Halloween is on the way and it’s a good idea to plan early. This way anything you need to stock up on will still be in ample supply at the local store.

I’ve compiled a list of fun things to do with the kids on Halloween. Keeping them occupied can often be a task and a half so hopefully you’ll get some use and enjoyment from the following suggestions.

Halloween Themed Pictionary

Pictionary is a pretty fun game anyway but it’s much more entertaining when you add a theme. I also find that encouraging players to think of their own ideas rather than using ready made cards is a much better way to play the game.

This may not be suitable for really young children as they will struggle with the content.

Apple bobbing

This is an age old game for Halloween parties and it’s really fun! If you don’t know what it is, basically, you have a big barrel (bucket or whatever you can get hold of), fill it with water and apples, blindfold the contestants and tie their hands behind their back. They have to get the apple out with their teeth. The first person to pull out an apple would traditionally get to keep it. Nowadays prizes are offered as a substitute.

Musical statues with a twist

We all know how musical statues goes, you dance to the music until it stops, then you freeze in whatever position you happen to be in. If you move-you’re out.

Musical statues for Halloween is really fun and you don’t have to do much extra to make it interesting for the kids. All you have to do is put on a relevant song such as the monster mash and get them to pull scary faces instead of statues! It gets the kiddies thinking really hard and you’ll find it hilarious! Plenty of Kodak moments!

Spooky stories

This is so much fun for Halloween! All you need is some popcorn, cushions for the floor and a torch! You turn off the lights and off you go! You can tailor the severity of the stories based on your audience and make it a funny horror tale if there are very young children.

Spooky movies

This is great, when the weather starts to turn colder there’s nothing better than curling up on the sofa and watching a god movie. You can all have a family watch and renting DVD’s is so cheap it’s a great solution. You can tailor the severity of the movie to cater to the audience. I recommend Hocus Pocus, my kids absolutely adore it!

Spooky hide and seek

Get the kids to all go and hide in their places and send the spookiest costume wearer to go and find them. Better still you could reserve a really spooky costume especially for this game, so when you go find them they’ll jump out of their skin!

Obviously you can reduce the spooky factor based on how old the children are and you can add prizes to make it even more special for the kiddies.

Crafts

I’m a firm believer that Halloween should be enjoyed for the whole day, not just the evening. So what I think is that everything you do that day with your children counts towards the suspense of the coming evening.

You can bake cookies, make cakes, make punch using green food colouring etc and all sorts of other crafts. Making posters, painting pictures and hanging decorations with your children will make the day even more memorable for them.

Some good ideas for food to lay out are:

Pirate’s punch

This is just regular fortified wine but if you add a few eyeballs from the joke store it looks really effective!

(Tip: When I made this, I did a children’s version using lemonade and food colouring. I also put the various mixtures into test tubes and other scientific looking equipment to make it look like Dr Jekyll’s laboratory. If you add a range of spooky looking things it could be made into something like you’d find in a Harry Potter film.)

Ghouls Jelly

Find a green jelly, or if you can find green just buy non-coloured jelly and add the green colouring yourself. Then go to the sweet shop and buy loads of those sweets that look like worms and/or beetles. As the jelly starts to set pop in the sweets and you’re done!

Scary faces

Pretty much any food can be made into something spooky; all it takes is a little imagination. Use cucumber for eyes and olives as pupils etc.

The main thing is to enjoy your Halloween and your children no matter what you do. We build up Christmas until the suspense is unbearable so why not do the same with Halloween? The kids absolutely love it and I think we forget because we place too much material value on Christmas.

Have a happy Halloween!