Keep Your Kids Safe With These Exciting Alternatives To Trick-or-Treating

For most children, Halloween is the night when they get to go out into their neighborhood, ring their neighbor’s doorbells and ask for free candy. As a kid, what could be better? As a parent, however, it may not be your favorite holiday for a variety of reasons. Rather than taking your kids out to go trick-or-treating, try one of these exciting activities for Halloween.

Arrange A Pumpkin Carving Contest
Invite the neighbors over or just enjoy some time with the family while having a pumpkin carving contest. Begin the night by heading over to the local pumpkin patch (or grocery store) so that everyone can pick out their perfect pumpkin. Make sure that you have plenty of sharp knives, scooping spoons, and other pumpkin carving tools on hand. For little ones who would rather paint, have a variety of acrylic paint colors and some paintbrushes ready for them. When everyone is ready to go, set the timer for an hour and get carving (or painting). When time is up, each person can cast their vote for the best pumpkin and you can tally it up to determine a winner.

Plan A Family Film Festival
Make sure you talk up the family film festival before Halloween to get your little ones excited to stay in. Together as a family, decide on a movie that the whole family can enjoy. Consider your children’s ages and what amount of “scary” they can handle. Some kid-friendly movies to consider are:

• “It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown”
• “Mickey’s House of Villains”
• “Pooh’s Heffalump Halloween Movie”
• “The Watcher in the Woods”
• Harry Potter Movies
• “Coraline”

Prior to the Halloween film festival, purchase or make your own theater snacks like some Crusty Mummy Fingers or some Halloweenies with Mustard Dip. Don’t forget the classic popcorn and soda!

Host A Hauntingly Great Party
You might find that there are other parents in your neighborhood who feel the same way that you do about trick-or-treating and are looking for some other activities for Halloween as well. Talk to them to see if they would rather send their child to your home for a kid’s Halloween party. Some activities that would be appropriate for a child’s Halloween party are:

• Pin the face on the jack-o-lantern. Cut a big pumpkin out of orange poster paper. Make his eyes and nose out of black paper triangles and a smile out of black paper as well. Blind fold each child and have them take turns pinning their face pieces onto the pumpkin.
• Sugar cookie decorating. Before the party, make your favorite sugar cookie recipe. Make sure you will have enough for each attendee to decorate two cookies. Purchase small candies, orange and black frosting, sprinkles, and plastic spoons to do the decorating with.
• Mummy juice box craft. Purchase enough juice boxes for each child to have one. Remove the straws from the back of the boxes. Using white crepe paper and securing it with tape, have the children wrap the boxes until they look like mummies. Glue two googly eyes on the front of each box.

Participate In A Community Event
Check with your city to see what types of events are going on in your community. Some events to look for on Halloween are:

• Trick-or-treating at the zoo, a museum, or the mall.
• A kid’s festival at the park.
• A candy village set up at a park or local amphitheater.
• Fire or police department tours for safe little monsters.
• Kids movies in the park or at a local theater.

Remember when performing any of these Kids Activities for Halloween, adult supervision is required.