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Halloween

Fun Anti-Halloween Ideas for the Kids

Halloween is a fun time for many kids, but not every child is able to enjoy it in the traditional sense. Whether it’s religious beliefs that cause you to to be anti-Halloween and stray away from the occasion, or the scary image it represents, or maybe that you feel your kids are too young to go trick-or-treating. Either way, you don’t have to celebrate Halloween to have a good time with your kids!

The primary complaint about Halloween might be “but everyone else is doing it!” Show them that is not true by doing other fun things with them that many others kids are doing, too.

This doesn’t mean just sitting home while many other kids go out to get candy. There’s actually quite a few anti-halloween ideas for kids that will enable them to still enjoy themselves and not feel left out! It’s up to you to form new annual Halloween traditions to enjoy with your family outside of the usual dressing up and trick-or-treating.

How to Celebrate Without Celebrating

Here’s some anti-Halloween ideas for kids to enjoy:

Fall Festival: Enjoy a day or night of corn mazes, hay rides, campfires, and many festivities related to fall. Many festivals have petting zoos and huge pumpkin patches that you won’t want to miss!

Monsters Inc Movie/Game Night: You don’t need Halloween to enjoy Monsters Inc! Make it a movie theme night by watching the movie, of course, dressing up like your favorite characters, and playing themed games! Play 2319: You must clear the room of the socks all over the place without touching them with your hands, which means you can use kitchen utensils. They must be placed in a bin outside of the room ASAP!

Apple Picking: Spend the day at an apple orchard picking baskets of apples, then enjoy some homemade apple pie and cider!

Caramel Apples: Now that you’ve come home with a bunch of apples, why not make some scrumptious caramel apples! The perfect treat to celebrate fall, caramel apples are delicious and you can add nuts or anything you like! Chocolate chip bits and mini M&Ms are good examples!

Trunk-or-Treat: Many churches offer alternative Halloween ideas for kids, including trunk-or-treat which is where you trick-or-treat on church grounds from the trunks of cars. This is often followed by a church service and a festival put on by the good people of the church looking for alternative ideas just like you!

Church Lock-in: Your church might host a lock-in for the kids in the congregation on Halloween,

Hand out Candy with a Message: Spread the word of God while promoting the safety of trick-or-treaters on the streets. Hand out candy attached with messages like “Here I am! I stand at the door and knock…” Revelations 3:20, along with glow sticks bracelets or necklaces to trick-or-treaters and church pamphlets to parents or older kids.

Camping: If you don’t want to be bugged with people ringing your doorbell, get away for the day and night and go camping with the kids! Make s’mores, tell scary stories, and sing songs around the campfire!

Indoor Camping: If you don’t want to participate in festivities like trick-or-treating or handing out candy, it’s a good idea to keep your front lights off for the night to let others know not to stop at your door. Some people take it a step further by keeping the lights off throughout the entire house. Why not make your black-out more fun by setting up a tent or making a fort right there in the living room! Don’t forget the s’mores and hot chocolate!

Sleepover: Do your kids have friends who will also be skipping typical Halloween traditions? Why not invite them over for some a good ‘ol fashioned sleepover! Movies, games, and of course, lots of candy, will keep the kids entertained all night long!

Family Field Day: Planning a family field day is a great way to enjoy some time together in the great outdoors. Take your brood out back for some hula-hooping contests, three-legged races, and relay races.

Pumpkin Bake off: Spend the day baking treats! From pumpkin pies to cookies from scratch, you should have a lot of delicious goodies to eat while enjoying Monsters Inc later! Use this also to make gift baskets for any birthdays that may be coming up, or for your neighbors for no reason at all!

Pumpkin Seeds: Making a pumpkin pie? Well, don’t forget to bake the seeds! Pumpkin seeds are a healthy, tasty fall treat!

For anti-Halloween ideas for kids, you should be focused on finding ways to celebrate Autumn rather than finding ways to be anti-Halloween. It’s more positive to look at it this way and you are bound to come up with more fun ideas! Happy fall!

10 Sweet Alternatives to Trick-or-Treating

It’s October, and do you know what that means? Halloween! With Halloween just around the corner, do you have your plans set?

The typical Halloween festivities consist of dressing up, going trick-or-treating, and going to a spooky halloween party, but these things are not always feasible for everyone. Some people wind up sick in the beginning of flu season, while others may have medical disabilities or be at an age that prevent them from hitting the streets. Some may have no streets at all, living in a rural area!

