Halloween
Halloween isn't just for young kids! Surprise college age kids or family members who live out of town by send them Halloween treats/baskets or shop for Halloween party favors at Beau-coup.com.
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What to do with all that Halloween candy? Heard of the Pumpkin Fairy?
Let the kids eat or pick out several pieces of their favorite candy and tell them you will save a few pieces for a later date. Then, ask them to take the remaining candy and hide it in the house or leave in a pile on the kitchen table with a note for the "pumpkin fairy". During the night the pumpkin fairy drops in to take the candy and replaces it with a small toy. It might be a fun tradition to begin with your kids and save you from a few candy fights!
Other uses for Halloween candy....freeze and use for Christmas baking (broken up or stuffed in the middle of cookies, cupcakes, brownies). Use for decorating Gingerbread houses. Drop a piece in your hot chocolate drink or coffee. Mix into ice cream. Add some peanuts to the candy corn and set out for guest at Thanksgiving. Ask your child's teacher or school office if they want it.
See our Family Traditions page for Halloween traditions like Trunk or Treat, Phantom Ghost, Ideas for Halloween Picture.
Make it a Family Halloween Weekend
Spend the weekend before Halloween making it a family Halloween weekend! Read Halloween Books , bake Halloween treats using Halloween cookbooks & cookie cutters, watch scary Halloween DVDs. Have a pumpkin rolling contest (what family member can roll it the farthest), make some green slime (recipe below). See more games below.
A Special Halloween Morning Tradition and Surprise!
Halloween morning have the kids walk into the kitchen to hear Scary music playing and a table covered with a black or orange table cloth with black or orange Halloween candles/blacklights/lights. Breakfast can be as simple as pancakes with orange and black sprinkles, pumpkin pancakes or muffins, orange juice in a Halloween cup. Halloween stickers on the table are added fun along with Halloween Jokes.
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Game Ideas for a Halloween Party:
Gather lots of Halloween items and spread them out on a tray (vampire teeth, pictures of a witch, black cat, skeleton, halloween candy, small pumpkinetc.) Then remove one or two items and see if the child can tell you what is missing. For older children, see if they can remember or write down ALL the items after the tray is removed.
Put one holiday item in a brown lunch bag. ( i.e. easter egg in one bag, unbreakable Christmas ornament in another, valentine heart in another, shamrock in another etc.) Make lots of bags, possibly one for each person playing the game. Only put one holiday item in each brown bag. Fold the bag top several times so no one can see what is inside. Have the kids pass the bag to music as they sit in a circle. Stop the music and tell the children to open their bag. Whoever has a Halloween item inside their bag wins a prize. Close bags and begin again.
Make teams of a several children. Each team picks one person from their group to turn into a mummy. Pass out several rolls of toilet paper or white crepe paper (which is stronger). Set a timer. Have the team members wrap up the person from their team with toilet paper/crepe paper until the timer goes off. The team with the best decorated mummy wins.
Ask children to sit in a circle. Start a scary Halloween story. After a few sentences, have the child sitting next to you take over and add a few lines to the story....then he/she turns to the child sitting next to him/her to add a few lines. If the story runs out of ideas....start a new story and take turns adding to the story. It's fun to see the kids use their imagination and the turns and twist that the story takes.
Set up a few Halloween cups or Halloween pails and toss ping pong balls to see who can land one inside.
Cut out large pumpkin shapes (or buy ready-made pumpkin decorations). Color the eyes to each pumpkin a different color (one pumpkin has blue eyes, one pumpkin has green eyes, purple eyes, black eyes etc.). Lay the pumpkin shapes to form a circle on the floor (like a cake walk). You may want to use double sided tape to tape the pumpkin to the floor. You should have one pumpkin shape for each child who will be playing the game. Take the crayon or marker that you used to color the pumpkin's eyes and put them inside a bucket or bag. Play music and have the kids walk on the pumpkins until the music stops. Pull out a crayon/marker and hold it up. Whoever is on the pumpkin with the eyes that are the same color crayon wins.
Print out Halloween Jokes onto paper. Cut the paper so only one joke is on a piece of paper. Fold and place the individual jokes/papers inside a cup. Have the children take turns picking out one of the jokes/papers from the cup. When it is their turn, the child should stand in front of the group and tell the joke. The other children can give a thumbs up or thumbs down to the joke, depending upon if they do or do not think the joke is funny. Someone should record the number of thumbs up the joke received next to the child's name. The person who told the joke that got the most thumbs up wins!
