Halloween is arguably one of the best holidays of the year. The guidelines are simple: dress up and have fun. To determine how old is too old to dress up depends on many factors.

Dressing up in high school was an excellent chance to hang out with friends who were probably wearing the same costume as you, creating an overall group theme when going out.

In college, this same activity should be acceptable, as long as the group is not related to “High School Musical,” the Jonas Brothers or any other group that would incorrectly portray your age.

As long as you’re going to a costume party of some sort, dressing up at any age is fine. Homemade costumes and store-bought classics seem to be fair game. The point of such gatherings is to show off your costume, and thereby creativity, which seems to increase with age.

The older we get, the more lavish and intricate our costumes seem to become.

Trick-or-treating, on the other hand, is a completely different issue. If you’re going door-to-door opening up your pillowcase and asking for candy in a college town, there had better be a good reason for participating in an activity meant for children.

If you are taking your child or someone else’s out to trick-or-treat, more power to you. But, if you’re not accompanied by a youngster, is free candy really worth mixing in with children to ring a doorbell? It’s your call.

Homeowners will shake their heads when they see you walk up their driveway, beating the children to the door, all to get a Hershey’s bar.

Parents carrying their children who are still too young to walk will try to shove past you while asking, “Aren’t you too old to be doing this?” Your friends, when comparing stories of the weekend, will also shake their heads at you for uncanny embarrassment.

Driving home that night (because you no longer have to walk, like the children do), you unload your pillowcase full of candy, and you might have an epiphany of sorts as you realize the bite-size candies are truly single-bite candies.

The tiny pieces of candy that seemed so big when you were younger now fall through your fingers. This year’s take will no longer result in a special treat in your lunch every day for the following months; instead, it will find a corner in your apartment or dorm where it will be devoured by hungry friends or roommates hopefully by Easter,

So how old is too old for trick-or-treating?

If your costume serves a purpose other than to scam the locals, than any age is fair game to dress up. However, if you are going to dress up in a costume only in order to go trick-or-treating, maybe it’s time to put on a different costume: college student who’s matured.

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