Whatever the case, if you cannot participate in the Halloween activities, you are probably looking for a few trick-or-treating alternatives that you can do from the comfort of your own home. Here’s a few trick-or-treating alternatives that will make you cackle at those who are missing out and happy you stayed home!

Fun Halloween Ideas for the Kids

Host a Candy Party: If you can’t make it to a party, bring the party to your house instead! Costumes are a must, of course, and if you really want candy, you won’t have to beg for it! Make sure to fill a giant punch bowl with candy so the kids can claim as much as they want! It is Halloween after all!

Hand Out Candy: Don’t feel like having a party? You can still dress up and hand out candy! You can’t have Halloween without people handing out candy!

Decorate Your Haunted House: One thing you can do is really decorate the house! Make it good with cobwebs, spiders, and ghosts galore! Transform your house into a haunted house for people to walk through in order to get their treats!

Make DIY Decorations: If you’re going to decorate, why not make a huge activity first of making some cool decorations? These mason jar luminaries or glowing eyes are easy to make!

Carve Silly Pumpkins: Not a fan of scary? Buy a few pumpkins and carve silly faces instead of scary faces. People love to stop and marvel at good carvings, and they don’t have to be scary to get attention!

Head to the Mall to Trick-or-Treat: Don’t want to go door to door? Try store-to-store! Most malls host some form of trick-or-treating Halloween evening. Dress up and take your crew to the mall and visit participating stores for some safe and fun trick-or-treating!

Have an Eerie Egg Hunt: Have a few mini monsters in the house? Then you probably want to shy away from the scarier stuff and do a candy hunt inside your house instead! Hide a bunch of candy all throughout your house and give each kiddo their treat bag and let them have at it!

Bake Ooey Gooey cupcakes: You have to satisfy that sweet tooth somehow, right? Bake some cupcakes and fill them with something gooey-delicious. I vote chocolate filling!

Have a Halloween Movie Marathon: Sit down for a night of watching a few children’s Halloween favorites: Hocus Pocus, Halloweentown, Ernest Scared Stupid, The Addams Family, Casper, The Nightmare Before Christmas, and so many more! Don’t forget the movie candy!

Opt for a Halloween Pinata: If you cannot find an actual Halloween-themed pinata, them make one out of paper mache to fill with candy! Kids have to work for candy by going door-to-door, so why not make them work for it at home? It’s fun!

You don’t have to go trick-or-treating to have fun on Halloween, and with these trick-or-treating alternatives, the kids will still have a Halloween to remember!

15 Best Family Halloween Costume Ideas

Halloween parties are the best, especially ones for families! Why? Because there is this awesome opportunity to have family costumes themed to your favorite movies or characters! It’s one thing to dress up on your own and go to a party, but if you show up with a group dressed with a common theme, it’s safe to say that you will own that Halloween party!

The possibilities for family Halloween costume ideas are nearly limitless, and if you are in the market for some awesome family Halloween costume ideas, this is a good place to start! Here goes:

Costume Ideas For The Family

Marvel Avenger: Everyone can dress as their favorite Marvel super hero! Seriously, how awesome would that be?!

Mario: Everyone knows the classic Mario characters, stick with these: Mario, Luigi, Princess Peach, Princess Daisy, Yoshi, Bowser, Toad, and Koopa Troopa.

PacMan: Have a PacMan and Mrs. PacMan, and let’s not forget a bunch of ghosts, too! Waka waka waka!

Zombies: Dress as your favorite characters from the hit series The Walking Dead or just go as a bunch of blood-thirsty zombies for no reason at all! Cheap, very easy costumes to pull off.

Wizard of Oz: “Follow the yellow brick road” to this party dressed as Dorothy, Toto,Tin Man, Cowardly Lion, Scarecrow, or even one of the witches! Have little children? They would make the perfect Lollipop guild!

The Addams Family: Walk into the party dressed as Gomez, Morticia, Pugsley, Wednesday, Pubert, Cousin Itt, and Uncle Fester and everyone’s heads will be turning to look!

Flintstones: The kids can be BamBam and Pebbles while the adults dress as Fred, Barney, Betty, Wilma, or even Dino!

Alice in Wonderland: Alice, the white rabbit, Cheshire Cat, Mad Hatter, Tweedle Dee, Tweedle Dum, Queen of Hearts, and a deck of cards are all the stars of this movie and all make terrific Halloween costumes!

The Nightmare Before Christmas: Whether you use a couple’s costume for Jack and Sally, or have kids to incorporate to be Zero, Lock, Shock, and Barrel, these are great Halloween costumes, indeed!