Decorate pumpkins with stickers or markers or Decorate cookies or bake Halloween treats Halloween Baking
Halloween Bingo
Use straws to have children blow a spider ring across the floor. Match up two children to race each other and see who can get their spider ring across the finish line first.
Do a candy corn relay race. Use a Pumpkin or ghost bucket for each team. Make teams and give each team a spoon. Have the children scoop up candy corn into the spoon and race to the end of the course and dump the candy in the bucket. Run back and tag the next person. First team finishing.wins.
Read halloween books to young children. See some Halloween Books (read using Halloween candles/blacklights/lights to create more interest)
Pin the nose on a pumpkin (like pin the tail on the donkey)PIN the NOSE on the PUMPKIN/HALLOWEEN Party GAME
Halloween Mad libs, seek and finds, pinata (see some below). See Mad Libs/Games Halloween Games
Read Scary Stories (read them in the dark using flashlights to make even more scary, Halloween candles/blacklights/lights or fall scented candles)
Watch Halloween DVDs (light fall candles (see link above) to really get you in the Halloween mood.
Tell Halloween Jokes see above on how to use as a game or see Family Traditions for another way to use Halloween jokes.
Pumpkin Rolling Contest, Make two teams of children. Have a start line and turnaround line, 20 ft apart. Have the first child in each line roll a pumpkin from the start line, to the turnaround line and back to the next person on their team. The first team to have everyone on their team wins.
Have children guess the weight of several size pumpkins. You can either weigh the pumpkin together after everyone has made a guess, or weigh before the party. If you weigh before the party, write down the weight and tape it on the bottom of the pumpkin so that kids can't see the weight, because they will likely want to pick up the pumpkin.
Divide children into teams and have a relay race using a spoon and a scary eyeball (decorate a ping pong ball if you can't find a scary eyeball). Give the first child on each team a spoon and the eyeball and let them carry the eye on the spoon to the end of the course and come back. Hand off to the next child and continue until all children have played on the team. First team done wins!
Use a ball of black yarn to have the children make a spider web. Have the children stand in a circle and toss the ball of black yarn across to another child. The child holds on to a piece of the yarn and then throws the ball across to another child. Continue until a spider web is created.
GROSS STUFF! Cut a hole in a shoebox (large enough to put a hand thru). Label the outside of the box with what is inside" (eyeballs, skin, teeth). Then fill the box with objects that will feel like the objects marked on the box.
- Eyeballs - Peeled grapes.
- Teeth - Unpopped popcorn.
- Guts/Brains - Oiled spaghetti
- Skin - Oiled soft flour tortilla.
Tweens/Teens
There are ways to make games for older kids fun. Rolling a pumpkin relay contest, Ouija Board (Ouija Board Glow-in-the-Dark)
Kids at college or live out of town? Send them Halloween cookies, treats or basket
Halloween slime: Make your own below........ or see ready made Gross Books and Slime
Medium bowl + 1 cup water + 1 cup corn starch + Green food coloring
1. Pour 1 cup of corn starch and 1 cup of water into the bowl.
2. Mix the two together with your hands until it becomes gooey and doughy.
3. If it's not thick enough, add more corn starch or if it's too thick, just add more water.
4. Once the texture is thick and smooth, add green food coloring to achieve icky, green gooey slime!
More Halloween Activities
Halloween Safety Tips
Wear make up (Character Makeup Kit - Wolfe Bothers) instead of a mask. A mask cuts off your vision and prevents you from seeing cars. Be careful crossing streets. Don't jaywalk.
Take flashlight Happy Haunting Halloween Safety Flashlight with 8 Realistic Haunting Sounds
Stay with an adult, or go in a group.
Only go to home where you know the family.
Stand back away from the door (a few feet) and don't go inside.
All treats should be checked by parents before eaten.
Don't stop to talk to people in cars.
Phantom Ghost - Copy and paste the poem below onto a sheet of paper (or Halloween paper). Print off . Make up a small basket or bag of Halloween candy. Drop off the basket on the front porch of a neighbor or family member. Be careful not to let them see you. The game is more fun when it’s a surprise. Kids love this! If you don't want to fill with all candy, use a few Halloween stickers, tatoos, madlib, book, DVD, buddy bans see these things Halloween DVDs Halloween games (buddy bans, stickers) Halloween books or Scary Stories
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The Phantom Ghost has come to town, First post this Phantom where it can be seen, Second make two treats, two phantoms, and two notes like this. You have only one day to act - so be quick! Last, but not least, come join in the season. |