We asked some of our small business experts how their businesses were celebrating the holiday and this is what they had to say!:
1.“At Halloween, we really let our hair down at our annual employee Halloween bash. Our employee band, the Dead Pixels, rock the house. Everyone gets into the spirit and goes all-out with full makeup and elaborate costumes- sometimes to the point where it’s hard to recognize anyone!
Our employees have set the bar very high over the last few years. In fact, the Lego Man statue in our office was actually an employee’s Halloween costume a few years ago. The event also encourages team-building as evidenced by the number of teams who have collaborated on group costumes, such as the cast of the Clue game, in the weeks leading up to Halloween. Bragging rights are huge….and the prizes are pretty awesome, too. Last year, we gave away iPhones and iPads among the top prizes for Best Group Costume and Best Individual Costume/Character (1st, 2nd and 3rd place).
Last year, 150 employees dressed up at our biggest bash yet! Winners were determined democratically by employee applause.
With the fall season around the corner, people are already whispering in the hallways as they plan their costumes for this year!” –Sheryl Steinberg, Director of Communications, Klick Health
2. “My law firm is decked out for several weeks leading up to Halloween-ghosts, skeletons, spider webs, pumpkins, tombstones. . .you name it, it’s likely to be found in thedecorations. Every year, a costume contest is held, and judges from state and city courts are called in to help determine the winners. Following the costume contest, a catered lunch is brought in, and attorneys and staff from across our three offices enjoy the afternoon together.” –Ann DeeMcClane, Director of Marketing and Business Developments, Bone McAllester Norton PLLC
3. “Our company celebrates Halloween as a firm-wide Holiday. We close our location entirely on Halloween and Nov 1 so employees (and clients) can focus on costumes, children, and/or social engagements. November 2 we get back to work with stories and gusto.” –Jeri Seamands, CEO, Sugarista, The Wicked Hair
4. “For Halloween, we have added to our product line, Vampire inspired bath treats!
‘Don’t B-Negative strawberry brûlée body scrub’
‘Blood Sudz moisturizing, pomegranate shower gel’
‘Heme-Dream blood red & glitter, pomegranate bath fizzie’
Come on by, they’re to die for!” –Terri Wesson, Creator, Honeycat Bath, Body, and Spa Products
5. “The Offers.com Staff always hosts an internal costume contest for Halloween. There are several teams in our 50-person company, and we make it a team competition. Each team has a theme. Last year, the winners were the Campaigns Team who dressed as the zoo. The team’s manager dressed as a zoo keeper, and the team members wore different animal, footie pajamas!” –Offers.com
6. “As tradition goes, Hireology hosts a Come as your Co-worker party for Halloween. Everyone dresses up as a co-worker of their choice and no one knows who is dressing up as whom. Last year, everyone dressed up as our VP of Sales, Kevin Baumgart without him knowing.” –Natalie Pike, Marketing Coordinator, Hireology
7. “We are a dental practice in Miami, Florida, and we celebrate Halloween by having a community-wide candy buy back. We buy back candy from kids for $1 per pound and send it to troops overseas. It’s a huge hit in our community and we can’t wait to do it again this year.” –Dr. John Addison, Addison Dental
8. “Our company hosts a costume contest at our corporate office each year on Halloween. In addition, we are participating in Walktober this year, and the administration is handing out prizes for both on Friday the 31st.” –Carah Counts, Digital Marketing Strategist, CareATC
9. “In addition to dressing up in our favorite costume on Halloween, we also release our annual Form 1040 R.I.P. – For Filing A Return From The Grave.” –Michael Raanan, MBA, EA, President, Landmark Tax Group
10. “Since GODDESSY Organics and Wall Street Chiropractic And Wellness are in the same location, and GODDESSY is a metaphysical themed skincare company, we offer our patients treats in the form of discounts on our seasonal beauty product featuring pumpkin seed oil. And to those that have purchased my GODDESSY metaphysical books, by special request, I’ve been known to do a few tarot readings.” –Stephanie Adams-Nicolai, Founder and CEO, GODDESSY
11. “Our company, Juju Band Concepts decided to celebrate the holidays by coming out with designs geared toward that specific holiday. The reason is that people are more active so parents don’t have the time and energy to give a baby with colic that attention it needs. We came out with a solution that we think is fun, fashionable and functional and is designed to help with gas associated with baby colic.” –JuJu Band Concepts
12. “For Halloween, we throw a fun social with clients, friends, and family, filled with Halloween treats and decorations, costumes, scarecrows, an open bar, and a tech component (since we’re a tech company). Last year, we did QR scanning around the office with various objects and whoever completed every level won a prize, and this year we are usingiBeacons to do a scavenger hunt around the office and discover prizes – sort of a techie trick-or-treat. It’s a good way to bring everyone together and celebrate fun and technology.” –Elizabeth Pruett, Business Analyst/Account Manager, Digital Scientists
13. “Egnyte loves our Holidays and Halloween is no exception. Every year we have a costume contest for the most creative and fun costumes that our employees can come up with! We also have a fun happy hour that with Halloween themed snacks like dirt n worms and fun drinks like Dr. Hyde’s potion!” –Colin Jordan, Sr. Communications Manager, Egnyte