The Simpsons: Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa, Maggie, and Santa’s Little Helper (if you have a dog). Prepare for some epic photos!

Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory: Whether you are going as one of the children or Willy Wonka himself, everyone will understand this family themed costume idea!

Toy Story: So many toys and so little time, and maybe not enough people but hey, if you stick to the basics, everyone will know who you are!

Monsters Inc.: This is a cute idea, especially with the Sully, Mike Wazowski, and Boo trio!

Cat in the Hat: Be the cat himself, Thing 1, Thing 2, or anything out of one of the Dr. Suess books. Everyone will love it!

Pirates: Pirates of the Caribbean is fun, but so is just dressing as a bunch of freebooters! Yo-ho-ho! Learn the terminology before doing this one.

With all of these great family Halloween costume ideas, it’s so hard to choose which one to use, but take a good look at the gender, shape, and sizes of your family members and it should spark an idea or two!

Spooky Family Halloween Party Ideas

Halloween is not only about trick or treating door-to-door; it’s a time to throw some of the best parties and family reunions imaginable!

If having a spooktacular party on Halloween makes your skin crawl, that’s the excitement talking!

Invitations

Unless this is a party just for children, do not settle for the cheesy invitations in stores that are covered with cute and cuddly creatures; shop online for the invitation that will have the family RSVPing faster than you can say Frankenstein!

There’s many websites out there, but my favorite to shop from is Etsy because you are typically supporting small businesses and entrepreneurs. These Halloween invitations on Etsy are the perfect mix of spooky and “you better be there or else…” The best part is that these and many others come in the form of a digital file, so you essentially pay one set price and can print as many as you want or need.

Decorations

As far as decorations go, this might be one of the most important types of parties to decorate for because the atmosphere can make or break any Halloween party! You want to really do it up, and it doesn’t have to hit the pocket too hard, either! Try these family Halloween party ideas to get the right effects:

  • Fog Machine: Fog machines are relatively inexpensive, but you get what you pay for. Your best bet is to rent one from an equipment rental place for cheap, or borrow one from a friend who might have one!
  • Dead man hanging: If you  have access to a dummy or know how to make a durable dude using a mask and clothes, hang a guy from a noose in the corner. If you don’t have a way to accomplish this, hit Dollar Tree and pick up one of those hands attached to a sleeve and hang it out of the bathtub, spattering fake blood all over to make it look like a crime scene.
  • Zombie dolls: Big “my size” dolls are the best, but any dolls will do because dolls are just kinda creepy anyway, right? Well, for this project you will paint them to look like they are dead, or even zombies, dirty up their clothes, black out or white out their eyes, mess up their hair, make them look like they’ve gone through a really tough time. It’s up to you to decide where they will go.

Food

If you are looking for a few ghoulish goodies for your party, don’t lose focus of the notion that good food is important for every party. Here’s a few family Halloween party ideas that might as well walk off the plate:

  • Real finger food: Check out this pin on Pinterest, how clever to make hot dogs look just like fingers! I do believe they would be better suited in a bun at full length, but don’t forget to make them look like fingers!
  • Plate of worms: Not real worms, but jello worms! Follow this easy tutorial to make jello worms using bendy straws. Spike the jello with liquor to make it a fun adult snack, and don’t forget to place them on a plate full of crumbled oreo for dirt!
  • Hand in punch bowl: You must have some kind of punch for your party, so whatever you choose, don’t forget the hand! Fill a latex glove with water, not too full, just so the glove is filled without getting stretched. Tie it off and freeze it. Once frozen, remove the hand from the glove and plop it into the punch right before the party, it looks awesome throughout the night as it begins to melt!

Games

Adult Halloween parties don’t typically contain many games, but we’re talking about family parties, and games can make for a scary good time! Try these fun family Halloween party ideas!

  • Costume contest: You’re bound to see a bunch of good costumes, so be sure to have a costume contest! Make this announcement on the invitation so everyone wears their Halloween best!
  • Glow games: Kids love stuff that glows, so planning some fun and easy games and crafts using glow sticks, glow paints, and any other glow-in-the dark details!
  • Under wraps: Have a mummy-wrapping contest! You can use rolls of fabric, or toilet paper if you are on a tighter budget.

Favors

Usually party favors for a good Halloween party or reunion is a bunch of candy! It is Halloween, after all! Rather than using goodie bags, put the candy in something everyone can get some use out of such as mason jars. For the kids, give them something that will increase their visibility while trick-or-treating, such as finger lights or glow sticks!