13 Vintage Halloween Photos Guaranteed to Make You So Nostalgic

No matter what costume you sported back in the day, it required some kind of mask, or at least eyewear. In the 21st century, you're not likely to see many trick-or-treaters with their faces covered!

Before Halloween lights were a thing, this black cat sitting on a big-nosed moon was the decoration that was EVERYWHERE.

The most high-tech decoration we saw back then was this omnipresent skeleton with working joints. If you didn't have one in your home, we bet you had one in your classroom.

Everything about this little trick-or-treater is retro: the mask that's completely unrelated to her disguise, the candy sack instead of a more modern plastic pumpkin, and the UNICEF box she's holding. We don't see too many kids collecting for UNICEF on Halloween anymore!

Lots of costumes based on animated characters didn't come CLOSE to looking like what you saw on screen! While it's all too common to see perfect replicas of Elsa from Frozen roaming the streets now, you probably won't see anyone like the tiny tot in the front of this picture, who was supposed to be Cinderella!

The Brach's ads were so delicious-looking, even though today's parents would make unwrapped candy off-limits for their costumed kids.

Pretty much every Star Wars character knocked on the door--though with masks like that, it probably wasn't easy for them to find their way!

Before the plastic pumpkin invention, we toted our loot in everything from burlap sacks to pillowcases to these branded paper bags.

Roving bands of children trick-or-treating without parents was a perfectly normal thing when you knew all your neighbors! But even in the safest American neighborhoods these days, you're likely to see an adult for every child or two collecting Halloween candy.

This same costume now would surely bare a midriff, but little girls were much more modest in the 1960s, when this was taken!

Remember when costumes came in a box? And no matter what disguise you chose, the mask was always visible through that clear plastic window.

Can't you feel (and smell!) the rubber just from looking at this photo?! And why did all masks of women look like their lips were over-pumped with collagen?

Mid-century trick-or-treaters had a much better handle on choosing creepy costumes than today's kids!