We might be too old to go door-to-door and ask strangers for candy… but we’re not too old to dress up as slutty versions of our favorite childhood fairy tales characters, animals, or public service workers, are we? Besides, if we’re struggling to pay $49.99 for a “Sexy Bull Fighter” costume, dammit, we want to get the most bang for our buck!

Here are a few games and party options that you can host throughout Halloween week, just to get into the spirit of things!

Liquor Treat
This game can be the most fun, but is also the most difficult to pull off, especially if you live in a dorm with a strict RA or a No-Alcohol Policy. Similar to an “Around-the-World” party, you have to rally everyone on your floor/in your apartment building to participate. The members of each room or apartment choose a theme…and a type of liquor. When guests arrive, they go door to door and can stay to mingle in any room they like. When they ring the doorbell, they are also rewarded with a shot– hence, this is the grown-up’s version of Trick or Treat.

Scary Movie Drinking Games
Take advantage of the fact that F/X, Sci-Fi, and all of the basic cable channels will be playing Friday the 13th, Nightmare on Elm Street and Halloween over and over for the whole month of October. If you are familiar with the movie, you can make up your own rules – e.g. take a shot every time the theme song plays in Halloween, or chug a beer every time you hear the “whispers” in Friday the 13th, or you can find several ready-made drinking games online to play. The good news? You’ll be so buzzed by the end that you won’t be too scared to sleep with the lights off!

Monster Mash
(Courtesy of Celebrations.com)
This is one of those counting drinking games that is so difficult to get the hang of, and so easy to get absolutely smashed by playing.

Sitting in a circle, you and your friends go around the room and count off–no small feat for college students! On numbers divisible by “3,” the player says the word “monster” instead of the number, and on numbers divisible by “5,” they say “mash” instead of the number. Whoever screws up, drinks. Once you get going, then, the game should sound something like, “1..2…monster…4….mash…monster….7…8….monster….mash.”

Boo! Zoo
Too smart to waste your night on a mere counting game? Throw in some crazy hand gestures! This is the Halloweenified version of the game “Zoo,” which you may or may not have heard of, but that needs to get into your Drinking Game vocabulary.

To play Zoo, everyone sits in a circle, again, and before you begin, go around the room and have everyone think of a word and a quick hand gesture to go along with it. For Halloween, then, a player might be “Ghost” and have a ghostlike motion, while another player is “Stab” and makes the universal signal for stabbing someone.

To begin the game, everyone must clap in a “We Will Rock You” rhythm. The starting player is predetermined, and the opening chant is as follows: “What are we playing?” “Boo Zoo!” “Why are we playing?” “Get f**ked up!”

The starting player continues the clapping, but inserts her word and gesture into it, and then inserts another players’ word and signal. Example: clap-clap-Ghost, clap-clap-Stab. Stab must be alert, and continue the clapping rhythm, following suit by shouting another players’ signal and performing their movement. The best part of this game is that whenever someone messes up, all players must partake in a group social! This one gets extremely tricky in large groups, which means more drinking for all involved!

Bobbing for Booze
I’m not going to lie, bobbing for apples was NOT my favorite fall game growing up; then again, who really wants to stick their face in some tepid water that the other kids have probably snotted and drooled in, only to come out with a freaking apple? For college purposes, why not mix things up a bit? Buy a bunch of nips from the liquor store (or have everyone bring a couple to throw into the pot), and toss them in a bin or vat of some sort that’s filled with water. Give everyone a turn to bob for nips, and then let everyone shoot their prizes! If you want to be bad, buy some nips of the nastiest liquor you can find, because you won’t be able to see what you’re bobbing for while you play.

And if you are really up for a challenge, toss the nips in a vat of jungle juice instead of water, and see where the night takes you from there!

[Get your Halloween on here.]

When I think of spring break, I usually imagine lounging on a beach in Mexico sipping some type of frozen cocktail by day and dancing at a nightclub with all my friends by night.

This March, instead of doing any of the above, I’ll be in New Orleans with 11 strangers, volunteering at an animal shelter that was damaged in Hurricane Katrina. We will be walking dogs, helping with some repairs, and doing some administrative work. At night, we’ll be sleeping in an old church that has been converted into temporary volunteer housing (into which I cannot bring my flat iron!!).

