go about our lives. There’s something about those episodes with the decorations, and spooky storylines that I love and help me get into the spirit of the season. I can seriously watch some of these all year round, and I am 100% guilty of doing so. We’ll have several Halloween movie marathons on Friday nights and watch through fall and Halloween episodes that we love of our favorite shows. We won’t watch everything on this list exhaustively, but it’s a great tool for us to see
Halloween Movies
Hocus Pocus
Gremlins
Gremlins 2
Ghostbusters 1
Ghostbusters 2
Clue
E.T. the Extra Terrestial
Teen Wolf
Scooby Doo on Zombie Island
It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown
Double Double, Toil and Trouble
Goosebumps
Goosebumps 2
Monsters Inc.
Monsters University
Mom’s Got A Date With A Vampire
Twitches
Twitches Too
Nightmare Before Christmas
Hotel Transylvania 1
Hotel Transylvania 2
Hotel Transylvania 3
The Haunted Mansion
Spooky Buddies
The Princess and the Frog
The Harry Potter movies
Halloweentown
Halloweentown II: Kalabar’s Revenge
Halloweentown High
Return to Halloweentown
Brooklyn 99 Halloween Heists
Halloween Season 1, Episode 6
Halloween II Season 2, Episode 4
Halloween III Season 3, Episode 5
Halloween IV Season 4, Episode 5
HalloVeen Season 5, Episode 4
Cinco De Mayo Season 6, Episode 16
Valloweaster Season 7, Episode 11
Psych Halloween episodes
Who Ya Gonna Call? Season 1, Episode 7
Scary Sherry: Bianca's Toast Season 1, Episode 15
Shawn (and Gus) of the Dead Season 2, Episode 16
Ghosts Season 3, Episode 1
There Might Be Blood Season 3, Episode 6
Tuesday the 17th Season 3, Episode 15
An Evening With Mr. Yang Season 3, Episode 16
The Devil's in the Details... and the Upstairs Bathroom Season 4, Episode 4
Let's Get Hairy Season 4, Episode 8
Mr. Yin Presents Season 4, Episode 16
Not Even Close Encounters Season 5, Episode 3
In Plain Fright Season 5, Episode 11
Yang 3 in 2D Season 5, Episode 16
This Episode Sucks Season 6, Episode 3
Shawn, Interrupted Season 6, Episode 6
Heeeeere's Lassie Season 6, Episode 11
Autopsy Turvy Season 6, Episode 14
100 Clues Season 7, Episode 5
Sabrina the Teenage Witch - the original 90’s Sitcom
Really almost every episode but these are the most Halloween-y of them
A Halloween Story Season 1, Episode 5
A River of Candy Corn Runs Through It Season 2, Episode 7
Good Will Haunting Season 3, Episode 6
Episode LXXXI: The Phantom Menace Season 4: Episode 6
The Halloween Scene Season 5, Episode 6
Really Big Season Opener Season 6, Episode 1 (debatable on Halloween but very close
Murder on the Halloween Express Season 6, Episode 4
N.C.I.S. Fall + Halloween Episodes
The Curse Season 1, Episode 5
The Bone Yard Season 2, Episode 5, Season 2
The Voyeur's Web Season 3, Episode 6
Witch Hunt Season 4, Episode 6
Chimera Season 5, Episode 6
Murder 2.0 Season 6, Episode 6, Season 6
Code Of Conduct Season 7, Episode 5
Cracked Season 8, Episode 6
Thirst Season 9, Episode 6
The Namesake Season 10, Episode 5
Oil & Water Season 11, Episode 6
Parental Guidance Suggested Season 12, Episode 6
Viral Season 13, Episode 6
Shell Game Season 14, Episode 6
Trapped Season 15, Episode 6
Beneath The Surface Season 16, Episode 6
Wide Awake Season 17, Episode 5
Gilmore Girls Fall Episodes
Kiss and Tell Season 1, Episode 7
The Road Trip to Harvard Season 2, Episode 4
Let the Games Begin Season 3, Episode 8
Ted Koppel’s Big Night Out Season 4, Episode 9
You Jump, I Jump, JackSeason 5, Episode 7
Welcome to the Dollhouse Season 6, Episode 6
Twenty-One is the Loneliest Number Season 6, Episode 7
Hay Bale Maze Season 7, Episode 18
Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life Episode 4 - Fall
Assorted Other Halloween TV Episodes
Spooky Disney Animated Shorts like Lonesome Ghosts and Skeleton Dance, The Haunted House, and Trick or Treat.
Community - Epidemiology Season 2, Episode 6
Pretty much any murder mystery movie or documentary
(The movie Knives Out is super good).