Spooktacular Fun: Family-Friendly Halloween Activities to Get in the Spooky Spirit
Spooktacular Fun: Family-Friendly Halloween Activities to Get in the Spooky Spirit
It’s Halloween! A day every year when kids and adults alike go to the streets with friends or family to do trick-or-treating. We parade around the neighborhood in costumes we made or bought. It’s so festive and definitely a crowd favorite.
So many countries have come to celebrate Halloween every October 31st. America is among the top 3 countries where Halloween is very popular (the other countries are Canada and the United Kingdom). Lots of people gather in Halloween destinations to fill the spooky day with fun and good memories. While some prefer the comfort of their own home to celebrate the day.
Here we listed a few ideas for fun activities to make sure your family-friendly Halloween-themed party is filled with joy and laughter.
Fun Halloween Activities to Enjoy with Your Family
Outdoor Activities
Trick-or-Treat
Trick-or-treating is the most popular activity on Halloween. You can join the kids and go around the neighborhood to ask for candies while wearing Halloween costumes. Decorate your house and be the cool house on the street everyone visits.
Hanging Treats
Bobbing for apples is a famous Halloween game. For health reasons, many parents no longer encourage their kids to play this game. Try hanging apples with different treats instead! Kids can aim for them with a plastic arrow. You can do scoring by having the treats represent different points. Half an apple for 10 points, a whole one for 30 points, Halloween cookies for 5 points, etc.
Musical Chairs
One fun game to do on Halloween is musical chairs. You get the best photos by grouping players who wear the same costume! In the first round, maybe only insects can join, or only superheroes, or monsters vs monsters, etc.
Play some famous Halloween soundtrack like Monster Mash and let the participants circle the chairs in their costumes. You can also put Halloween decorations at the center of the chairs for more spooky effects.
Pumpkin Ring Toss
Use the pumpkins you already have as decor and play this fun game that can challenge even grown adults. Want to step it up a bit? Make it a team game. Have one pumpkin that will bring a special prize. The player will be blindfolded, and the team will guide them to toss the ring on that pumpkin.
Mummy Race
You’ll need rolls of toilet paper. Lots of them! Wrapping them around the racers to see who's the fastest without the toilet paper falling apart. Perfect for kids of all sizes (and ages). Savor the excitement with lots of cheers as you watch them run with a trail of toilet paper following them. A tumble may happen here and there, but the giggles and smiles stay!
Create a Jack-O-Lantern
Invite friends and loved ones for a Jack-o-Lantern carving. You can choose the best pumpkins to use from your favorite pumpkin patch. It's better done outside for a wider workspace. Provide carving materials, and make sure kids are supervised as they carve their own designs.
Once done, light a candle—use an electric one to be safe—then put it inside the pumpkin to watch the carving come alive. You can display the Jack-o-Lantern where you want them to and watch everyone's creativity light up the beautiful holiday season.
Halloween Picnic
The warm golds and oranges of October make it a perfect time for a picnic. Invite your friends or loved ones for a nice walk in the park to enjoy the nice weather. Bring your favorite food like Halloween cookies or pumpkin pancakes. Go unwind, enjoy their company, and join the Halloween mood by sharing spooky stories.
Scarecrow Building
Gather friends and family outside so they can be divided into teams for a scarecrow-building game. Give out items like old clothes, hay or newspaper, hats, crowns, pumpkins, and wooden stakes. You can paint pumpkins for heads, an old dress for clothes, and a crown to match the vibe. Who says scarecrows can’t be cute?
Visit a Pumpkin Patch
If you're in the mood to celebrate this Halloween somewhere far from home, enjoy a scenic drive and visit a pumpkin patch. Some pumpkin patches offer activities like choosing a pumpkin to decorate or playing in a corn maze. Others also have haunted houses for people to visit. Nash Ranch is an example.
Pet Dressing Competition
Host or join a pet costume competition! You can even match or compliment each other. Your pets want to join the Halloween fun too. Just make sure their outfits are comfortable and weather-appropriate.
Halloween Adventure
Invite friends or family to go adventuring this spooky season, the safe way, of course. Create a Halloween bucket list for a day. Fill it with things like visiting a haunted corn maze, a haunted theme park, or an escape room. You can exchange spooky stories on the way to make each moment memorable.
