Anyone who knows me knows that I am the biggest scaredy cat when it comes to Halloween-esque things. I literally run and jump into bed at night because the fear of the Ring girl reaching out and grabbing my ankles is too much for me. I have walked out of numerous scary movies. I sleep with a salt lamp and my Pura device on, which are really just adult night lights. Unfortunately, my fearful ways were handed down to my daughter. She can’t even handle Scooby-Doo and, I mean, even I liked Scooby-Doo! As you can imagine, Halloween is a tricky holiday for us to celebrate. We have found some fun and not-so-spooky ways to celebrate the season that may come in handy for your little ones as well.
Kids Halloween Playlists
Personally I love the Apple Music Kids Halloween playlist the most. It is long, has variety, and includes just about every popular and obscure song you can imagine like: “Spooky, Spooky, Spooky” by Casper Baby Pants. We switched over to Spotify and their playlists are shorter, but you can create your own and mash them together. We listen for hours, and it’s fun to switch up the usual "Thunderstruck" on replay. (My little girl is obsessed with that song because of Planes: Fire and Rescue.)
Library Halloween Activities
Okay, who knew the library had so many fun activities?! I mean, I love the library and knew that there were story times, but there is so much more! Our library has take-home crafts every Monday with suggested books to go along with them. This month they have all been fall and Halloween themed. They also had a dress-up scavenger hunt (with candy), Zombie makeup workshop, pumpkin decorating contest, and Halloween sing-a-long. And not to mention, the library has a zillion nervous-kid-friendly Halloween books to take home.
Decorating Halloween Cookies/Gingerbread Houses
I love that decorating gingerbread houses has become an activity for more than just Christmas. This is really more like decorating haunted houses, but of course I can’t call them that around my daughter.
Disney Jr. Halloween Episodes
One of my favorite things that Disney+ does for the holidays is create a playlist of all the Halloween episodes of their TV shows. This is especially perfect for my little girl who can’t handle a feature length Halloween-themed film. Pete from Mickey Mouse Clubhouse makes her a little nervous just in general, so the Halloween Mickey Mouse Clubhouses are a little hard, but she loves most of the rest.
Painting “Nice” Pumpkins
My daughter likes to emphasize that everything Halloween is nice. Those are nice ghosts. Nice monsters. Nice skeletons. So instead of carving ghoulish, scary jack-o-lanterns, we painted sparkly, happy, nice pumpkins. Something my nail girl told me to do, which I thought was brilliant, was to paint the pumpkins with washable paint and then they can give them a bath and repaint them every day! Fun that last all season long!
“Nice” Monster Mac and Cheese!
I saw this on Pinterest and it was a simple hit. Just make mac and cheese a different color and add in those eyeball sprinkles the grocery store has around this time of year. It’s really cute and really yummy.
Pumpkin Patch
Pumpkin patches are fun… if they aren’t crazy busy. There is a little farm by my house that has always been our go-to. This year it has turned into an Instagram phenomenon and is nearly impossible to park to go look at the pumpkins. We drive past it almost daily, so as soon as we saw pumpkins in their fields, we bought them then and there at 9 in the morning. Thank goodness, or else I don’t think I would have had it in me to fight the crowds. So, I suggest going as soon in the day and season as possible.
Halloween Pajamas
I love festive pajamas, and now that I have two little girls, I am obsessed with matching them. So my little girls have matching Halloween pajamas. We’ve watched Monster’s Inc. (skipping all the Randall scenes) wearing them and even had a slumber party complete with face masks and painted nails.
Halloween can be fun even if you aren't into all of the spooky stuff like our family. Hopefully these ideas can help if you also have little ones that worry that even their dance class Halloween party will be "too scary."
If you are wanting to start new traditions for any holiday or need some help to think of fun things to do, check out more of our blog posts!
