When the leaves start to turn and a chill enters the air, many of us immediately think of one thing and one thing only: Halloween. The holiday is practically inextricable from autumn, and over the years, it’s developed into something both magical and monstrous, inspiring countless films, decor, and unique aesthetics that capture different aspects of the spooky occasion.
Even so, Halloween has managed to retain some of its ancient roots. While the holiday’s exact origins aren’t precisely known, it can be traced back to the pagan festival of Samhain, which was a celebration of the season’s final harvest, per History. The Celts also believed that Samhain was the day when the veil between the worlds of the living and the dead was the thinnest, meaning ghosts could reenter the earthly plane. To honor the occasion, the Druids, Celts, and other pagan communities would light bonfires and don masks and costumes in order to scare away evil spirits, which they feared could come during the cold winter months.
In the eighth century, Pope Gregory III designated Nov. 1 as All Saints’ Day, and the night before became known as All Hallows’ Eve. While many pagan traditions had been all but snuffed out at that point, others refused to die, and some Samhain traditions soon became attached to All Hallows’ Eve. Since then, the festival has continued to morph and grow, acquiring its own array of specific and recognizable traditions. From placing pumpkins on doorsteps to bobbing for apples and going trick-or-treating, Halloween has ballooned into a massive industry. Still, each year, many of us put on our masks and costumes on Oct. 31, just like the pagans did so many years ago.
Halloween has become an increasingly elaborate affair in modern times, and because of that, a variety of different and highly specific Halloween aesthetics have emerged, spanning everything from decor to music and fashion. TikTok, in particular, has nurtured these various Halloween aesthetics, and you’ll find many a video showcasing their nuances in detail on that platform.
Ultimately, the aesthetic you choose completely depends on your personality – what kind of energy do you want to embody during this season? Some people prefer a super-low-key Halloween style, while others enjoy a maximalist aesthetic complete with neon lights, fog machines, and screaming blow-up monsters. Still others want to lean into the coziness or nostalgia of the season, while some prefer to play up its spooky or genuinely scary aspects. Of course, many of these aesthetics overlap, and it’s possible to mix and match all of them depending on your preferences.
Ahead, check out five of the main Halloween aesthetics.
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Gothic Halloween
Imagine you’re standing in front of a creaky iron gate. A dilapidated-looking mansion looms in the distance, but a light flickers in just one window. It’s pouring rain, and you keep hearing strange noises from the woods behind you, so you decide to walk up to the house. You knock, but no one answers, so you push open the door. Inside, you discover a table covered in cobwebs and candelabras. Suddenly, the door slams behind you, and everything goes dark.
You’ve just entered the embodiment of Gothic Halloween. This style generally seems to involve lots of mist and rain, sprawling abandoned mansions with lights flickering in the windows, looming stained-glass windows, cobweb-covered candelabras, skulls, stone angel sculptures, and the like.
Getty Images/500px / Pavel Kucera
This aesthetic is probably one of the more genuinely creepy of all of these aesthetics, so it’s perfect for anyone who genuinely enjoys all things weird and eerie. It also has many subgenres, including Gothic vampire, which resembles the general Gothic Halloween aesthetic but tends to emphasize expensive-looking velvet upholstery, velvet gowns, bats, heavy jewelry, tables overflowing with candles, and red lipstick for fashionistas. There’s also Victorian Gothic, which features plenty of skeletons in jars, skulls, corsets, and black and white lace.
A Gothic Halloween party would likely involve lots of people in fabulous long gowns and suits milling around a mansion that looks like it should have been condemned a long time ago, wearing dark lipstick and sipping a red substance that could be wine or blood. Slightly unnerving classical music is all you need for the soundtrack, though new wave and goth rock can also fit this vibe well.
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Minimalist Halloween
The minimalist Halloween aesthetic is for those who want to keep their Halloween decorating tasteful, Pinterest-ready, and free from anything too fear-inducing. Generally, minimalist Halloween setups include lots of clean, empty space and just a few well-made and precisely positioned Halloween-themed objects. A carefully selected ghost-shaped mug, a pumpkin-shaped candle, or a few other cute and low-key selections are really all you need to achieve this aesthetic, and you might even choose to keep everything black and white in order to achieve a whole new level of minimalism.
