Whether or not Halloween is a holiday you celebrate, it holds a lot of opportunity as a holiday with activities for kids. Halloween is a chance for kids to make crafts, get dressed up and ask for candy….
Dressed up
Even making you child’s costume can be a craft in itself. Although you may not be up for making fairy wings out of stockings and 9-guage aluminum wire, there are easier ways and easier materials to use to make fun and fabulous costumes – the kind your kids will like the most.
Even though trick or treat may not be a big thing in your neighborhood, dress your kids up in Halloween attire and throw a little play date for their friends or do a little photo shoot to send out to friends and family
Grandma Costume
No sewing required – dress your daughter in an old dress of yours—preferably a housecoat and pair it with a pair of your mid-calf socks. You will need curlers (relatively easy to find) – put them in her hair haphazardly–and glasses (also easy to find – toy glasses will do–remove the mustache if you must). She can wear bedroom slippers and since it’s Halloween, indulge yourself and her and decorate with bright red lipstick. Give her a big clunky purse to double as a candy bag and a costume accessory.
Vampire Costume
This one will require a little more effort – you need a piece of black fabric or a cape (which actually is a good costume type item to keep in the house for play time). You will also need to buy plastic fangs and white and red face paint, available at toy stores around town. Beyond that, all you need is a white dress shirt, black pants and black shoes and some hair gel. Dress up as expected – gel hair down and part in the middle. Use the white face paint to paint the whole face white and then create a widow’s peak at the hairline, centered over the nose. With red, draw drops of blood around the mouth, dripping down one side. Secure the cape by tying it at the neck or pinning it onto the shirt.
Crafts galore
Kids can get involved in making their own costumes as a craft but if you want to do something at home you can go as far as buying pottery mugs for painting or do as little as picking up some sheets of colored paper and a glue stick. Get online and print out a picture of a pumpkin to trace onto the paper and depending on their age allow them to cut some little triangles and squares (or cut them out yourself) from black paper. They can have fun rearranging jack o’lantern faces and glue on their favorites with the glue stick.
Even easier – put ‘Halloween printout’ into Google and print out some great Halloween pictures for your kids to color.
Halloween sweets
You have two kid friendly options as far as candy is concerned. You can set up a candy treasure hunt in your house – draw out a map of the living room and hide candy in little spots according to the map. See if their Dora watching has produced any ability to follow maps and let them go at it. Otherwise – make simple sugar cookies or cupcakes (a little more effort on your part). Most of the big chain supermarkets or department stores now carry frosting, edible confetti, chocolate chips and other little dessert accessories. Leave them to decorate their cookies or cupcakes as they please – if you find food coloring you can always dye frosting black and orange for a more Halloween-y vibe.
