Through your lens, Halloween might be a silly holiday. People watch horror movies, handing out candy while others negotiate tired, sugar-crashing children. You might assume that your team feels similarly about this holiday.

What if it doesn’t have to be that way?

There’s been a lot of talk recently about creating culture with restaurant teams. Working in restaurants is hard work. There’s no way around it. You can inject a little whimsy and levity into what might otherwise be a pretty serious and straight-laced working environment. What better way to do that than to “celebrate” Halloween in your restaurant? The stakes are low and you can do some things pretty inexpensively that can make a big difference to your team. It can relieve some stress ahead of the later holidays. This might make it easier for the team to handle some of the holiday stress later in the year.

Announce your plans by handing out lil bags of candy to your team with a flyer outlining your plans to your team. Brown sandwich bags and a large bag of mixed candy at Costco will put you back less than $25 to create some excitement for your team. Consider translating the flyer into Spanish if you have Hispanic team members.

Some ideas of what you can do:

Take volunteers to decorate the restaurant: You can use this opportunity to deep clean the Front of House ahead of the holidays. If you reuse decorations then you won’t have a huge investment each year. You’ll just need to find a place to store them. Schedule a specific time for the team to decorate and consider making it at a time where members of the kitchen team might be able to get involved if they want to.

Pumpkin decorating: Either through paint or carving, you can post your team’s pumpkins around the restaurant. Even allowing people to decorate their pumpkins together can foster community for your team. If you let your team carve pumpkins, do that closer to the holiday and maybe put those pumpkins outside, out of the way.

Halloween costumes: Allow the team to dress up for Halloween. Give them dates and guardrails for their costumes. You could let people who are working the weekend or days before Halloween dress up or, if you really need people for Halloween, just have costumes for the day-of. It might entice people to work that day.

Be really clear about what people can and cannot do for their costumes. They should still be able to their jobs safely and dressed appropriately. They should, for example, still be wearing non-slip shoes. It’s a holiday but you don’t need anyone biffing it on their way to deliver food.

Costume contest: If your team isn’t much for costumes, you can give them a little extra incentive through a costume contest. It’ll elevate the conversations that they’re having and maybe inject some healthy jabs or smack talking.

Día de los Muertos: Ask members of your team who celebrate if they can introduce this holiday to people who are unfamiliar. It’s a really special, family focused holiday. It’ll be a way for your team to connect on a deeper level. Maybe consider building an ofrenda and have your team bring pictures of their relatives who’ve passed as a special remembrance.

Give out candy:

To kids dressed up and out to dinner. Their adults might think it’s cute.

To adults dressed up and out to dinner. They’ll probably think it’s funny, and give them a nice memory of your restaurant.

In check presenters. It’s a cute way to extend the holiday celebration to guests in a fun way.

In To Go bags. You don’t get to see their reactions, but it’s a nice way to include everyone in your holiday. Maybe don’t include chocolate.

These ideas are just for your team to celebrate the holiday. Having some fun around a silly, spooky holiday won’t cost you much time or money, but it can create memories and a sense of community for your team. It’s just one little way that you can build culture for your team. If the team has been accustomed to working in a high pressure, no fun environment for awhile, it may take awhile for you to turn that culture around. You don’t have to celebrate the big holidays. You can celebrate little holidays, make up your own, or find other little ways to let people know that they’re appreciated. And sometimes, that’s all they need to stay.