House Decorating Contest
Get the whole family and the neighbors in a house decorating contest. Pick a theme everyone should follow. Imagine your street all united in a theme. Decorate your house following the theme, and make it more spooky with a haunted trail. Then have the kids who knock on your door for candies rate your design from 1-10.
Fun at Home
Spiderweb Toss Game
For this game, paint cotton puffs black to look like spiders. Then you'll make a web using a hula-hoop and masking tape. To play the game, kids will line up before the spiderweb and throw the cotton puffs to stick on the web. The one to land the cotton puffs closest to the center wins.
Pumpkin Painting
When kids are too young for carving knives, painting is the way to go. Take out all your painting materials, glitters, glue, stickers even! Then gather your friends and family in the living room to paint pumpkins! Exchange scary stories as you have fun spending time with your favorite people. Once done, the pumpkins can be taken home as decorations.
Indoor Scavenger Hunt
Why not make a competition for a scavenger hunt? Like your own version of an escape room.
The first level can start in the basement (if you have one) or the kitchen, then the next level in the living room, and finally in the yard. Your house is the haunted house that they need to escape from. Room to room. Make things more challenging by having items smaller the higher the level of difficulty.
Make Your Own Baked Potatoes
Level up the Halloween fun with this activity. Have you heard of the Milwaukee home that went viral after giving out potatoes for Halloween? The kids loved it! Tweak it up a bit for your Halloween party.
Bake some large potatoes and provide different ingredients for the kids to use. Cheese, salt, ground pepper, butter, bacon, and corn are common partners, but you can add more if you want. Once the potatoes are ready, cut them in half, and serve them to the kids so they can create their version of the meal.
Halloween Potluck
Invite friends and family for a potluck for your next Halloween party. For your share, you can make caramel apples, pumpkin soup, pumpkin pancakes, or pumpkin bread. You can share scary stories or make fun of a scary book as you spend time with each other.
Halloween Cookie Making
Gather around the kitchen for some Halloween cookie-making. Let the kiddies join as you mix the cookie dough, with some tasting here and there. Encourage them to design their cookies with some M&Ms and sprinkles. Or you can assist them in cutting cookie shapes like pumpkins and ghouls!
You can also watch some kid-friendly Halloween movies as you wait for it to bake. And once done, munch on it as you continue with the movie. You can also give it to the kids who knock on your door for trick-or-treating.
Halloween Party
Make the most of the Halloween season and host a party! Invite friends to wear their favorite Halloween costumes. Make caramel apples. Dance the thriller dance. Aim for a haunted house look using Halloween decorations. Create Halloween treats to enjoy. And play fun and creative games.
Costume Contest
Invite your family and friends for a Halloween costume contest. But with a catch. Everyone should make their own Halloween costume. Who knows? You may win, and you can cross that off your Halloween bucket list.
Movie Marathon
For the homebodies out there thinking of ideas to celebrate Halloween, why not do a movie marathon? Play some classic Halloween movies like Rocky Horror Picture, Beetlejuice, Casper, and Ghostbusters. Prepare your favorite Halloween cookies, pumpkin seeds, and some candies on a Halloween bucket to snack on as you enjoy the horror movie on the TV.
DIY Halloween Gift Basket
Want to give something personalized to your friends or friends’ kids celebrating at home this Halloween? You can make a DIY gift basket filled with Halloween-themed items. It can have candy corn, a Dracula teeth toy, a printed Halloween bucket list, pumpkin-shaped cookies, or chocolate bars. Spread the fun spookiness and deliver it in a gift box!
Halloween Fun with Shadow Breeze Build a Gift Box
Want to go big or perhaps you’re too busy with all the Halloween preparations? Let us give you a hand by taking care of the Halloween gifting for you. Here at Shadow Breeze, we assist clients in creating their version of a gift box.
You can choose your own Halloween items, and we’ll personalize and deliver them for you! Every box is customized to your recipient’s preferred style, theme, and items.
With our build-a-box platform. Only three easy steps are needed to build your custom box. First, you choose the packaging, then the gifts that you want, and lastly you pick a card to put your message in. Easy peasy.
If you have other personalization requests, don't hesitate to contact us. We are more than happy to assist you.
Browse our gifts to give you a few ideas on what to curate for your DIY Halloween gift box.
Preparing for an upcoming occasion? Read our recent gifting blogs for more gift ideas.
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