Downtown Lawrence’s annual trick-or-treating event drew flocks of people decked out in their Halloween costumes Thursday.
Businesses and organizations that are located downtown set up stations along Massachusetts Street, or inside their buildings, to pass out candy to folks who strolled by. Sidewalks on both sides of the street became packed with people of all ages.
Halloween evening brought temperatures in the 50s, the beaming sun providing some more warmth when visible.
Some downtown Lawrence trick-or-treaters stopped to chat with us about their costume choices this year.
Hold still, it’s a praying mantis
Each person passing by Bennett Leiszler on Thursday seemed just as impressed as the person before, several folks gasping at the biggest praying mantis they’d probably ever witnessed.
“So my dad has made pretty big costumes in the past,” Bennett said. “And this is the last one that my dad will make, so I just thought that this would be a good costume.”
Bennett said for past Halloweens, his dad has created demogorgon, Jack Sparrow and T-Rex costumes among others.
Fun fact fire breather
In “Minecraft,” a large flying antagonist appears when players enter the third dimension of the video game. It’s called an ender dragon, according to Skyler Geurink.
During an interview with Skyler for this article, at least four people who passed by said in amusement, “Is that an ender dragon?”
Meanwhile, Skyler was rattling off some niche facts: his birthday is on the first day of fall, kittens eventually turn into cats and summer is more than a season.
“Did you know summer is a whole holiday?” Skyler said. “Yeah, it’s all by itself, and it’s called a holiday. It’s called no school.”
Skyler had acquired four fun size boxes of Dots, one of his favorite candies, about 20 minutes into the downtown event Thursday. But he said he was looking forward to collecting some Snickers and Kit Kats as the evening progressed, too.
Spooky meets sparkly
Chloe Jensen transformed into Coraline for Halloween, down to the blue hair, yellow jacket and triangle necklace.
Putting on her button eye glasses was her final touch. The eyes are the windows to the soul, according to the movie, which is one of her favorites.
“I love the movie,” Chloe said. “Well, one of my options was Stitch, because I also love Stitch. But I just love the movie ‘Coraline,’ so much, she inspired me to be it.”
Trick-or-treating downtown together were Chloe, Nessa Higgins, Lilith Young and other family and friends. Nessa represented the movie “The Purge” with her uncanny mask, while Lilith dressed in some of her favorite colors as an alicorn, which is a fictional mix between a unicorn and a pegasus.
The craftiness of a fox
By thrifting some pieces and creating others by hand, couple Sophia Eddinger and Owen Ross became Mrs. and Mr. Fox from the movie “Fantastic Mr. Fox” for Halloween this year.
Eddinger, dressed as Felicity Fox, made a miniature apple out of tin foil, clay and paint, and the stem was a paper towel. Super glue made a mess but allowed Ross to add felt to some bended coat hangers, resulting in fox ears. Each of their outfits included clothing pieces from local shops.
Dating for nearly six years now, the couple plans to continue going all out for Halloween, one of many things they look forward to doing together.
“I was already talking about ideas for next year,” Eddinger said. “I love Halloween. I’ve been dressing up all week, so I take it super seriously.”
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Meet the little voices inside your head
A mother and daughter duo paid homage to an animated movie teaching viewers about their emotions.
Debra and Magnolia dressed as Sadness and Disgust from the movie “Inside Out.”
The second installment of the movie, “Inside Out 2,” came to theaters over the summer and brought new emotions — like anxiety and embarrassment — to the screen. After seeing it and enjoying it as much as the original, Magnolia chose their costumes.
“She’s always loved the number one and then the number two came out,” Debra said.
Note: A misspelled name in this post has been corrected.
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Maya Hodison (she/her), equity reporter, can be reached at mhodison@lawrencekstimes.com. Read more of her work for the Times here. Check out her staff bio here.
Molly Adams (she/her), photojournalist and news operations coordinator for The Lawrence Times, can be reached at molly@lawrencekstimes.com. Check out more of her work for the Times here. Check out her staff bio here.
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