“Hubble, bubble, toil and trouble, fire burn and cauldron bubble!” It’s nearly Halloween! While the children will most likely just want to head straight for the day itself with all the fun of trick-or-treating, there are so many fun seasonal Halloween activities for kids to enjoy in the weeks leading up to October 31st. We’ve picked 50 for you to choose from, guaranteed to keep your little monsters happy!
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We’ve compiled a free checklist for these Halloween activities so you can work your way through them and keep track of all your favourite family fun!
You can download the Halloween activities checklist here – don’t forget to make note of your favourites!
Carve or Decorate a Pumpkin
One of the most popular and absolute classic Halloween activities for kids is to decorate or carve a pumpkin! From scary faces to elaborate designs, your own creativity is all that’s needed!
But, not everyone enjoys carving their pumpkin – or the mess that comes with it. If you’re looking for genius no carve pumpkin ideas, we’ve got a great mix of fun, spooky and elegant options that will really stand out!
If you do choose to carve your pumpkin:
- Cut a circle out of the top of the pumpkin large enough to fit your hand through.
- Once you have scooped out all the seeds and pulp from the inside, draw your desired face on the outside using a marker. You can make it look as scary as you like.
- Then carve out the features you have drawn.
- Carefully place a tea light (or battery-operated alternative) inside to create an eerie glow.
Pin the Wart on the Witch
Make a large poster-sized drawing of a witch’s head with a green face and a big green, pointy nose.
For older childre, have each child chew a piece of chewing gum. Blindfold the player and spin he/she around. The player must then try to place the wart (gum) on the witch’s nose. For younger children, you could use some sticky tack or even playdough.
Organise Your Halloween Costume
When it comes to homemade Halloween costumes, the possibilities are endless. Whether you’re into spooky sights, playful pumpkins or giggling ghouls there is something for everyone. A time to be creative, recycle, restore and just have a bit of DIY fun.
Here are some of our favourite ideas for homemade Halloween costumes – let your imagination run wild, and let us know what you create!
Make Grave Yard Cupcakes
How about making some spooky Halloween cupcakes?
- Make chocolate cup cakes as you would normally, or use our easy cupcake recipe.
- Ice them using chocolate icing.
- Using a white or red icing pen, write RIP on a piece of cookie to resemble a tombstone, and stand it in the icing on top of the cupcake.
- Place the cupcakes on a large cookie sheet that has been covered with green paper.
- Place paper ghosts and bats randomly through the graveyard.
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Make Pumpkin Scones
Thesepumpkin scones are perfect for baking with the kids and a yummy way to use up the pumpkin flesh, after carving your spooky pumpkin.
Make Glow in the Dark Slime
Slime is not only an ooey-gooey delight to play with, but it’s actually a great science experiment to undertake with kids. If you’re looking to up your slime game and try some scented, coloured and downright weird versions, we’ve got some fun homemade slime recipes to try!
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Play Wrap the Mummy
You will need at least one roll of toilet paper per team (two would be even better)
- Divide the children into teams of 3.
- One child to be the mummy and the others to wrap them up with the toilet roll.
- You could either make it a race to see how fast you use up the roll or judge by how covered up the mummy is.
Bake a Halloween Cake
Halloween is a great time to get creative, and when it comes to baking a Halloween cake you can step out of your comfort zone to try something completely different. The best bit? If you make a mistake, you can just say it was meant to look scary…!
Whether you want to try your hand at a pumpkin, ghost, vampire or candy corn cake, we’ve got lots of easy Halloween cake ideas. All of the cakes are suited to beginner bakers and decorators, or easily adapted to suit.
Tell Some Halloween Jokes
Do you have a joke-loving child? Are you looking for jokes for Halloween that you know are safe and age-appropriate? Or maybe you like to make your son or daughter giggle with a note in their lunch box? You’ll love these hilarious Halloween jokes for kids that you can trust them to tell in public!
Eat Witches Fingers
These gruesome and spooky witches fingers are really to easy to make, and the kids will enjoy rolling out the pastry and making the fingers. Plus, they’re actually very more-ish and tasty!
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Make Spooky Decorations
From wicked witch leg doormats to Day of the Dead pumpkins, these horribly easy homemade Halloween decorations are super fun ideas to make with your kids!
Read Some Scary (or Seasonal) Stories
Fun, spooky, enlightening and clever picture books are guaranteed to get your little ones in the Halloween spirit. Invest in a few scary books, or head to your local library,and celebrate all things spooky while you read them in the dark.
Try a Halloween Hairstyle
If you’re looking for something fun for school, or a style to complement your child’s costume, you’ll love these great Halloween hairstyles.
Better still, they’re quick, easy and require no crazy skills!
Tell Scary Stories
Have everyone sit in a circle in the dark with just a torch for light. Take it in turns to tell a scary story.
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Make Balloon Ghosts
- Cut the handles off 2 plastic shopping bags.
