Leaves are falling, witches are flying, and only two weeks remain until All Hallow’s Eve. To break up our usual stream of sage business advice and top speaker spotlights, our team has gathered together movie and recipe recommendations, plus a short list of fun seasonal activities for those who are more into gourds than goblins.

Recipes 

Everyone loves to eat, and here are some of our favorite snacks and treats we associate with Autumn:

• Homemade Pumpkin Pie– seasonal and scrumptious! Guaranteed to be even more delicious than store bought.
• French Apple Cake– this rustic treat is the current obsession of one of our marketing team members. Not overly sweet, this one is great heated up for breakfast the next day.
• Crescent Dogs– this one might look a little out of place compared to seasonally thematic dishes, but all family traditions start somewhere, and melty, cheesy treats are totally appropriate for the start of the chillier months.

Movie Recommendations

Watch with the Family

• Several team members suggested the beloved classic Hocus Pocus. There are a few tense moments, but probably more likely to raise eyebrows is the relentless teasing of the main character for being a virgin. This one is probably best for kids of 12 and older.
• Halloweentown is another nostalgic classic that ran on the Disney channel, and is more spooky than scary. It has some very mild frights, but should be fine for everyone 6 and up.
• Sabrina the Teenage Witch (NOT the Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, which is entertaining but very inappropriate for younger viewers. You have been warned!) Alright, so this one is a tv series rather than a movie, but it’s iconic, hilarious, and good to go for kids 8 and above. Salem’s sarcastic asides remain hilarious over twenty years later.
• Eerie aesthetics and ookiness aside, Addams Family Values really does have a great message. It’s rated PG-13, which we find a little stiff, but there are a few borderline sensual moments between Morticia and Gomez, and some children may find the presence of a disembodied hand running around too much.
• The Nightmare Before Christmas runs double duty as a great Halloween and Christmas film. Spooky and playful, it has some disturbing imagery, but captures the spirit of Halloween like few other pieces of media. With its PG rating, it is digestible for kids 8 and up.
• Hotel Transylvania is our first more contemporary recommendation (obviously from a teammate with little ones rather than grown kids). This family romp is suitable for kids 5-6 and up.

For More Mature Spooks

• Friday the 13th is a quintessential slasher that has spawned a franchise of 12 movies, comic books, video games, and novelizations. Jason is as recognizable a movie villain as they come, and is sure to be haunting your neighborhood this Halloween… probably in the form of a slew of tweens with pillowcases of candy.
• Bram Stoker’s Dracula is a visually stunning period piece that is as much gothic romance and adventure movie as it is horror. You know you want to see Gary Oldman in the iconic getup that makes him look like the unholy love child of Queen Elizabeth I and Emperor Palpatine.
• Suspiria (1977 version) is recommended by a team member who is a self-professed “weenie” but loves an artsy campy movie. This one has a lot of very obviously fake gore and a handful of rather disturbing scenes, but is beautifully shot with stunning sets and costumes. If you value aesthetics and flair over substance, this poorly dubbed and somewhat poorly acted film is an airy treat.
• Halloween rounding out our list, which seems to be full of “vintage” recs, this slasher was strung together on a $325K budget but made $70 million at the box office. It’s violent, it’s profane, and there is a scary guy in a mask. What more could you long for in a Halloween flick?

October Activities for the Less Eerily Inclined

 Consider looking for a festival or a pick yourself farm near you if you’d like to mark the change of seasons with something special but don’t go in for bats and cobwebs.

• Catch a music festival. October sees the hosting of dozens of concerts and music celebrating hootenannies. Many are based in the United States, but Argentina, the Netherlands and Germany also play host to big events. 
• Pick your own apples at a do-it-yourself farm or orchard, and then use them to bake the French Apple Cake listed above. Every single person who has tried it has loved it. Some farms offer other fruits and veggies too, including pumpkins and berries.
• If you don’t personally celebrate but appreciate creativity and elbow grease, many towns have neighborhoods that go all out for the season with their decorations, and it can be enormously fun to drive around and look at what people have come up with. Los Angeles dwellers are especially enthusiastic, with many people employed in movie production doing up their homes with elaborate scenes complete with professional lighting and music.

The whole BigSpeak team wishes you a happy, healthy start to your Fall celebrations!