[♪♩INTRO].

A lot of holidays kinda lose their luster as you get older. But Halloween?

Friends, Halloween won't let you down. As a kid, Halloween is all about wearing a costume and eating candy and running around in the dark with your friends. As an adult, Halloween gets to be the same thing!

Or not! Heck yes! Think of Halloween as one big Choose Your Own Adventure.

Any path you might choose can be really fun--or a terrible mistake! So, first choice. Do you stay home, or go out?

Option one: stay home, watch a scary movie and pass out candy to trick-or-treaters if you like. Congratulations, you have chosen an excellent and very relaxed adventure. Just beware stomach aches from eating too much candy.

Remember, you're an adult, not a kid who can eat all the candy in the world. If you want to go out instead, turn to the next page! Or, you know, keep watching.

Option two. Go out! Here is where you are met with your second choice: are you going trick-or-treating?

If you are in charge of some kids this Halloween, you can choose to take them out for the Halloween tradition of gathering candy. This option requires some planning in advance. You'll want to pick out a short, easy-to-walk route through a densely populated neighborhood--all the better for more candy, and less effort.

Make sure the kids are wearing comfortable shoes and costumes that are easy to see in dim light, and that they know to stay near you at all times. Bring flashlights or clip some blinking bike lights onto everyone in your group for better visibility if you're out past dark for very long. Whether you let the kids keep all the candy or trade some of it in for non-sugary treats is up to you or the kids' parents.

But it is a good idea to at least peek through the kids' bags and check to see if there's any hazardous candy or allergens in there-- or, you know, any tasty treats you just might want to sample yourself. But hey, if you're not taking care of any kids this year, turn to the next page! Okay, so you've chosen to dress up and party with adults for Halloween.

Excellent! First you must choose a costume. If you're just going to wear vampire fangs and call it a day, great!

If you're going to be more creative, turn to the next page! There are only a few kinds of Halloween costumes, really. There is, for instance, the “pop culture character” costume.

Or the “joke costume based on a meme from the last year” costume. Or, the visual-pun based costume, like the classic “Ceiling Fan” or “Bread Winner.” Oh, and of course, there's the “traditional scary thing” costume, like a werewolf, zombie, vampire or Sexy Frog. If you've chosen one of the above options, great!

Head to a thrift store or a costume shop and have a blast picking out your costume. But are you thinking about wearing a costume that's based on a character or stereotype from another culture, race or ethnicity? Let's go to the next adventure.

We could name a lot of pretty obvious cultural stereotype costumes, and you can probably think of them, too, like an “Indian princess” or “geisha” or “gangster” or “Mexican bandito”, the list goes on. There are plenty of reasons to choose a different type of costume. For one thing, it's hurtful to the actual people who come from the culture you're dressing as for a “joke.” It is not subversive or funny or cool to perpetuate stereotypes of another culture.

You're an adult, and even though dressing up for Halloween is all about trying on new characters and personas, that still means you're responsible for being a good person in the world while you're having fun. Whew! Okay!

Let's back it up and move on. We've made it through all the preparations and now it's time to head to your party. Not to sound like your mom or anything, but--bring a coat if it's going to be cold out, drink water in between alcoholic beverages, and arrange for a sober ride home.

Okay, friends, have fun out there! It's Halloween! Thanks for watching this special Halloween episode of How to Adult.

If you want to see more of Hank and me, subscribe to the channel at youtube.com/learnhowtoadult If you want to support this channel, and get some cool perks like hanging out with the production team on a live stream once a month, consider becoming a patreon patron at patreon.com/howtoadult Should I do it in my stroller rental voice? [off screen] Your stroller rental? [off screen] What is that? [laughing] Have you ever been to the mall? Um, there's a sign that says "stroller rentals", but it's in, like, really spooky and creepy writing. So I always go: [raspy voice] Stroller rentals [laughter].

Okay friends, have— [shocked laughter] [off screen] Your button! Nooo! I really hope that gets in the—.

It's last year's Halloween costume, friends.