- Leaving the seam intact, cut the bags into strips. Blow up a white balloon and tape the plastic bags around the end of the balloon (tape the bags in a circle a few inches from one end of the balloon).
- If you plan on hanging the ghost up as a decoration, tape the plastic bags around the plain end, leaving the tied end of the balloon exposed so you can tie a string to the top of the ghost.
- Using a black marker, draw two eyes and a mouth on the balloon.
- You now have a spooky ghost that you can use as a Halloween decoration or as a toy (but not for very young children). This ghost flies really well!
Create a Haunted House
Turn your home, or just a room, into a haunted house that needs to be explored at night with just a flashlight. Those spooky shadows will create unexpected spookiness!
Make Some Witches’ Brew
Pour1litre of apple juice into a large saucepan. Add a few slices of lemon, 2 small sliced apples and a few cinnamon sticks and heat gently for 10mins. Pour in a litre of ginger ale and heat for another 3-4mins and your witches’ brew is ready to serve. Cue evil witch cackle!
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Make Egg Carton Bats
Make these simple, cute egg carton bats as follows:
- Separate 3 cups from an egg carton.
- Cut out part of the bottoms of the 2 outside cups to resemble bat wings.
- Add googly eyes, a mouth, and decorate.
- Hang it from a string or a rubber band.
Get Colouring
Print off some fun Halloween themed pages for the kids to colour or paint. Then hang them up around the house for some DIY decor.
Pin the Face on Frankenstein
- Create an image of a Green head and Black hair
- Cut out eyes, nose, mouth, scars, ears and neck bolts
- Blindfold and get each child to pin the face on one at a time
Play Would You Rather
Would you rather walk through cobwebs or walk over eyeballs?
This Halloween Would You Rather game is lots of fun, and a great way to pass the time on a walk, in the car, while you are trick or treating….any time!
Play Spooky Guess What
Place bowls of food in your kitchen that are supposed to resemble Halloween-themed items.
Examples of this could include a seedless watermelon, peeled to remove green rind, bottom removed to sit flat, and carved with a toothpick, to create channels. Be sure to carve down to red, so looks more brain-like! Alternatively, chewing gums inside of a bowl of jelly to represent eyeballs.
Each person enters the room while the others wait outside. He is blindfolded, then puts his hands into each food, and must guess what Halloween item the food represents.
Go for a Walk
Don your coats and go for a walk in the park, woods or just around your neighbourhood. Try to spot as many signs of Autumn as you can – leaves changing colour or seasonal fruit on trees. Admire your neighbours’ pumpkins and decorations too!
Have Pumpkin Races
Remove the insides and then carve a boat out of the pumpkin. You can decorate the sides of the boat by cutting out shapes in the sides. Fill the bath with water and see how your boat floats.
If others made pumpkin boats you could race them against each other in a river near you.
Go on a Halloween Scavenger Hunt
Scavenger hunts are a much loved activity – kids love to head off on the hunt for something fun!
Witches and spiders and pumpkins, oh my! Download our free Halloween scavenger hunt and get ready for lots of seasonal fun at home or while out and about!
Have a Ghost Poop Race
This game is a relay race to see which team can transfer their “Ghost Poop” to their bowl at the finish line. You will need: white packing peanuts, 2 large spoons, 4 large bowls & masking tape.
- Mark a starting line using the masking tape.
- Put a bowl at the start line and the finish line for each team. Fill the 2 starting line buckets with packing peanuts (ghost poop)and lay a spoon next to or in each bowl.
- The first child on each team will pick up one “poop” and place it on their spoon, they will carefully walk their peanut to the finish line. They are not to hold the poop on the spoon, but if they do drop it, then they may use their hand to pick it up (ew!) and put it back on the spoon and continue on. Once they get to the finish line they are to drop the poop in their bucket and walk back to their team, handing the spoon back to the next person in line and the first child will go to the back of the line.
- The winning team will be the one that transfers all the ghost poop first.
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Play Halloween Bingo
This is a fun game to play with the kids!
All you need for this Halloween game is to download and print off our free Halloween Bingo. Give everyone their own copy, a marker to tick off the ones completed, and get ready for some bingo fun!
Watch a Halloween Movie
Have a fright night with a difference this year and see how many of these family Halloween movies you can squeeze in! We’ve got our pick of the best to enjoy, and where you can stream them – all you need is the blanket and popcorn!
Host a Halloween Olympics
Compete in a series of games that have Halloween themes.Give out prizes for first, second and third place to each event’s winners. Award a grand prize to the contestant that wins the most events. Here’s a few ideas:
- Throwing bags of sweets into the top of pumpkins from a few feet away.
- Bobfor apples.
- Trivia games can be played seeing who can answer the most questions correctly about either scary movies or Halloween cartoon specials.
Make Some Spooky Eyed Buns
This is an easy recipe, even for small ones to help get involved with.Spooky eyed bunsare basically just Rice Krispie buns with a marshmallow eyeball for a little Halloween fun!