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You won’t see any giant floating witches or plastic candy bowls here; instead, a few carefully positioned string lights are all you need to illuminate this delicate style. Some coffeehouse jazz or simple silence might fit this aesthetic well, and a minimalist Halloween gathering will probably look like a cocktail party complete with red wine and a cheese plate.
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Maximalist Halloween
On the other hand, there’s the maximalist Halloween aesthetic, which is generally associated with tons of neon lights, Christmas lights, and glow-in-the-dark paint – everything glows in a maximalist Halloween setup. This aesthetic also tends to include tons of giant Halloween decorations, like looming skeletons and huge blow-up ghosts. If you go for this style, you’ll definitely need to fill your space with tons of different objects crammed together to create a sense of organized chaos; think rows of pumpkins, ghost-printed pillows, life-size witches hanging from the ceiling, and an overall gaudy and theatrical vibe.
Getty Images / gorodenkoff
Fog machines, scary surprises, and tons of candy are more than welcome here. Musically, songs like “Monster Mash” and “This Is Halloween” will fit this aesthetic well. A maximalism-themed Halloween party would likely involve a giant haunted-house setup; elaborate, genuinely scary costumes; and tons of trick-or-treaters creating all manner of mischief.
Getty Images / fotostorm
Cozy Halloween
This aesthetic generally draws from classic autumnal palettes, complete with plenty of soft blankets, fall-scented candles, crackling fires, and sweet-looking Halloween decor. If you don’t love the more ostentatious aspects of Halloween, tend to get a little melancholic when the summer goes away, or just love the wistfulness of fall, a cozy Halloween aesthetic is a perfect way to bring a little extra warmth into your life.
Getty Images / fotostorm
For this aesthetic, you’ll want to gather the aforementioned blankets and candle, and you can also grab some hot coffee (or a pumpkin spice latte). Fashion-wise, the cozy Halloween aesthetic is all about chunky knit sweaters, leg warmers, plaid shirts, and velvet boots. A cozy-Halloween-themed party might look like gathering a bunch of friends for a potluck or collaging party by the fire. Musically, this aesthetic evokes Taylor Swift‘s “Folklore” or anything by The Lumineers or Bon Iver.
This aesthetic can overlap with the minimalist aesthetic, and it’s similar to light Halloween, which typically favors more decorations than a general cozy aesthetic might. Cozy Halloween is also close to cottagecore Halloween, though a cottagecore aesthetic tends to be a little more specifically rustic.
Getty Images / Jena Ardell
2000s Halloween
There are a number of different Halloween aesthetics that are rooted in past decades, and all of them could all theoretically be lumped into a “vintage Halloween” category, but 2000s Halloween seems to be a uniquely popular aesthetic on TikTok in particular. This bittersweet aesthetic seems to really represent childhood memories of suburban Halloweens, which makes sense as the majority of Gen Z spent their earliest years in the 2000s.
This aesthetic involves nostalgia-inducing items like Halloween-printed tablecloths, store-bought plastic Halloween decorations, Halloween-themed arts and crafts projects, classic Halloween candy, department and grocery store Halloween setups, and anything you would find at elementary school Halloween parties. What’s special about this aesthetic is that it doesn’t seem to be particularly curated like the others on this list – these setups are often charmingly haphazard and slightly blurry in a pre-internet way.
Getty Images / Copyright Artem Vorobiev
If you want to throw your own 2000s Halloween party, be sure to put on some Disney Channel and Nickelodeon Halloween specials, grab some Hawaiian punch, and whip up some cupcakes with smiling pumpkins and ghosts on them.
Other nostalgia-based Halloween aesthetics include ’80s Halloween, which is mostly distinguishable from the 2000s aesthetic due to references to the many iconic Halloween movies made during that decade, from “Beetlejuice” to “A Nightmare on Elm Street.” Fashion-wise, this aesthetic evokes letterman jackets, cheerleader uniforms, and poorly masked killers. There’s also ’90s Halloween, which tends to mainly reference Halloween-based ’90s pop culture staples, from “Hocus Pocus” to the original “Halloween.”
