Ghosts, goblins, and …. a world pandemic?
While Halloween may look different this year, there are many ways that families can keep the spooky spirit and fun alive.
Here are some of our favorite ideas that make costumes, tricking, and treating safe and memorable this Halloween:
Host a virtual costume party.
Grab your costumes, wigs, and festive makeup, and invite your friends and family for a virtual Halloween party. For the adults, have contests for the best costume, and for the kids, offer sing-alongs, dance parties, tell silly jokes, or tell a hair-raising(-ish) Halloween story.
Socially distance outside to carve or decorate pumpkins.
Pumpkin decorating is a time-honored fall tradition. Set stations for each child to paint, use markers or carve pumpkins while socially distancing with friends and family. Tip: Use acrylic paint so that the design doesn’t wash away, especially if you plan on keeping your pumpkins outside.
Make your own Halloween treats.
Put on your chef hats and create your own Halloween treats with your kids. Try Halloween-themed cookies or cupcakes, melting chocolate into pumpkin or ghost molds, or make smores. Another fun idea is to decorate a pizza with toppings in the shape of a jack-o’-lantern.
Have a Halloween scavenger hunt.
Plan a fun trick-or-treat scavenger hunt indoors, outdoors, or a combination of both. Hide treats, trinkets, and healthy bites around your home. Set up stations where kids can do their “tricks” and tell funny jokes or do a silly task like spinning in a circle while patting their heads. Make it a 1-2-3 go theme or write/draw out clues. Another great idea is to use glow-in-the-dark eggs or bags filled with glow sticks for another fun scavenger hunt in or outside your home.
Organize a trunk or treat with close family and friends.
While door to door may not be a favored option this year, gather a small group of family and friends for a trunk or treat. Choose packaged treats or small non-food items like playdoh, sensory balls, or Halloween pencils.
Get unique in delivering goods.
Another option this year is to deliver Halloween treats via a candy chute or a Boo and Dash. The candy chute is a long pipe or tube that is at least 6 feet long and decorated which can act as a conduit for getting goodies. Other treat-givers may choose to leave pre-packaged or non-food items at neighbors’ doorsteps or may choose to leave goodies bags in a bowl on their own front stoop for an easy grabbing and zero contact experience.
Make your own haunted house.
Have some unique fun with your kids this year and create a haunted house in your garage using sheets, a fog machine, a blacklight, fake spiders and webs, haunting audio, and whatever else helps set the mood. Place mystery buckets of peeled grapes, cold noodles, and Jello so your kids can dig around for treasures while thinking they are touching eyeballs, worms, and brains.
Create your own Halloween Pinata.
Fill a pinata with individually wrapped candy and treats and hang it outside. Invite your children to dress in their favorite Halloween costumes and take turns hitting the pinata until their treats fall out.
The traditional route of door to door trick-or-treating is still possible following CDC guidelines or specified guidelines in your area. The No Tricks Just Treats Project is aiming to make Halloween safer with its free map at halloween-map.com. This allows people to tag their house with icons denoting a contact-free experience, mask-greeters, allergy-friendly stops, normal doorbell service, and extra creative ways to give goodies while social distancing. Anyone can sign up to further flesh out the map.
While Halloween 2020 may be unique to past years, there’s no need to get spooked. Choose a family-fun activity and celebrate what really matters: togetherness!
