Halloween in the '80s vs. Halloween Today - Things Have Changed!
Somehow the Same, but Very Different
Halloween is a holiday that has evolved significantly over the years, and I feel like I've lived long enough at this point to have seen a lot of them. The nostalgic allure of Halloween in the 1980s is a stark contrast to the modern-day celebration of this spooky holiday.
I hadn't really thought about how much things had changed until I was recently looking at some old photos from when I was a kid growing up in Ohio. We really had to improvise back in the day! Don't get me wrong, there were the cheap plastic masks and all, but nothing like what is available today.
Costumes - From Simplicity to Extravagance
The costumes would by far be the biggest difference, in my humble opinion. In the 1980s, Halloween costumes were often homemade or simple, with classic choices like ghosts, witches, and vampires. Kids and parents alike embraced creativity, using basic materials like bedsheets and cardboard to craft their outfits. Also, we'd always be dragging around a big ol' pillow case imagining that we'd actually fill it up with candy.
Today, Halloween costumes are a dramatically more elaborate. I think that the insane commercialization of the holiday has had a lot to do with it. With easy access to a wide range of costumes, from elaborate store-bought ensembles to intricate DIY creations, it's common to see everything from movie characters to elaborate group costumes. Personally, I feel like it has become an excuse for teenage girls (and even adults) to show off their bodies under the guise of 'dressing up'.
In fact, one statement that was repeated over and over again back then, but I don't hear nearly as much these days, was:
Oh, hello there! What are you supposed to be?
Yeah, not so much anymore. Unless you went completely bargain basement on your outfit. With the rise of cosplay and the growth of comic-con conventions, dressing up has become a real art!
Decorations - Not Your Grandma's Cut Outs
Halloween decorations have experienced an extreme transformation over the years. In the '80s, you might find a few carved pumpkins, paper ghosts, and spiderwebs plastered over homes. Even the carved pumpkins were super basic. Simplicity and homemade charm defined the look.
Nowadays, Halloween decorations, across America anyway, have evolved into elaborate displays with inflatable monsters, intricate lighting, and synchronized music. Some of the carved pumpkins you see are absolute works of art. Yards are often transformed into haunted houses, and the competition to outdo the neighbors has reached new heights. Halloween has become an opportunity for homeowners to showcase their creativity and passion for the holiday, and many go all out with their spooky setups.
A good friend of mine, @steve.varner, lives in a really nice neighborhood in Torrance here in Los Angeles. His area is absolutely famous for its residents setting up over the top decorations. I am actually looking forward to driving through there to film and take some pictures. I will definitely be posting them on Hive!
Technology - From VHS Tapes to Social Media
In the '80s, the only way to relive your Halloween memories was through crappy, fuzzy pictures or home videos recorded on VHS tapes with god awful tracking issues. Sharing your experiences with others meant inviting friends and family over to watch the tape or flipping through photo albums. The weird thing is, back then it really felt like you had endless photos and videos of everything. In hindsight I realize that there is shockingly little to look back on.
Today, thanks to technology and social media, everything is instantly shareable. People document their costumes, decorations, and experiences on platforms like Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook. @afturner and I talk about this from time to time, the way that kids these days will have so much to show from their childhood. So many pictures and videos to spark old memories!
I guess I shouldn't complain.. My mom has about 10 pictures from her entire childhood - and no videos at all!
I would really appreciate your support!
It's funny how time. flies right? Change is the only constant thing in life, some years to come Halloweeencostumese will still change again. Haha
I would not even be surprised if 30 years from now, Halloween constumes will be just the way we dress normally now, while normal dressing will be like vampires and zombies. You know, just because it's the future.
I love the Ahsoka and Grogo costumes from last year. I wonder what costumes the two will be in this year. Looking forward to a Halloween post from you in the next week or so.
Yeah, she did a great job with the makeup on that one. She bought the headdress and then just looked at a picture of Ahshoka and copied it. @litte-ricky lasted about 5 minutes with the Grogu hood, then insisted on taking it off. That kid is so neurotic.
🤣😂 too funny. Well good thing you all got the great photo before costume time was over.
Change...hmm, you never know what's next until it happens.
The difference is clear, and while I do love the handmade costume feeling of Halloween, the only thing I applaud in technology for
... is usage of pictures and the presence of videos.
Yeah, I hate that I don't have a lot of videos and pictures from back then. It makes it hard to remember stuff sometimes. The cool thing about a picture is that it connects the dots. Even if it doesn't have a lot of context in it, it can really trigger a lot of memories and help put the pieces together.
That's truly right. The presence of pictures brings vivid memories of how things are. And those moments are like gold.
It's truly amazing how much it has changed. Just like you I experienced Halloween in the 80's and it was nothing like today. Costumes were simpler, more homemade, but you had to have that pillow case to try to fill up with candy. Every year you dreamed about it but it never came to fruition!
I agree it's become way too commercialized just like every other holiday. And the teen/women's costumes are no longer scary, it's who can show the most skin. But our society has been pushing that one young women since the inception of social media. Some of the costume changes are really cool but Halloween is now an expensive holiday!
