As I mentioned, I had a pretty dismal summer. Between personal stressors and that looming thing that starts with an “el” and ends with an “ection,” I think it’s safe to say that my current anxiety level is through the roof. October is usually my favorite time of the year! What’s a spooky lover supposed to do when all the dismal stuff we usually embrace feels a tad too dark for comfort? I want to have my Spooky Season fun while, you know, not exacerbating any tendencies toward depression.

I bet some of you feel the same way. We love Halloween and all things frightful, but real-scary is currently interfering with our pleasure in fake-scary. This year we need our boos without the boohoos, right? We want the pleasant frisson of an on-screen jump scare, not the pervasive existential dread of… the entire real world.

I guess we could all dial it in this year — just go through the motions and let this Spooky Season pass by without really celebrating. I’m sorry, no. We’re not going to do that. I understand the temptation to let it slide and plow on through as though October was any other month, but this is Halloween. We’d have to wait a whole year for another shot!

Here’s what I suggest: Let’s go for a Creepy Cozy vibe this year.

We can acknowledge the darkness in this world while remembering it’s not all truly wicked. We have options! We can watch comedy horror instead of dystopian zombie flicks and find the fun alongside the fear. We can go full comfort goth and recognize that we may be wearing sweats — but our sweats are black, so they still count. Let’s be softly scary and gently ghoulish. Let’s hold hands in a graveyard (complimentary), revisit our creepy favorites, and eat some treats. As Greg and Dana Newkirk often remind us, we can choose curiosity over fear.

We can embrace a sense of play this Spooky Season.

We can have a demure and mindful Halloween! Even if chaos is swirling around us and November promises to be spectacularly stressful in the United States, we can lean into a Creepy Cozy Season to shore up our reserves and remember what’s important: Darkness. Darkness is still important! The days grow shorter, the nights grow longer, and we cackle over our metaphorical cauldrons while casting spells that keep the vibes immaculate. Embrace dark positivity. Become Kermit the Frog in vampire form. Throw a seance to contact the spirits of dead comedians. Re-watch every episode of “What We Do in the Shadows” twice. (That might be my personal plan!) It’s time to cuddle our darkness.

Real life is still out there, lurking like a maniac in a hockey mask holding a fun-killing machete, but October is our time — and joy is a form of resistance. Let’s embrace Spooky Season with a sense of play this year and fill our hearts with the coziest fright we can imagine.

• There will be extra posts this month, as usual — just not as many as last year.
• If you’re on Bsky or Instagram, I plan to make a daily Creepy Cozy post, sort of like a Halloween countdown. (Stories on IG, not grid. Eff the grid.)
• THERE IS A NEW ALBUM COMING FROM THE CURE. And a new song is already out!!
• I’m going on a Secret Spooky Season Mission later this week, and I hope to tell you all about it soon.

Let’s get Creepy Cozy, friends! We’re gonna have a fun month. OK, BYE! 🖤