By: Chelsea Cozad

The spookiest day of the year is quickly approaching and we all know as soon as the costumes are hung up and the makeup is wiped off, the holiday season immediately begins. So instead of celebrating for a mere few hours, expand the fun into weekdays and weekends before with these 5 easy and memorable activities!

• Haunted Houses

If you’re looking to get out of the house for a thrilling adventure, try a haunted house! There are plenty of scary haunted houses in the Dayton area including Land of Illusion Haunted Houses, Nightmare On Valley Street, or the Dayton Scream Park. So grab your friends and get ready to have the YELL scared out of you

• Pumpkin Patch

There’s nothing that screams Halloween more than a big, round pumpkin! Local groceries stores carry some decent ones but the real fun comes from going to a pumpkin patch and picking one out yourself! Kleather’s Pumpkin Patch and Young’s Jersey Dairy are sure to hold your perfect pumpkin!

• Carve/ Paint Pumpkins

So your trip to the pumpkin patch was a success and you have an orange beauty sitting on your porch. Yes, it looks quite nice next to the scarecrow and hay bale but it could use little something to really give more of a Halloween vibe. This is an easy fix: simply sit down with your favorite spooky playlist and carve a sinister face or paint a chilling design! With this creation, you’re bound to have the the most spine-tingling decoration on the block!

• Fear Fest at Kings Island

The Halloween Haunt at Kings Island is definitely not for the faint of heart. Zombies and Goblins lurk throughout the park, following you and sending chills up your spine. The park’s activities include 10 haunted attractions, live shows, as well as some of the most thrilling rides the park offers!

• Bake Pillsbury Pumpkin Cookies

So you’ve been out of the house participating in ghostly activities the whole week and need to relax! Pop some of those yummy Pillsbury sugar cookies in the oven, turn on It’s The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown, and snuggle up on the couch. Soon enough those cute little pumpkin cookies will be baked to golden perfection and you can begin to mindlessly eat them one by one! There can’t be THAT many calories in two dozen cookies, right?