Halloween is just around the corner so in this blog, let's talk about some fun, easy, and budget-friendly Halloween activities that any child will enjoy.
Now when my kids were young, we lived in the Midwest where we never really knew what type of weather we were going to experience on Halloween. Most of the time we could count on Halloween being a brisk 50-ish degree day. If it was sunny on Halloween, the brisk weather would be perfect for trick-or-treating! But when we would get rain on top of those
50-ish temps, it would turn trick-or-treating into a freezingly damp and miserable experience. It was the kind of wet-cold that would soak into your bones and leave you feeling chilled and aching for the rest of the night. So when it rained on Halloween, it was a resounding "NO!" from me when it came to trick-or-treating with my kids.
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Now before you call me a cruel and heartless Mom, I didn't just cancel trick-or-treating without having something up my sleeve. If I suspected nasty weather on Halloween, I made sure I had several fun games and activities that my kids could do indoors instead. And those activities and games involved winning candy prizes... LOTS of candy prizes! When we were stuck indoors on Halloween, my kids probably ended up with MORE candy than they would have if they'd gone trick-or-treating. PLUS, I made sure the candy prizes were all of the candy my kids loved most. Nothing but their FAVORITE candies. So it was a win-win situation for all of us. My kids received the same amount of candy (if not more) without trick-or-treating, and I didn't have to endure the never-ending chill in my bones of the cold damp weather outside. Yay!!!
So what kind of games and activities did we do? Well since my 3 kids were each 2 years apart in age, I needed to think of games that would be fun for all of their ages. They couldn't be "babyish" games, but they couldn't be too difficult for my youngest child to play either. They needed to be... "timeless" and "adjustable" to accommodate the differences in age and ability. So I decided to put a Halloween spin on some classic childhood games.
"Batty Buckets" was first game I came up with. It was a spin-off of the classic Bozo Buckets. You know the game where you have to throw a ball one at a time into 6 different buckets. Well to make my "Batty Buckets," I picked up some small orange buckets from The Dollar Tree store. Then, I printed out cartoon bat drawings that I found online and glued them to a circle I cut out from black poster board. Then, I numbered the circles with a white paint pen. The whole project took me about 30 minutes to complete. What's great about "Batty Buckets" is that you can customize it to fit various ages. My youngest would try to get her ball into only 3 buckets (with double the candy prizes in each). My older children would have to try to get the ball into 4,5, or 6 buckets (depending on their age). Every time my children tossed the beanbag (or ping-pong ball) into the bucket, they'd win at least 2-3 pieces of their favorite candy. They could play this game multiple times if they wanted to.
Did you ever play Bozo Buckets when you were a kid? Let me know in the comments.
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The next game we played was what I called "Mummy Bowling". It's played like a normal bowling game, but I made the bowling pins out of empty water bottles that were wrapped in white party streamers. Then, I drew funny faces on each of the bowling pins. Next, I found a small ball at Walmart that the kids could easily roll to knock over the bowling pins. The number of pins they knocked down determined how many pieces of candy they would win. If they bowled a strike, they'd win a bonus prize of a regular sized package of their favorite candy. Woot-Woot!!!
After we played a few games of bowling (and after my kids had won quite a bit of candy), it was time to play some "Pin the Spider on the Web". I'm sure you can guess how this game was played. The goal of the game was simple... whoever could stick their spider closest to the center of the web would win a handful of candy. (To make it fair for all ages, my youngest child could start considerably closer to the web than my older children). I drew the spider web on a piece of black poster board with silver glitter paint. Then I used museum putty on the bellies of plastic spiders so they would stick to the web, but could be easily removed too. It's a super easy and super inexpensive game that's loads of fun to play.
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Another game that was really fun to play was what I called, "Witchy Hat Toss". It's a simple ring-toss game. You start with a piece of foam board (available at Walmart) for the base. To make the brim of the witches hat, cut circles out of black construction paper and glue them to the foam board. Next take a package of super inexpensive party hats and spray paint them black. For added "flare" you can add a buckle to the hat (optional) by cutting it out of yellow construction paper and gluing it to the hat. To make the rings you toss on the hats, simply twist 2 black pipe cleaners together to form a circle. For every ring my kids were able to get onto the witchy hats, they would win more candy. (Younger children can stand closer to the hats, while your older children stand farther back to toss the rings). Easy-Peasy.
Another activity my kids really enjoyed doing on Halloween was a good old-fashioned scavenger hunt in our home. I took all of the extra plastic spiders I had left over from the "Pin the Spiders on the Web" game, and I hid them throughout our home. For every spider my kids found they'd receive 1-2 more pieces of candy. After all of the spiders were found, another activity we enjoyed doing was bobbing for apples.
Did you ever bob for apples on Halloween when you were younger? Let me know in the comments below!
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In addition to playing these games, we would also have a lot of fun baking and decorating Halloween cookies or cupcakes. After the cookies and cupcakes were all decorated, we'd gather round the tv and watch a "Halloween" movie while we ate some of our "bootifully" decorated treats. We really enjoyed watching the Harry Potter movies on Halloween!
What's Your Favorite Halloween Movie?
Harry Potter Movies
Hocus Pocus
Beetlejuice
Ghostbusters
You can vote for more than one answer.
If you didn't see your favorite Halloween movie in the poll above... Let me know what your favorite Halloween movies are in the comments below! Let's see just how many Halloween movies there are out there. Do you like the "classic" Halloween movies, or are you a fan of the "horror/scary" type movies?
I have to say that my kids really enjoyed playing these Halloween games and activities when they were younger. They liked them so much that, even though they are adults now, they have occasionally set up these games for the kids in the neighborhood to play when they stop by our house trick or treating.
What kind of games or activities does your family like doing on Halloween? Are there some classic games that I missed? Let me know in the comments!
Have a very Happy, Fun, and Safe Halloween!
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