Functionally festive Halloween decor

Halloween hopefuls have been dreading this since March when memes began to surface on the internet message boards regarding the COVID-19 pandemic. The idea was determined: put the mask on now to save Halloween. Skeptics were present in the comment sections of SubReddit pages, insisting that there would be no Halloween without a safe and efficient vaccine.

Well, here we are six months later. #QuarantineHalloween approaches as Walla Walla County rests in Phase 2 of Gov. Inslee's Safe Start Plan. As with most events this year, there's fun to be had with some modifications for safety.

Was that the collective groan of a whole lot of disallowed trick-or-treaters I hear? If you love seeing the parade of inventive costumes, but require six feet or more of distancing, construct a candy slide. With this do-it-yourself project, a skeleton, a bit of PVC pipe, and paper streamers come together to form the perfect solution: a gravity-fed candy distribution system.

If you love going out costumed, and coming home heavily laden with an assortment of candies you never even heard of, embrace the mask trend.

Easy costumes now that masks are the norm:

• Plague Doctor

• Lone Ranger

• Bank robber

• Ninja themed vigilante (teenage mutant, or other)

• Anonymous

• Dental hygienist

No interest in hitting the streets? Me neither! Well, rather than trick-or-treating, an at-home candy hunt is just as fun, if not more so because you're guaranteed your favorite treats. Everybody hides, everybody hunts, everybody wins.

Other fun decorations involve making use of that succulent garden that, perhaps, didn't survive. Recreate the dead and dying in a lively plant cemetery. Or procure thrift-store baby dolls and assemble a spooky funerary procession. The only limitation is your imagination.