Build a LEGO Bat
Halloween is a great time to get creative – from costumes and party food to activities and games. Express yourself this Halloween with these easy and eerie ideas for LEGO Halloween fun, perfect for getting into the spooky season!
Make a Magic Wand
A stick from a fallen tree is perfect for making a wand.
- Use some old clothes you have outgrown to cover the stick and either glue the clothing to the stick using craft glue, or sew the material together.
- Next stick some sequins or glitter on it. Boys may prefer to have a scary toad or snake draped around their wand. Girls might rather some ribbons adorning theirs.
There’s a simple method for making a pipe cleaner wand here.
Have a Halloween Disco
It’s time to do the Monster Mash! Stick on a Halloween playlist and do your best Frankenstein dancing!
Toast Some Pumpkin Seeds
Image: SkinnyTaste
When your kids have finished carving their pumpkins, don’t throw away the tasty and nutritious seeds. They are exceptionally easy to transform with just a few minutes in the oven, and you can get really creative with flavours. Try these delicious (and easy!) recipes for roast pumpkin seeds – you won’t regret it!
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Go Down to the Woods!
Autumn is a lovely time to take a trip to the woods, and enjoy the change of the seasons. With walks, orienteering trails and bike routes, the time will be sure to fly by! Collect some leaves and pine cones for art & crafts when you return. Here are some leaf crafts and pine cone craftsthe kids will enjoy doing.
Spooky Fruit Punch
All this scary business will probably leave you feeling thirsty.Spooky fruit punchis the perfect thirst quencher for your little monsters!
And we’ve got more great ideas here for ghoulishly great Halloween drinks and mocktails.
Have a Scary Sleepover
Invite your friends to your “haunted house” for a sleepover. Have ghoulish goodies on hand to nibble on, and playsome slumber party games for a fun night.
Playdough Time
Make Halloween creations, such as pumpkins, a witch or even a creepy monster out of playdough. You can buy Halloween cookie cutters that work perfect as playdough cutters. Why not go one step further and make your own playdough?
Play Halloween Charades
Divide into teams and act out Halloween words or characters for your family to guess.
Bake Sausage Mummies
Enjoy making these sausage mummies, which are ideal for lunchboxes, parties or as a spooky halloween treat.
You’ll need some readymade pastry, your favourite sausages and some edible googly eyes. They really are super easy to make and really fun for your child to eat!
Make Halloween Ghost Cookies
Kids love making these ghost cookies, particularly the icing! They would also make a great Halloween party activity for kids whereby each kid decorates their own ghost cookie.
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Go to the Playground
Head to one of the best resources for kids every town/city has to offer- the playground! Why not bring a picnic with you too and throw in some pumpkin seeds to share to boost energy levels after all that swinging, sliding, running, jumping, skipping!
Bob For Apples
A traditional Halloween game, bobbing for apples requires a large tub of water, apples and a group of people willing to get their faces – and probably their heads – wet.
Add a twist to this game by placing a selection of fruit in the tub along with the apples, such as pears, peaches and nectarines. Or how about throwing a lemon in the mix?! If no small children are bobbing, you could also use dry ice to add to the atmosphere and increase the challenge.
Find Your Halloween Name
The kids will love checking their ‘spooky’ name on this Halloween name generator. Will they be Eyeballs WitchyToes or Gruesome O’Spooky?
Monster Manicures
Take a look at these amazing Halloween nail ideas for a fang-tastic manicure!
From ghosts to pumpkins, and spiders to slime, you’ll find the perfect finishing touch for your Halloween costume, as well as lots of ideas for fun with the kids.
Design Halloween Masks
This year, make your own Halloween mask using this simple technique:
- Trace both your handprints on to cardboard or on the inside of an old cereal box.
- Cut them out and paint them.
- Cut out an eye from the palms and then glue the two handprints together, allowing them to overlap a little bit.
- Embellish the mask using sequins, glitter, feathers, buttons or anything elase you can find at home.
- Glue a straw to the side to act as a handle for your fabulous mask.
Play Let’s Pretend
Reverse the roles and let the kids pretend to be the grown ups and the parents be the dependants. Be sure to let them make lunch for fussy eaters and referee an argument!
Write a Scary Story
Have a scary story writing competition. Help younger ones who may be unable to write but can still make up their own story. Let them illustrate their story with pictures. Read the stories out loud in the dark, using a torch to heighten the atmosphere.
Go Camping
Weather permitting, camping is great fun and a chance to “become one with nature”. Many fond memories are created sitting around a camp fire telling jokes or scary stories and watching the stars at night
Go Trick or Treating
The highlight of Halloween for many kids, is Trick or Treating. It’s so much fun knocking on you neighbours’ doors in disguise and letting them try to guess who you are. And not forgetting all the goodies!
However, not all children or families like to do this – but that doesn’t mean you have to miss out on the fun. We came up with 15 clever ways to celebrate Halloween with no trick-or-treating that will guarantee you still make plenty of memories!
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