Celebrate Halloween While Working From Home
Halloween is easily one of my favorite holidays. What’s not to love? There’s free candy and you get to be whatever you want to be for one day a year. And the decorations! Look, I love Christmas, but I think I enjoy decorating for Halloween even more. Plus, we won’t have to worry about people not wearing masks for once! Did I mention there’s free candy?
Decorating for Halloween is a ton of fun. I love that you can switch up your look every year by leaning into a different theme but keeping the same base decorations, like fake cobwebs and spiders. I also like to decorate for Fall as soon as the weather changes, so I keep up decorations like mums and decorative corn from September until Thanksgiving—just adding the spooky stuff for October. There are so many different ways to get in the Halloween spirit, and so many of them require just a few small tweaks to your decor.
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Office Halloween celebrations
Oddly, one of my favorite parts of Halloween as an adult is how we celebrate at work. We always got really into the holiday spirit at my old office. Every year we would have a big party for associates’ kids. Everyone would bring their kiddos dressed in costume, and they would go trick-or-treating around the office. The whole company would go all out with an office Halloween decorating contest. Each department would decorate their cubicles with a different theme so the kids could have an almost haunted house-like experience.
A few years ago, my department won the grand prize, thanks to our Nightmare Before Christmas Theme. My desk was part of Christmas Town, so I kept my decorations up all the way until December. I’m not sure management really loved that, but I don’t think *I’ve* ever had so much fun at work.
Here are some (bad!) pictures of our decorations. Unfortunately, all my photos were deleted when I got a new work phone earlier this year, so I had to use some screenshots from a video that luckily survived. You can’t quite see how detailed our decorations were, but trust me, it was amazing.
One half of the department was decorated as Halloween Town from The Nightmare Before Christmas. As you can see, there were A LOT of details from the movie, plus a bunch of other touches that truly transformed our office space. Ok, we *may* have gone a little overboard and all spent a little too much of our own money to win the trophy.
The other half (where my desk was located) was decorated as Christmas Town. To be honest, some of the kids were a bit confused as to why we had Christmas decorations up for Halloween. But the parents loved it! And we kept as many decorations as we could get away with displayed all the way through Christmas. It definitely brightened up the office that year.
This was my desk. I kept the decorations up until December! BTW, that’s my amazing standing desk underneath the wrapping paper. It’s the one thing I really miss from my desk at the office. I think I’m going to order another one for my home office because my back is not happy that I’ve been sitting so much. You can get the same one here. Trust me, your back will thank you.
Now that I’m working from home, I really miss the yearly office Halloween party. But I’m not letting the holiday go by unnoticed! I’m decorating my house, and especially my home office, to get in the Halloween spirit. I’m also planning on hosting a Virtual Halloween Happy Hour with my coworkers so we can all dress up in our costumes and at least pretend it’s as fun as our old office parties. We’ll be picking a fun theme, playing spooky music, competing to win prizes with some party games, and voting to see who has the best costume.
Are you wondering what to do for your Halloween office decorations this year?
Here are some tips for decorating your cubicle or Home office for Halloween:
Pick a Theme.
An easy way to decorate is to pick a theme and stick with it. Love Harry Potter? Go with a witch and wizard theme. Prefer Dracula? Fangs and fake blood all the way. Luckily, there are countless movies and books about Halloween, so you have no shortage of choices to pick from. You can even stick with Halloween classics like ghosts or creepy cobwebs if you want to keep it simple.
Of course, if you’re more into autumn than Halloween itself, you can decorate with fall classics instead of spooky staples. Small gourds and pumpkins make great desk decorations. Hang a fall print in that empty spot on your wall you’ve been meaning to fill. Place a scarecrow in the corner of your office.
Whatever theme you choose, have fun with it! Halloween and the fall season offer countless decorating and celebration choices. Unleash your inner kid by making your office more festive. Chances are, you’ll find your workday passes by more quickly than you ever could have imagined!
Details make a difference.
If you work in a strict office and can’t go all out decorating your cubicle, add little details to your desk to brighten (darken?) the mood. Swap out your pencil holder for a skull and place a mini pumpkin next to your mug collection. Halloween office door decorations are also something to consider. Some pointed Halloween signs can get the point across to you coworkers when you’re trying to focus.
If you’re trying to get in the spirit in your home office, try adding some decorative Halloween prints to feel more festive. You have some more leeway at home than in a traditional office, so feel free to add as many decorations to your set up as possible—but be mindful of what might show up in the background of your Zoom calls. You probably want to keep the gory stuff outside the view of your camera.
Remember, it’s still an office.
Even though you’re getting into the holiday spirit, you still have to work. Keep unwanted ghosts and goblins out with a haunted Halloween door sign that’s sure to get the point across. But place a bowl of Halloween candy nearby so you can get that mid-afternoon sugar burst when you need it. I wouldn’t typically recommend keeping a container of chocolate at arm’s length in such a high-stress environment, but it’s a holiday!
Make sure to keep things professional, while still having fun. Surround yourself with decorations that won’t distract you, but instead will add some levity to your days.
Bonus Tip:
Looking for more fun ways to celebrate Halloween at work, beyond Halloween office decorations? Try playing fun Halloween games! Whether you’re in a physical office or are planning on hosting a virtual Halloween party with your coworkers, play some fun Halloween-themed games to keep the party moving. Our printable Halloween Word Scramble, Halloween Word Search, Halloween This or That, Halloween Alphabet Challenge, and Halloween Categories games are easy to use either in-person or on your Zoom calls. They’re sure to make the time pass a little more quickly!
Whether you’re working remotely or you’re working in an office, you can still have a great time celebrating this fun holiday! These Halloween decoration ideas for the office should give you some ideas to get started. Whatever you do, make sure to have fun with it and get in the holiday spirit. Play some spooky music while working, or take a break during your workday and watch Hocus Pocus. With everything we’ve been through, you deserve to have some fun this Halloween season!
These are some fun ideas! Thanks. great post.
Thanks!
Halloween is one of my faves! Never thought of decorating my office with it before, might just start this year!
It’s definitely not the first place you think of decorating for the holiday, but a year like this requires some creativity! 😉