10 Kid-Friendly Ways to Celebrate Halloween at Home
Although kids traditionally go door to door trick-or-treating for candy on Halloween, many parents prefer to keep their kids at home on this holiday that often poses dangers for little ones. If you’d rather keep your kids safe and sound on All Hallows’ Eve, it’s crucial that you find fun, exciting ways to entertain them. Celebrating Halloween at home isn’t a sign that you have no money for luxury parties. It’s a sign that you want to spend more time with your little ones. Here’s how you can celebrate Halloween at home with your family:
1 Throw a party
Throwing a party for their friends makes staying home on Halloween a treat instead of a trick for kids. While you can certainly throw a big shindig if you want, letting each child invite one friend over for the evening is sufficient. Provide plenty of food, candy and entertainment and your party is sure to be a hit. If you are short on cash, consider making your own Halloween decorations and homemade treats. You can also host a small potluck party.
2 Make Halloween treats
Entertain your kids by letting them create wacky Halloween treats that they can eat. Add orange food coloring to a batch or crispy rice treats and let the kids form them into pumpkin shapes before they harden. Alternatively, make deviled eggs that resemble eyeballs by placing an olive slice in the center of the filling and using red food coloring to create a bloodshot appearance on the whites.
3 Do crafts
Stock up on art supplies before Halloween night and plan an age-appropriate craft project that your kids can work on. Let them use materials like construction paper, Styrofoam, acrylic paints and clay to fashion witches, pumpkins, ghosts and other scary-looking Halloween creatures. If crafting isn’t for your children, then consider painting pumpkins. No carving required. Grab some paint and paint brushes and have fun!
Read also – 10 Creative Halloween Party Ideas
4 Play games
Have an old-fashioned game night while you stay in on Halloween. Dig out the board games that are gathering dust and let the kids play for prizes that you award to the winners. Visit the dollar store beforehand and find lots of Halloween goodies that won’t break the bank. There are many Halloween games for kids – all you have to do is a little research online.
5 Watch movies
Turn out the lights, light a couple of jack-o-lanterns and turn on the Halloween movies. Serve popcorn or order pizza to keep the troops satisfied while they watch. Halloween movie options include flicks like It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, Hocus Pocus and Halloweentown. When choosing Halloween movies, make sure they are not too scary. Look for kid-friendly options. Horror movies you can watch with your husband when your little monsters will fall asleep.
6 Tell scary stories
No Halloween is complete without scary ghost stories. Instead of watching movies, turn the television off and invite the kids to gather around in a circle with the lights turned low. Let each child take turns telling a scary story that they’ve either heard before or composed on the spot. Award a prize for the best story.
Read also – 8 Spookiest Scary Stories for Kids
7 Create costumes
If you’ve not bought Halloween costumes for your kids, challenge them to create their own costumes from items you have around the house. Dig through the box of old clothes you’ve been meaning to donate to charity to find apparel that can be used for costume creation. Donate some old makeup to the cause and any other odds and ends you have laying around that the kids can use. Halloween isn’t about spending money on creepy costumes. It’s about creating your own creepiest ones.
8 Have a Halloween treasure hunt
No child can resist a treasure hunt, especially one that’s geared toward the Halloween holiday. Hide candy or small Halloween toys that you’ve picked up on the cheap while the kids hide their eyes. When you’re done, let them go wild looking high and low for the prizes they’ll gather. If the weather is fine, you can have your Halloween treasure hunt right in your backyard.
9 Hold a Halloween trivia contest
Before your Halloween night get-together, compile a list of trivia questions that have to do with Halloween. To make the game easier, formulate three or four answers to each question, making them all multiple choice. Hold a trivia quiz contest for the kids and award a grand prize to the winner or pass out a small gift for each question answered correctly.
10 Decorate a Halloween tree
While most families have a Christmas tree when the holidays roll around, how many have a Halloween tree? Almost no one. Families are so busy with pumpkin carving that they stop being more creative. This week, set up a large or small artificial Christmas tree and let the kids decorate it with Halloween ornaments. The ornaments can be ones they’ve fashioned using scissors, construction paper and glue or those that you’ve purchased specifically for the project.
Read also – 15 Cheap Outdoor Halloween Decorating Ideas
As your kids will soon see, spending Halloween at home doesn’t have to be a drag. A Halloween night at home can be more fun and rewarding than one spent traipsing the streets in the cold going from house to house when you know how to entertain the younger set. Halloween is a wonderful family-friendly holiday that can be celebrated without friends and neighbors. Your little ones will definitely make Halloween unforgettable. Do you have any tips on how to celebrate Halloween at home with kids?
