Halloween is one of my favourite celebrations of the year, happy memories of parties and fun with family and friends come flooding back as I look forward to making new ones. But 2020 has been a difficult year and we face ever more restrictions on what we are allowed to do, so what would a safe, socially distanced Halloween look like?
I know not everyone is a fan, but personally I love seeing children dressed up trick or treating, but is this even possible this year? Close contact with lots of people is certainly to be avoided. I did think about leaving a bucket of treats at the end of our drive for anyone who does venture out, but find myself questioning if this is wise. I know we wont be going out and the Halloween and fireworks party we usually attend wont be happening.
This doesn’t mean we wont be celebrating though. This year, more than ever I think we need things to look forward to and reasons to celebrate and stay connected. We will just do it in a twenty twenty way.
I’d like to share some of my ideas with you!
1. Movie Night
There are so many spooky films to watch, Halloween is a great excuse to have a movie marathon. Here are some of my favourites to watch with children:
For Very Young Children (6 and under, rated U)
Room on the Broom
Pooh’sHeffalump Halloween Movie
Toy Story of Terror
For Junior Children (7+, rated U and PG)
Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Wererabbit
ET
Hotel Transylvania
Casper
The Addams Family (2019)
For Older Juniors and Above (9+, rated PG)
Frankenweenie
The Witches
Ghostbusters (1984)
Goosebumps
Hocus Pocus
You could make your movie night that bit more special by wearing your Halloween costumes and having Halloween themed snacks.
2. Halloween Snacks
What better way to celebrate Halloween than to create some spooky snacks. You could make spider or ghost biscuits, eyeball pizzas or spooky hot dogs. There are some amazing ideas out there for snacks and food to bake and create and most of the supermarkets share ideas for a Halloween feast through their websites or magazines. It can be great fun to get the whole family involved in the making, baking and cooking.
3. Turn Your House (or a room) into a Haunted House
For many of us it might be difficult to get out and about this year so why not bring the magic in and create a haunted room in your own home!
You could set up the entrance with crepe paper of tissue paper strips to walk through, then decorate the room with cobwebs, banners, pumpkins, a witches cauldron full of ‘magic potion’ to try and Halloween games.
You could even create a Halloween scavenger hunt for your children in the decorated room like the one below.
4. Play Halloween Party Games
Many of us wont be able to get together with family and friends at parties this year but that doesn’t mean we can’t play some party games as a family or bubble!
Wrap a Mummy
You really need at least four of your to play this game in two teams so it ideal for a family of four (unless you use teddies rather than people to be wrapped!) All you need is a timer and some toilet roll. Split into teams and decide who will be the wrapper and who will be the mummy. Set a timer for two minutes and see who can wrap and create the best mummy in the time.
Pin the Spider on the Web
This is a Halloween version of pin the tail on the donkey. All you need is a spider’s web poster, some different spiders, a blindfold and some blu tack.
You can download a spider’s web and spider’s here:
Each player takes turns to wear the blindfold, be spun round and then tries to place the spider as close to the centre of the web as possible.
Roll a Pumpkin
Based on the beetle drive game. All you need for this activity is a pumpkin and pumpkin parts picture, dice score sheet and dice. Each player takes turns to roll the dice and selects the item they have rolled. The first to build a complete Halloween pumpkin is the winner.
Download a pumpkin template to cut out and a dice score sheet here:
Ghostbusting Game
For this game you will need; 6 (or you could even use 10) toilet rolls, black paper, glue or blu tack and a bean bag.
Turn the 6 toilet rolls into ghosts by cutting out and sticking on eyes and a mouth. Then stack them into a pyramid shape. Players take turns to throw the bean bag to bust (or knock down) as many ghosts as possible. The winner is the person who knocks over the most ghosts.
5. Halloween Dance off
Create a spooky playlist (or find a suitable, age appropriate Halloween playlist). You could include songs like Witch Doctor, the Time Warp, the Monster Mash, ET, Thriller or Ghostbusters. Have everyone pick the name of a Halloween character from a hat i.e. a mummy, vampire, werewolf, witch, zombie, or ghost. Then each person dances in the style of their character. Award sweets for the best (or most outrageous!) dance moves.
While things may be very different this year I hope this post has helped you with some new and safe ways to celebrate. Have fun, keep connected and stay safe.