Halloween seems to be dead at my house.

When once we would have been frantically checking off lists for our annual Halloween party and scouring eBay for authentic additions to our costumes and dragging our kids’ costumes through the mud – they’re always some form of zombie or monster; they always need mud – this year, nary a pumpkin has graced our front stoop. No candy has been bought. My youngest is still deciding whether he will go trick-or-treating.

I know I should let it all go gracefully, but part of me is stomping my foot. I like Halloween. I like the dark and the costumes and the witchy atmosphere that accompanies the evening. I’m not seeking the wild, hoopla Halloween parties we used to throw, and I’m not going to drag my teenagers to pumpkin patches.

But I am hunting for way to put a little creep in the season. So I’ve put together a list of a few ways that my husband and I can have some adult Halloween fun that won’t leave us haunted with hangovers the next day:

- Carve pumpkins at my favorite coffee shop/wine bar in Arlington, Northside Social (10/27, 7pm).

- Dress up in spooky historical costumes and tour the historic burial grounds of Congressional Cemetary in D.C. during Ghosts and Goblets (10/25, 8pm-12am).

- Shop and sip Halloween-inspired cocktails during the Mosaic District’s Bootique in Merrifield (10/30, 6-9pm).

- Relive those wild and crazy days with a midnight showing of the Rocky Horror Picture Show at the University Mall Theatre in Fairfax (every Saturday), or a live interpretation from Spotlighters Theatre in Baltimore (until Nov. 8, various times).

- Enjoy a wine and Halloween candy pairing, tarot card readings and wine hosts in costume at Fabbioli Cellars (10/26).

- Play glow-in-the-dark lawn games, check out the Naked Mole-Rat and try local food trucks at the National Zoo’s Night of the Living Zoo (10/30, 6:30pm-10pm).

- Go tree-climbing and ziplining, which is terrifying enough in the daylight, in the dark at Harpers Ferry Adventure Center’s Harpers Scary (10/24, 10/25, 11/1) and the Adventure Park at Sandy Spring's Halloween Night-Crawlers Climb (10/24-10/26).

(You’ll notice I’ve skipped all events on the actual holiday, Friday, Oct. 31. Many of us need to keep our eyes on our kids; the rest of us would rather stay out of the crush of too many people trying too hard to have fun on a Friday Halloween.)