So why would I possibly want to spend my break waking up every morning (without a hangover) at 7:30 a.m. to work with people I don’t even know?

I can think of lots of reasons!

Meeting New People: I wanted to meet some new people and do something fun without having to pay the expensive price of a ticket to somewhere tropical. What better way to make some new friends? At least you know that they’re all going to be nice; I doubt mean people spend their free time volunteering. And while it might be a little awkward at first, after some dreaded icebreaker games and bonding over scooping dog poop together, I’m sure I will leave this week with awesome new friends and memories.

Cheaper Than Cancun: While ASB does cost money, you can fundraise for it. I wrote letters to family and friends, and managed to raise most of the money. We also had several UNO’s nights, where Pizzaria UNO’s donated 20% of the price of every meal towards our program. While I did have to pay a little out of pocket in the end, I saved a ton of money. Plus, I’ll probably be saving a couple hundred dollars by not drinking and partying every night (and day).

Experience a New City: The focus of our trip is to donate our time to fix up the animal shelter, but we also get to do some fun things in New Orleans. Our group leaders have mentioned going to the zoo, visiting jazz cafes, and eating at some well-known New Orleans restaurants.

Doin’ Something Nice: Obviously, the main reason I chose ASB was to give back to a community that really needed it. The other things are awesome perks, but helping out and giving my time is the real reason I am heading to New Orleans this Spring Break.

I’m sure I would have had a blast partying south of the border for a week (or, more realistically, watching reruns of Keeping Up With the Kardashians on my parents’ couch), but I’m really excited to leave for my trip on Feb. 28th! The only thing I have left to do is try and squeeze a week’s worth of clothing into a small duffle bag. (That’s right, no giant suitcases allowed!)

It may be too late for you to sign up for an ASB trip for this year, but there are tons of different programs out there. It is definitely something worth looking into.

When I think of spring break, I usually imagine lounging on a beach in Mexico sipping some type of frozen cocktail by day and dancing at a nightclub with all my friends by night.

This March, instead of doing any of the above, I’ll be in New Orleans with 11 strangers, volunteering at an animal shelter that was damaged in Hurricane Katrina. We will be walking dogs, helping with some repairs, and doing some administrative work. At night, we’ll be sleeping in an old church that has been converted into temporary volunteer housing (into which I cannot bring my flat iron!!).

So why would I possibly want to spend my break waking up every morning (without a hangover) at 7:30 a.m. to work with people I don’t even know?

I can think of lots of reasons!

Meeting New People: I wanted to meet some new people and do something fun without having to pay the expensive price of a ticket to somewhere tropical. What better way to make some new friends? At least you know that they’re all going to be nice; I doubt mean people spend their free time volunteering. And while it might be a little awkward at first, after some dreaded icebreaker games and bonding over scooping dog poop together, I’m sure I will leave this week with awesome new friends and memories.

Cheaper Than Cancun: While ASB does cost money, you can fundraise for it. I wrote letters to family and friends, and managed to raise most of the money. We also had several UNO’s nights, where Pizzaria UNO’s donated 20% of the price of every meal towards our program. While I did have to pay a little out of pocket in the end, I saved a ton of money. Plus, I’ll probably be saving a couple hundred dollars by not drinking and partying every night (and day).

Experience a New City: The focus of our trip is to donate our time to fix up the animal shelter, but we also get to do some fun things in New Orleans. Our group leaders have mentioned going to the zoo, visiting jazz cafes, and eating at some well-known New Orleans restaurants.

Doin’ Something Nice: Obviously, the main reason I chose ASB was to give back to a community that really needed it. The other things are awesome perks, but helping out and giving my time is the real reason I am heading to New Orleans this Spring Break.

I’m sure I would have had a blast partying south of the border for a week (or, more realistically, watching reruns of Keeping Up With the Kardashians on my parents’ couch), but I’m really excited to leave for my trip on Feb. 28th! The only thing I have left to do is try and squeeze a week’s worth of clothing into a small duffle bag. (That’s right, no giant suitcases allowed!)

It may be too late for you to sign up for an ASB trip for this year, but there are tons of different programs out there. It is definitely something worth looking into.

In case you’ve ever wondered what to do if two dudes in a giant fake rhino come after you, this video should help.