Entertaining

Halloween might look a little different this year, but that doesn’t mean we can’t have a Spooktacular time! From fun ways to celebrate at home to costume ideas perfect for a mask, we have you covered. Check out our scary good recipes and compilation of great Halloween movies.  

Boo-tiful Crafts 

• Use balloons to create fun ghosts and creatures. You can draw a ghost on white balloons, Jack-O’-Lanterns on orange balloons, or create silly monster faces using sharpies. Step it up a notch by adding googly eyes or ribbons as hair. Remember not to use a hot glue gun, or it might pop. 

• Transform your house into a Halloween world and give every room a theme! Turn your kitchen into Frankenstein’s lab with test tubes and fill different shaped glasses with different color food coloring. Fill the room with spooky fog using dry ice. Make the living room into a pumpkin world with orange streamers, pumpkins, and Halloween decor. Convert a bedroom into a witch’s room with candles, a fake spell book, and of course witch hats. Wrap purple or green ribbons around a broom handle in case a witch wants to fly. Here are 36 free Halloween printables you can also download right now to help you decorate! 
• Create your own monsters with the kids using empty tissue boxes. Flip them upside down and paint the outside to make fun little creatures. Try painting one green for Frankenstein, an orange one with a pumpkin face, and a white one with a skeleton smile.  
• Click here for more clever and fun craft ideas.  
• Make a giant spiderweb on the wall with black string.  
• Take old white candles from your linen closet and give them a spooky twist. Take red crayons and melt them so it looks like blood is dripping down the sides.  

• Take old ping pong balls, paint eyeballs onto them and place them all over the house.  
• Make your own family Frankenstein. Since Frankenstein is a creation assembled from an assortment of humans… do the same. Each person in your family can contribute an article of clothing and stuff it with newspaper. Set all the “body parts” up in a chair and draw a face on a pumpkin to be the head. You will have a silly family Frankenstein. Don’t forget to give it a name! 
• Hang spider webs all around your home. Cut out little spiders to hang in the webs and glue pictures of your family’s faces on them for some added fun.  
• Create your own bats! Cut old coffee filters in half and paint them black. Glue a small black circle on the straight side in the middle and glue eyes onto the head.  

No Tricks, Just Treats

Just because you may not go trick–or–treating doesn’t mean you cannot have something good to eat. Here are some easy to make Halloween treats you can enjoy with the whole family. 

• Wrap up some deliciousness with this mummy dogs recipe. 
• If you want to make a spooky treat try these peanut butter spider cookies. We give them 8 thumbs up.   
• Dip strawberries into white chocolate and let it cool. Then use milk chocolate or icing to pipe little ghost faces onto the white chocolate. 
• On the hunt for something healthy this Halloween? Check out these scary cute treats.  
• Here are several Halloween recipes that are frighteningly delicious.  
• Try these scary good Chomping Halloween Oreo Monsters! 

Scary Fun Activities

• Schedule a zoom so you and your loved ones can carve pumpkins together. Maybe make it a contest and let your friends vote for the winner on social media. 
• If trick-or-treating is off the table instead of just giving your kids candy, try to make it fun with a candy scavenger hunt! Hide candy all over your home and give them little cards with clues written on them. Here are some to help you get started:  
  • We usually come in a pair, we go with sneakers that you wear, so come and find us if you dare (Hide candy bars in their sock drawer) 
  • I am somewhere you go to get clean, where rubber duckies can be seen (Hide candy in the bathtub) 
  • When it’s dark I make it bright, I can help you see when it’s night (Tape candy to a lamp) 
  • I am where cold things get hot, come discover what sweet treats we got (Place some candy in the microwave) 
  • I am hiding somewhere that you eat, I’m also surrounded by many seats (Tape candy under the kitchen table) 
  • Find me where you dream at night, and the bed bugs never bite (Hide candy in their bed)  
  • You can find me underneath where you like to brush your teeth (Put candy under the sink the bathroom)

• Have the kids strut their stuff on a Halloween runway! Lay out towels or sheets and make a “red carpet” for the kiddos to rock their costumes. Don’t forget to film it and send it to your family.  
• Costumes are meant to be seen so schedule a zoom costume party and let everyone take turns showing off their costumes.  
• If you are not comfortable leaving home, talk to your neighbors about setting up a safe trick-or-treating situation or neighborhood block party. Everyone can set up a table outside their doors in the fresh air and have candy laid out on the table so kids can touch only the candy they are taking. People can make little individual candy grab bags as well. That way you can avoid ringing doorbells and reaching hands into candy bowls but still trick-or-treat. 
• Tape a bunch of small orange balloons onto a wood sheet outside in the shape of a pumpkin and play darts.  
• It will be hard to keep your laughing under wraps as you make your family members into mummies. All you need… toilet paper.  

 Hauntingly Great Costumes 

Here is a list of costumes that work great with a face mask underneath. By wearing masks under their costumes or helmets, children might feel that Halloween is still “normal” while also staying safe. 

