Celebrating Halloween through a pandemic can be a daunting task if you have children to keep happy. They may be disappointed if restrictions for your area mean you can’t go trick or treating. This year is the year where we have to think of alternative ways to celebrate. Hopefully this post will help you on your way to having a really fun Halloween celebration.
COVID-19 may have taken away a lot of our freedom, but I think it’s also made us much more resourceful. Halloween can still be fun, and it will certainly be one to remember.
Having a plan can take the stress out of a situation. Try to plan what you are going to do to help you stay calm for the kids and so you can enjoy Halloween.
1. Carve a Pumpkin
Depending on whether you’re a messy person or not, you will either love or hate cleaning out the seeds of the pumpkin! I don’t find it an easy job and I’m not a fan of the feel of it so I breathe a sigh of relief when I’ve got that part over with! For some people this might be the best part. My son certainly enjoys seeing me squirm!
When I was little, pumpkin carving was usually making your bog standard triangle eyes and jagged mouth pumpkin. These days people have got more creative. You could opt for the traditional style carving, or if you or your kids are feeling adventurous you could try something a bit ‘trickier’ (excuse the pun!).
There are lots of ideas on Pinterest for more challenging carving suggestions. For my favourite, click here. I am not in any way affiliated with the link, but wanted to share because I love all things Harry Potter!
2. Halloween Make up
Halloween make up can be a lot of fun (taking it off, not so much!).
Some popular Halloween face painting ideas to try are:
- Ghosts
- Witches
- Spider webs
- Skeletons
- Dracula
3. Make a Costume
Making a costume for Halloween can be easy if you choose the right option. You could use an old white sheet and cut eyeholes out to make a really simple ghost costume. I did try this so I could post a photo, but I cut the eyes too far apart and ended up unable to see what I was doing so it didn’t end up being the easy costume it should have been! Picture below from someone who actually cut the eyes in the right place!
If you are feeling more adventurous, you could make a more complicated costume. Here in the UK we tend to go for spooky costumes but I see from other areas of the World people dress up as all sorts of things for Halloween, giving you so many options.
You don’t have to be going out to have a great time dressing up. You could scare people with your costumes on video calls instead, which leads me on to activity 4.
4. Have a Virtual Halloween Party
In recent years more people having been using technology to keep in touch with loved ones and this year with the pandemic going on, the use of video call apps has increased substantially.
You could organise a virtual Halloween party, or see if there are any already arranged that you could join.
5. Free Printable Halloween Activities
You can find lots of printable activities online. I have designed some Halloween activities myself for the website. Click here to access them.
6. Halloween Scavenger Hunt
In our house we love a good scavenger hunt and I’m looking forward to preparing a special Halloween hunt this year.
You can adapt the hunt for the age of the child. For young children who can’t yet read you could prepare some picture clues. I draw pictures of things like cars and trains so my son knows to look with those toys for the next clue. You could also try drawing a treasure map.
For an older child you could write clues. You can adjust the difficultly depending on the age of the child. You will want them to be able to solve the clue but not make it so difficult that they lose interest.
When they get to the end of the hunt they could be rewarded with a Halloween themed prize.
7. Halloween Crafting
Halloween crafting can be great fun. It’s good to let your child lead. I used to help my son a lot with crafts and it would ultimately end up looking like an adult had done it. I found it hard to let go (partly because of the mess!) but have gradually learnt to just let him do his own thing and I can tell he enjoys it so much more when he has the freedom to create his own work.
If you struggle with this too, try making something yourself whilst your child makes something at the same time. If they need a bit of help you can give it, but you also have your own project to work on. This is a great way to spend quality time together.
8. Create a Halloween Music Playlist
A Halloween playlist can be such fun. Below are some of my favourite Halloween songs.
- Ghostbusters
- Thriller
- Black Magic (Little Mix)
- Monster (The Automatic)
I have to admit that when the Ghostbusters theme tune comes on, it’s like I’m transported back to my childhood and I can’t help but sing at the top of my voice and wave my arms around like an excitable child. Anyone else?!
9. Watch a Scary Movie
As someone who suffers from anxiety, scary movies are not for me! However, I know that lots of people love a good scary movie to get them in the Halloween mood.
As my son is only 4, I can get away with watching some very tame Halloween cartoons with him! We sat and watched Spookley the Square Pumpkin last week. It was about the square pumpkin being different to all the other pumpkins but in the end (spoiler alert!) being square turned out to be really useful. I love anything with the message that being different is ok and it’s something I strongly believe in teaching children.
10. Make Food Treats
One of the first things people usually think about when they think of Halloween is the sweets/candy! You could have the classic treats for Halloween such as sweets and chocolate, or you could choose to make some healthy treats. Pinterest has some great healthy but tasty suggestions.
An idea you could try is sticking cocktail sticks into the top of a pumpkin and put fruit on them, making it look like hair sticking up.
Conclusion
To sum things up, you really can have a fantastic time on Halloween this year if you focus on what you can do rather than what you can’t.
Have a safe and fun Halloween!
