You’re Never Too Old for Halloween

When thinking about Halloween it is easy to imagine little kids gleefully knocking on doors, eagerly receiving candy while dressed as their favorite super hero or Disney princess.

Enter Cullen D. McAlpine ’11. He has proven that you are never too old to celebrate Halloween. He has trick-or-treated for the last three years at Harvard and continued the tradition Sunday.

“Halloween was always a big deal for me back in Anchorage, Alaska where I grew up. I would always go trick-or-treating,” Cullen said when asked what made the holiday special. However, after entering boarding school at a young age he stopped. Because of the missed opportunity, he decided to take up the tradition again in college.

Although he usually trick-or-treats on Brattle Street at the “larger houses” in residential areas, this year he decided to venture outside of Cambridge. “This year I’m going out to Beacon Hill because some of my contacts told me that there is excellent candy hoarding over there,” he said, before heading out Sunday evening.

His opinion of how hold is too old? Although older than the average trick-or-treater, he does not believe his age affects his ability to trick-or-treat. “I’ve found people to be really receptive if you dress up and you’re polite and you’re having fun with the whole thing,” he said.

The worst thing to happen while trick-or-treating? Blank stares and having the door shut in your face, McAlpine said. The best? The quintessential big candy bar or something homemade, he said.

Cullen was dressed as Peter Pan, a fitting costume given his refusal to let age make him give up the tradition.

Photo by Xi Yu '13/The Harvard Crimson.