• Power Rangers  
• Astronaut  
• Super Heroes: Spiderman, Black Panther, Iron Man, Hulk  
• Transformers 
• Robot 
• Ninja 
• Mortal Kombat characters: Subzero, Scorpion, Kitana, Milenna, Jade, Ermac, Rain 
• Buzz Lightyear 
• Star Wars: Chewbacca, Darth Vader 
• Pumpkin Queen/King 
• Knight – with helmet 
• A Lego character   
• Pokémon 
• Gladiator with helmet 
• Sonic the Hedgehog 
• Minecraft character 
• Bubble Boy  
• Gorilla 
• Alien 
• Mummy 

DIY Costumes and Mask Ideas

For those of you who don’t want to wear a helmet or full-face mask another option would be to decorate your own and incorporate it into your costume. Below are some ideas you can create or spend some time making with your family. 

• Make a mermaid mask! Glue little confetti circles on a mask slightly overlapping to make them look scales. 
• Paint any mask to look like an animal’s mouth. Paint a dog’s mouth, a cat nose and whiskers, or cute bunny teeth.  
• Paint the mouth like a Dia de los Muertos skull mouth and then just paint the rest of your face as you normally would.  
• Here are some ideas for no sew halloween costumes.   
• All fairy’s need fairy dust… so why not cover the outside of your mask with glitter? Make sure you use a non-toxic glue and that it’s completely dry before wearing it.  
• Create a robot with an old box, flip it upside down, cut the flaps off and then glue two straws on the top as antennas. Cut out a rectangular window for eyes in the front. For the body do the same thing with a larger box and cut out two holes for the arms on either side. Paint the boxes silver or cover them in aluminum foil. For buttons and added details you can paint different colored bottle caps and glue them on the front. You can cut out gears and other things using construction paper. 
• Here is a great DIY Lego Costume  
• Make an Astronaut Space Helmet and blast off! 

Pet Costume Ideas

We all knows pets are part of the family. Do a photoshoot of your four-legged friends in their costumes so you can share them and put a smile on other people’s faces. If you don’t want to buy a costume here are a few DIY pet costume ideas. 

• Business Pup: Take any fun fabric and cut out a cute little tie that you can attach to their collar. Add polka dots or stripes to kick it up a notch.    
• Beanie Baby: Take red construction paper and cut out a heart. Then paint a TY in white on the heart and tie it their collar so they can be the cutest Beanie Baby on the block. 
• Ride Em Cowboy: Repurpose an old harness and glue a small stuffed animal or lightweight toy on the back of it so it looks like it’s riding your dog. If you have an old cowboy toy even better. 
• Martini: Find an old cone and add some olive props.  
• Out of This World Doggo: Have fun crafting with the kids while transforming your dog into an alien. Glue googly eyes onto an old harness or take pipe cleaners and any other materials you have and attach them in fun ways.  
• Pumpkin Poodles: Take orange felt and cut out a piece large enough to wrap around your dog’s waist. Draw a Jack-o-lantern face on the top using a black sharpie or fabric markers. Use green felt and cut out a little leaf and stem to glue or sew onto the top of the pumpkin. To attach it to your dog or cat add strings to either side of the fabric and then you can tie it around their tummy. You can also buy Velcro and adhere that to either side so you can adjust the size as needed.  
• Super Hero: Take fabric or an old t-shirt and cut out a cape for your pet. Add a string so you can tie around their neck or attach it to a collar. As a family come up with their very own superhero name and using fabric markers write it on the top of the cape.  

Spooktacular Halloween Movies

Create a scary movie watching zone to spook up the experience. Hang cobwebs all over your living room and use orange or purple lights to add ambiance. Cut out a few black bats to attach to the wall and create some ghosts out of white sheets or towels.  

Here is a list of family friendly movies (that won’t result in the kiddos crawling into your bed scared): 

• Hocus Pocus  
• Halloweentown 
• The Addams Family  
• Toy Story of Terror 
• Twitches  
• Hotel Transylvania 
• Casper 
• Super Monsters Save Halloween 
• It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown 
• Under Wraps 
• The Haunted Mansion 
• Corpse Bride 
• The Nightmare Before Christmas 
• Double, Double, Toil & Trouble    

Scary movies for adults 

• A Nightmare on Elm Street  
• Halloween (all 900 of them) 
• The Shining  
• Get Out 
• The Exorcist  
• A Tale of Two Sisters 
• The Blair Witch Project 
• The Texas Chain Saw Massacre  
• A Quiet Place    

Ways to Give Back

Although it’s been a tough year there are a variety of ways you can give back to your local community this Halloween.  

• As we all know – kids grow fast. Instead of just putting old Halloween costumes in a box in your closet, donate them to those who might not be able to afford their own. 
• If you have time and enjoy crafting, sew costumes for those who can’t afford to buy them. If you’re not an expert sewer try creating simple pieces such as super hero capes. For some costume ideas that don’t require sewing, visit the DIY costumes section above. 
• Donate your left-over candy. Operation Gratitude is a Halloween Candy Give-Back program where you can donate candy to deployed troops, veterans, and first responders.  
• Offer to help your elderly neighbors decorate offer their front yard. Make sure you’re following the proper safety guidelines while decorating.  
• Some families might want to decorate their yards but not be able to afford it. Try cutting out pumpkins from simple construction paper and attaching a string so they can hang them up outside. You can repurpose old sheets or towels to make spooky ghosts. 

 

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