Celebrate Halloween with swag

When you work in a fast-paced marketing firm, it can be not easy to celebrate social events in a way that brings people together. A few years ago, that all changed when someone suggested a Halloween office party.

The whole team was excited, and the preparations started days in advance. Everyone came to work dressed up in costumes — we had superheroes, witches, and vampires; it seemed like the entire office had been magically transformed into a Halloween dreamland!

The effort everyone put into their costumes was incredible — especially the spooky decorations and the mouth-watering snacks that filled our office kitchen! 

Some of our staff were wondering why Halloween is celebrated and the Halloween meaning, so we put a little effort into researching Halloween's meaning and traditions — why do people decorate their houses with pumpkins and wear costumes?

We discovered that Halloween is an ancient Celtic festival called Samhain, which marks the end of the harvest season and the onset of winter.

What is the meaning of Halloween for the Celts, you ask? The Celts believed that on October 31st, the boundary between our world and the otherworld became blurred; this allowed the spirits and fairies to cross over from the otherworld and into ours.

The Celts believed that these supernatural beings could influence their lives on Halloween night, for better or worse. To protect themselves, people would dress up in costumes made of animal skins and put out food offerings for the fairies and spirits.

The spiritual meaning of Halloween has changed over the years, but the practice of dressing up in costume is still alive and well today. Whether you’re trick-or-treating with your little ones or partying at an adult bash, donning a spooky mask or magical robe allows us to become someone else – even if only for one night.

When October finally rolled around, villagers gathered to light bonfires and tell stories of the dead. They sang songs, played a Halloween game or two, shared food and drinks, and offered prayers for good luck in the coming year. People believed that if they kept their spirits happy, their crops would be plentiful and their families healthy, so they offered them Halloween gifts.

As the nights grew longer and colder, superstition ran rampant amongst rural communities. People believed that spirits of the dead roamed the streets, seeking revenge or playing pranks on unsuspecting victims. To ward off these evil entities, people dressed in costumes and masks to disguise themselves as something other than human.

This tradition continued for centuries of Halloween Celebration and even morphed into some of today’s popular Halloween costumes.

We decided the idea of Halloween employee gifts would be a lovely way to recognize their hard work and show appreciation for their dedication. We came up with a range of Halloween gift ideas, and thankfully, SwagMagic allowed us to create our store of awesome gifts with the perfect Halloween-related items. They even gave us somewhere to store them!

We thought of a collection of spooky mugs and tumblers, custom candies and snacks in pumpkin buckets, and cool decorations like LED Jack-O-Lanterns for their desks.

The Halloween corporate gifts didn't need to break the bank, but they were a great way to recognize our employee's hard work. Morale is essential in the workplace, and sometimes the little things make all the difference.

The response was overwhelmingly positive! Everyone loved the gifts, and more importantly, they felt appreciated for their hard work. Our employees couldn't stop talking about how thoughtful it was to give them something special for Halloween.

Everyone loved dressing up, and the work slack was buzzing with people swapping Halloween costumes ideas, including Halloween costumes for men, Halloween costumes for women, and even Halloween costumes couples could wear together.

We encouraged everyone to go all out with their costumes and gave out prizes for the best costume, scariest costume, most creative costume, and even the funniest costume. Thankfully, Halloween is a popular enough holiday that great Halloween costumes for adults aren't hard to find.

After we got all dressed up, we piled into the boardroom in the office and decided to watch some Halloween movies on the big projector. No Halloween party would be complete without a horror movie marathon, and we had plenty of snacks.

We watched classic scary flicks like The Shining, the Halloween franchise movies, Friday the 13th, and Nightmare on Elm Street. The Halloween film series is an annual tradition for our team, and we all got into the spirit of things, quoting along with our favorite parts of the excellent Halloween Michael Myers movies.

Even though it had taken a long time to get everyone in the same room, we all had so much fun. We laughed and screamed at the jump scares, competed to find the best quotes from each movie, and enjoyed some spirited debates over which characters were our favorites.

At the end of it all, it was a success. 

Even after the movie marathon had finished, everyone was still feeling the adrenaline rush from all the excitement. As we all gathered up our things and hugged goodbye, I could feel the positive energy from gathering together and celebrating something we were all passionate about.

It was a great reminder of how important it is for us to take time out of our busy lives to enjoy something we love, and I'm sure this will be an experience that none of us will forget anytime soon.