Celebrate Halloween with some of these fun ideas for a successful Halloween celebration.
Halloween is a fun holiday for many children. They get to dress up as their favorite characters and collect tons of candy. However, more and more parents are opting out of traditional trick or treating activities because of safety concerns or to limit their children's candy intake. Whether parents decide to throw a Halloween party at home or to avoid giving candy to young trick or treaters, they will need plenty of fun Halloween ideas to keep their children happy and active.
Give Out Craft Kits for Halloween
It makes sense to avoid giving out candy to trick or treaters. It is a health risk in more ways than one, since there is always a chance that someone could put something sharp or poisonous in a piece of candy. However, you simply can't expect children to scream for joy when they receive a toothbrush instead. Simple Halloween craft kits are fun for kids to make and inexpensive to give out. A few ideas to try are:
- Door hangers - Buy a pack of precut foam door hangers and a tub of Halloween foam stickers. Bag up a hanger and an assortment of stickers for each trick or treater.
- Spooky wreaths - A piece of heavy card stock, a tracing template and a paper plate with the center removed are all you need to include here, but a few googly eyes are fun, too. The template should have several spooky shapes for the child to trace onto the card stock. Bats, ghosts and pumpkins are perfect.
- Recycled CD-Rom spiders - An unwanted CD-Rom for the body, pipe cleaners for legs, a big pompom for the head and googley eyes make up this kit.
Organize a Neighborhood Halloween Costume Contest
A neighborhood costume contest takes the emphasis off the candy and puts it on creative costumes, instead. Have the kids line up at one spot and parade through the neighborhood to the judging area. Make sure you have plenty of Halloween costume categories so that none of the children feel left out. Prizes could be spooky plastic rings, ice cream cone gift certificates, or holiday coloring books.
Set up a Haunted Yard Treasure Hunt
If you have a fairly large yard, go all out on spooky decorations and then host a creepy treasure hunt at dusk. Have several treasure chests hidden throughout the yard and give teams of children different sets of clues so they can get to their team's treasure. There are plenty of inexpensive non-candy Halloween treats available at craft stores and party stores to fill the treasure chests to the brim.
