13 Truths About Celebrating Halloween in The '90s That Now Seem Utterly Ridiculous

If you were in elementary school, you carried around an orange pumpkin bucket you likely got at McDonald's — everyone did — but once you got to middle school you ditched it and used a white pillowcase instead.

The '90s were not a time of casually grabbing a pal and heading outside for some low-key trick-or-treating. You went with an enormous pack. In fact, at no point during the night were there fewer than 30 people in your group, stretched out across one neighborhood block.

If you were in elementary school, you used orange frosting and a pumpkin-shaped Bundt pan to create your delicious masterpiece. The rules stated that the entire cake had to be edible. If you were in high school, your mom probably made your dessert for you, and you rolled your eyes at her as she handed you the Tupperware that morning.

This intel didn't really surface until the morning because the '90s were a time of landlines, but come daylight, you heard about who got their house egged, and whose mom was pissed. Parents had this unspoken understanding surrounding egging: egging things like the cypress tree in the front lawn was fine, but once their car was egged, all bets were off.

Getting your house TPed was almost worse than getting it egged because it took forever to pull each piece of single-ply off the trees.

It wasn't exactly legal to have a shaving cream fight (probably because it always ended up in your eyes), but that never stopped you from stocking up on Barbasol the night of. The cashiers always gave you the side-eye because they knew what you were up to. And if you had a carton of eggs in your shopping cart, they might have even refused to sell you your contraband.
If you succeeded in the purchase and took the fight seriously, you used a cigarette lighter to burn the spout into a point so that you could spray from a good distance and not have to stand up close to someone. Seriously, where were our parents?

Days leading up to Halloween, you and your BFFs went to Urban Outfitters and bought Manic Panic hair dye so you could color each other's hair. Some people just sprayed their hair, but you went all out.

Where did our parents even learn about this danger? Was it a complete myth? Nonetheless, they always reminded you to be careful when accepting candy from suspicious people because the news said children were finding razor blades in their M&Ms.

Whether it was going to your BFF's house to play Light as a Feather, Stiff as a Board or locking yourself in the bathroom and staring at the mirror while you chanted "Bloody Mary" five times, you definitely dedicated some portion of the night to scaring the absolute sh*t out of yourself.

You bought these Halloween troll pumpkin earrings at Aahs! and couldn't wait to wear them at school with your Wet n Wild lipstick and glitter nail polish.

You'd still always end up with one box of crappy candy. Or even worse, raisins.

WarHeads, AirHeads, and Fun Dip topped the candy charts. But you had to go to the nice neighborhoods to get it.

Destroying someone's home with toilet paper and burning your eyes with shaving cream was all fun and games until Scream came out, and you spotted your first mask on Halloween night. You haven't been back out again since.