14. “Our business makes Halloween fun for our employees and customers by decorating our winery tasting room for the Halloween season (complete with our creepy talking butler, Edward, to greet customers). We also encourage our employees to dress up on our busy weekend closest to Halloween and even provide a number of fun props (hats, headbands, etc) for employees who don’t come in their own costume.” –Bethany Margolis, Marketing and Special Events Manager, Liberty Vineyards & Winery
15. “Jokers’ Masquerade mainly sells Halloween costumes in the UK so by the time October 31st actually comes round, Halloween itself actually tends to be a little quieter than the entire month previous. Though, we do allow the staff to dress up for the day in a costume of their choice from the website and keep it afterwards!” –Ian Tomkins, Director of Marketing, Jokers’ Masquerade
16. “For Halloween our company partners pick names out of a hat and put us in teams of 2. Each team comes up with a costume idea and the whole office has a contest on Halloween day. The more unique and original the costume the better chance you have of winning and it is a really big deal in our office.” –Dina Magdovitz, Account Executive, Uproar PR
17. “Chavez for Charity is a line of hand-made jewelry that gives back to some the world’s most recognized and necessary charitable causes. In celebration of the Halloween holiday, Chavez for Charity has released an exclusive line of highly popular Skull Bracelets. For every bracelet and necklace sold, Chavez for Charity donates 25% of the gross profit to the charity its color represents.”- Julie Marie Chavez, Founder and Creative Director, Chavez for Charity
18. “At Formstack we take every opportunity to celebrate together, and Halloween is no exception. It’s strongly encouraged that everyone wears a costume. We typically do an afternoon activity together, such as carve pumpkins or watch a scary movie.” –Lance Padgett, SEO Specialist, Formstack
19. “Scholastic, the global children’s publishing company is hosting their SEVENTH Annual TRADE HALLOWEEN PARTY & COSTUME CONTEST on Thursday, October 30th at Scholastic Headquarters in Soho, NY. Costumes Must Be Children’s Book-Related (Any/All Children’s Book-Themed Costumes Welcome) and prizes will be awarded for: BEST INDIVIDUAL COSTUME, BEST COSTUME DUO (NEW CATEGORY!) and BEST GROUP COSTUME. Contest Judges to include R.L. Stine, bestselling author of the Goosebumps series.” –Sara Sinek, VP, Corporate Communications, Scholastic
20. “For Halloween we do a company costume party with prizes for the best costumes. This year we also ran two promotions for customers: $20 OFF a purchase of $100 or more, and $15 OFF a purchase of $70 or more in honor of the season.” –David McCullough, E-Commerce Manager, Party Cheap
21. “Halloween is our biggest holiday event of the year and we require everyone to be a part of our BGexFEARience! BooGrace is our annual Halloween celebration bringing the company together to compete in four different contests: Best Costume (best costume in the office), Trickiest Treat (best Halloweenie dish), Spook Yo Space (best department decoration), and Pimp Yo Pumpkin (best pumpkin carving). This year we are inviting friends, family and our local customers to join the party.” –Whitney McKay, Producer of Culture and Community, BlueGrace Logistics
22. “This year at AskForTask.com our employees will be dressing up in different themes. Since we have multiple teams, one team is going to dress as super heroes, the other as celebrities. We are running a potluck of sorts, mainly of snack foods, dips, etc. We will be running an $18/hr cleaning promotion in order to save our customers money to clean up after their Halloween parties.” –Andrew Chapados, Publicist/Social Media Coordinator, Ask For Task
23. “We start our celebrations a few weeks before Halloween with a team desk decorating competition, followed by pumpkin carving the next week, and then a costume contest and office trick or treating for families on Halloween day. We definitely use the holiday as an excuse for extra team building activities!” –Matt Casady, Online Marketing Specialist and Member of Party Planning Committee, Big Leap, LLC
24. “As a professional tarot card reader who specializes in corporate events, I often go to companies on or around Halloween to do readings for executives and staff. Even though my work is year-round, Halloween is a very busy time. Imagine an accountant as April 15th approaches. While it is a fun celebration element for the company, it gives employees an opportunity to get extra clarity and guidance on issues facing them in their lives.” –Eve Litoff, Elite Tarot
25. “Every six weeks our team has a corporate outing, and for our next, we’ve planned to go to ‘Screemers’ which is a huge haunted house ‘scream park’ event in Toronto that happens only in October. Its super scary and we’re excited to get the team into the Halloween spirit and bond by getting spooked-out together! In addition, we’ll be ‘treating’ our customers, with access to special discount code for a percentage off on their purchase in celebration of Halloween!” –Holly Bennett, PR Associate, TorontoVaporizer
26. “Every Halloween, we encourage our employees to come dress up in their favorite characters. After a special lunch downstairs at our favorite local hangout, we give out candy to all the Trick or Treaters on the street. It’s good fun and just another reason to love Halloween.” –Ian Aronovich, CoFounder and CEO, GovernmentAuctions.org
How does your business celebrate Halloween?
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