I was thinking about what you said about the pictures. My mom passed away about ten years ago now and we have very few pictures from her childhood. From our childhoods we have lots lots of pictures and fuzzy VHS tapes already converted to DVD. Today everyone has a camera with them 24/7 and it's all going straight on Instagram. My kid has more pictures than any of us ever had back in the 80's, but now that my son is almost an adult I'm grateful for all of the memories. Enjoy Halloween with your son this year, times flies by way too fast!
The pillowcase thing is kind of funny to me because I remember having a perception that if it wasn't full then I needed to keep trick-or-treating. But I didn't realize that it was an insanely large bag. lol! When I would pour it out at home it was probably enough to fill up several Halloween buckets. But I swear the bag was only barely filled.
Sorry to hear that about your mom. It freaks me out these days thinking about how all my aunts, uncles and older relatives are going to start leaving us soon. You really have to enjoy those moments. Who could have ever guessed that us Gen X kids would ever get old?
I never really thought we would get old either! It's been odd the last few years so many relatives have passed away in my family. It really makes you realize what's important in life, the immortality of youth is now long gone.
I very nearly started a new family a few years back, had I done so I would have another child about your son's age. I wish I had in a way but also glad I didn't. The COVID vaccine changed my life completely, and gave blood clots in my lungs and a rare form of heart failure. It wouldn't have been fair to a 3 year old even though I still probably will pull out another 8-9 years of life. Even us Gen X kids aren't immortals!
It's funny how many people are like oh, I love Halloween, it's my favorite holiday. And really they are just wanting to show off how over the top they can go. I hear you on the other parts too. I wish girls had worn the costumes they do today back when I was younger!
I will have to take some pictures from over in my buddy Steve's neighborhood. I've never seen a more extreme level of neighbors trying to out-do each other!
As far as girls wearing sexy costumes back in the day, I remember seeing the odd one, but nothing like today, except one exception - when I was living in Austin back in the early 90s. We went downtown on Halloween and oh my God.. haha! But now it's a contest to see who can bare more skin!
Yeah, that doesn't surprise me about Austin. I have heard they are pretty crazy there! I look forward to seeing the photos. It would make for a cool post!
Hi, I like Halloween so much, have a nice day.👍👍👍
Glad to hear it, it's a lot of fun! Thanks for stopping by.
https://twitter.com/LovingGirlHive/status/1715655538636456227
Not sure which ones I love the most as both have pros and cons, but as long as people still respect the actual meaning behind this celebration, I think it's amazing :)
I don't know how many people even really know the actual meaning behind most holidays! But I definitely agree with you.
In life things goes by change remain constant because we will keep evolving as day goes by
The only thing that stays consistent is change!
https://twitter.com/lee19389/status/1716093243258012101
#hive #posh
It is true that we are witnessing many changes in things and people still like to celebrate this event with great joy but due to modern times things have become much easier now so people meet each other and Have fun.
Things are definitely easier, yet much more expensive! haha, I guess it is a tradeoff. As long as everyone is together and having a good time, it is still worth it.
Yeah I totally agree with you.
Hey Rick - I am on Nightcafe AI where I trained Stable Diffusion with a ton of my selfies, so it knows what I look like - you can actually write prompts to put yourself into any situation. So the other day, I wrote a prompt that was supposed to turn me into Nosferatu, a evil laughing vampire for Halloween. I put just about any description of evil and horror into the prompt. But the program had other thoughts, or it perhaps knew that "evil" was just not me, and the result was nothing like what I wrote in the prompt.
Judge for yourself:
Hahaha I love all of the new AI stuff. It is just incredible what it is able to do. Can you believe that just last year, this was all completely impossible? Not only that, but people would have laughed at you and told you that it wouldn't be possible for decades.
lol, well maybe it is saying that the evil is 'inside' where you cannot see it. Hmmm. Maybe the AI is better at producing 'fine art' than we imagined....
AI:
I was on Nightcafe from the start, then I found it silly and a waste of time, the results beyond just primitive (same with DALL-E), so I didn't bother much. What developed in these past few months however is incredible. SDXL came on the scene, and now there are already dozens of trained Community versions that you can use (one is called 'Splatter' that I find especially good for horror scenes, btw) and already a SDXLv4 that renders incredible detail - one creation I did on it was soo detailed that blowing it up in Photoshop to 'best' from 72dpi to 266dpi gave me still a great image (without having to spend extra points enlarging it on the site).
Feral Vampire Chibi made with SDXL Splatter Mode
An up until now 'free' service, Clipdrop, is no longer free for SDXL rendering I just found out, you have to subscribe. I had used the formerly free version to test my prompts before I ran them on Nightcafe. One album on Flickr has a lot of my (formerly free) creations from Clipdrop: MISCELLANEOUS AI CREATIONS.
So there, instead of working on a piece in edit for later publication, I am talking your ear off here!