How to Plan Halloween Fun – Beyond Trick or Treating

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Back then…

When I was little my mother was a master at Halloween costumes. She this was before the days of Spirit Halloween stores.

One year, I was a table set like a fancy dinner and I had an apple in my mouth, like a roast pig. Other years my sisters and their friends dressed up like characters from the Wizard of Oz. Another year my mom dressed me up as a house on fire and my sister it was the firemen pointing a hose at the house. Mom was so creative!

I do not have those creative tendencies, though my son does! And his most creative here he dressed up as music. He decorated a box and each of the four sides had different characteristics of music and musical genres. He had great fun with it! His grandmother was very proud. 😀

Trick-or-Treating Safety

I realize not everyone celebrates Halloween with trick-or-treating, but lots of families do. I trust that by now you know all of the safety tips:

• Send your children out in groups,
• Have an adult present, especially with younger kids
• Be sure to check all the candies and goodies that come back home.
• Watch the clock – older teens and young adults tend to go out later. If your youngster will get scared or you don’t want them around potentially rowdy older kids, then make it an early night.

More Fun Than Just Trick-or-Treating

There are also lots of other fun ideas for the Halloween weekend.

Trick-or-treating is not the only way to have fun! There are plenty of Halloween movies this time of year ranging from silly to downright bone chilling! If you’ve been with Write.SpeakRelate for any length of time, you know I love to bake! Here are a few of my Halloween goodies over the last few years (apparently I like spider treats!)

Here’s the recipe for the deviled eggs, here’s the one for the cookies, and here’s the cake. Both are super easy to make! You can find more tried-and-true recipes here.

Here are all kinds of baking essentials – I think I want them all!

And more!

There are also there are lots of Halloween pet parades if you want to take your dogs or cats for a walk in a Halloween-themed parade.

Some people just like decorating their house and showing off their decorating skills for the neighborhood.

If you are service-minded, take some goodies to neighbors! Volunteer to take some kids in the neighborhood to a town festival or trick-or-treating.

If you like entertaining, consider hosting a Halloween potluck this weekend. Clean the bathroom and open the house up! If you live in a more temperate climate like I do, it’s still gorgeous outside for a Halloween-themed party. This can easily be done with very little cost and time involved. Get the whole neighborhood to your house and celebrate the joys of community.

If your kids are older, this is a great night for a DATE! Restaurants won’t be busy because families are busy with trick-or-treating, so you likely won’t have a wait. Halloween can be a great time to reconnect while the kids are doing their own thing.

Reframing Halloween

I realize that Halloween can be a controversial time for Christians. Our family chooses to see this as an opportunity to build memories. For us, this isn’t about ghosts and ghouls and the afterlife. This is all about being silly, and seizing an opportunity to dress up as something different than ourselves while we enjoy good food and community.

If you do something fun, take some pictures and tag me on Instagram – @WriteSpeakRelate – I can’t wait to see what you did!

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From my not-so-scary home to yours ~

🎃 Andrea