Boo – Halloween is on its way! The holiday is a great day for little ones to use their imaginations and get creative. However, whilst some children love the concept of Halloween, for others it can be a little overwhelming and sometimes scary. Therefore, it’s important as Halloween approaches, you explore this and prepare your child; as well as doing all the exciting things like shopping for costumes and sweet treats. You should first start by planning what you’re going to do for Halloween.
Are you going to host a Spooktacular party? Or get out and about in the neighbourhood and do some trick or treating? Whatever you end up planning for the day, your top priority should be to have your pride and joy’s interests in mind.
The Benefits of Halloween for Children
Often as parents, we worry that Halloween’s combination of fantasy and realism will be too hard for children to distinguish between. You may worry that your little one will think other children’s scary costumes are actually real, or you may be concerned that they’ll get scared of their own costume. However, research shows that in spite of occasional mistakes, children are actually quite good at making the distinction between fantasy and reality by 3 or 4 years old.
In fact, this spooky celebration can have multiple benefits for children, including:
- Encourage creativity and self-expression
- Teach independence without fear
- Learning opportunities about culture, characters and about those previously “scary” things
Preparation: Know What to Expect
Before you dive into any ghostly fun, it’s important to consider how this day can in some cases be a frightening time for some little ones. Halloween can be a fantastic opportunity to really help your children face their fears. Therefore, we recommend talking them through Halloween beforehand, getting them excited, and focusing on the fun aspects of the day. By associating Halloween with fun, your child is more likely to enjoy this spooky yet exciting day.
The decorations that come with Halloween can of course be one of the creepier parts of the holiday. After all, it’s not every day your little one sees skeletons, spiders and cobwebs draped around your home. Why not let them choose and help put up your decorations this year? This way you can help them understand that these decorations aren’t real, so that they can associate them with something fun instead.
Watching kid’s Halloween movies can also help to get your sweetheart prepared and enjoy this spooky day. If you’re stuck on what to watch – these films will be sure to make your children fall in love with the holiday. We also recommend adding to their excitement by sharing your own personal stories about your Halloween experience as a child. When they become excited about this fun-filled day, you and your family will have an unforgettable experience!
Kids Halloween Costumes
Going on a shopping spree for Halloween costumes or even making DIY Halloween costumes for kids is one of the most exciting parts of this Spooktacular day. If you’re going down the DIY route, perhaps sit at home and brainstorm some ideas with your little one first. Before you fill up your shopping basket with craft supplies, makeup, wigs and other costume accessories, have a look at what you already have stashed away in the cupboard. You’ll find that most DIY Halloween costumes can be made with supplies you already have at home. It’s important you find out what they like and what they would feel comfortable wearing. Some children don’t want to dress up and that’s fine too!
If DIY isn’t your forte and you’re going shopping for a costume, make sure to take your little one so they can have an input in choosing something they like – that way they can own fright night completely. We also recommend adding reflective tape or eye-catching stickers to costumes and sweet bags for an added layer of visibility – safety is key!
Halloween costumes for teeny tots normally stay on the cute and cuddly side of the holiday. If you need a little inspiration aside from the usual black cat or pumpkin, why not dress up your angel as the renowned Baby Shark? Or if you’ve got spare black tights lying around, fill them with socks and sew onto a matching black onesie and you’ll have yourself the cutest little Spider-child. This Halloween costume is especially effective if your cutie hasn’t hit their walking milestone yet – those extra four spidey legs look super spooky when crawling about.
If your child is a little older and you need a spooktacular costume that all kids will love, we recommend the Wicked Queen from Maleficent. Your little girl will love flaunting about in the dramatic cape and high collar, and not to forget the iconic horns which will be sure to make a statement whilst trick-or-treating! Or for your boy, channel the iconic look of Edward Scissorhands for a cute yet spooky costume that’s bound to get some big grins (and probably some extra sweets). You can buy the costume from a fancy-dress shop if you haven’t got time, however, if you’re prepared, you can create the costume with black clothes and some belts. Just make sure to finish the look off with cardboard, metallic paint and some pushpins – no real scissors allowed!
Costumes of course need to be accompanied by kid’s Halloween face paint that’s going to wow. Thankfully, there are lots of tutorials and tips to help you perfect Halloween makeup for kids!
Halloween Food Ideas for Kids
Doing some Halloween themed baking can help to get you in the mood for fright night. Get your children involved and bake some spookily scrumptious sweet treats; either for Halloween or in the build-up to it. If anything is going to get your little one to enjoy Halloween – it’s definitely delicious treats! By letting your children get involved, it will help to ease any worries they may have about the upcoming holiday. There are plenty of Halloween baking ideas for kids; why not decorate some cupcakes or cookies with some scarily good designs?
If you need a little inspiration for some spooky but not-so-scary kids Halloween recipes – the Mummy Sandwich will be sure to get tastebuds tingling. It’s super easy to whip up, all you need to do is add a spread of tomato sauce onto a piece of bread, cut a few slices of mozzarella and lay them over the sauce. Once you’ve done this, throw in a few olives for the eyes and pop in the oven for a couple of minutes – your children won’t be able to get enough of these treats. Don’t forget to serve the Mummy Sandwich with a Mummy Juice Box too! Just glue two googly eyes on a black piece of paper and glue it onto the front of a juice carton, then wrap the carton with white crepe paper until it looks like a mysterious Mummy.
Practice Trick or Treating
Trick or treating is often children’s favourite part of Halloween, after all, it’s when they get to collect all their sweet delights. However, the thought of it can be pretty scary for some munchkins — approaching a stranger’s house in the dark and asking a possibly scary-looking neighbour for sweet treats! If your little one seems nervous about it, why not do a trial run first and take them around in their costume, so that they get used to it? Make sure you explain the concept to them so that they’re looking forward to this fun-filled occasion.
Trunk or treating is also a fantastic tradition to try out! This is where families get together and dress up the trunks of their cars, so that kids can trick or treat at each one. For those cuties who seem a little apprehensive about collecting sweet treats in the dark – this is a great alternative for some spooky daytime fun.
Halloween Party Ideas for Kids
If you’ve decided to skip out on the trick or treating for a Spooktacular Halloween party this year, then the first thing to do is choose a theme. A spooky haunted house theme never fails, or for something a little less scary, go for a magical land theme. You can really get creative when selecting a theme, turning your party into a fun experience for all little ones.
There are lots of Halloween activities for kids to make the party an enjoyable day for all. Make sure to satisfy those ravenous bellies by using the recipes we mentioned above to serve up some scarily delicious food. Don’t forget to get your little ones involved in the decorations and party tricks so that they’re comfortable and not spooked out by the event.
Halloween drinks for kids are a must too this year – a party drink should be a little eerie and a whole lot of fun. We recommend whipping up Vampire Floats as they’re simple and eerie all at the same time. All you need for this concoction is tropical juice and vanilla ice cream – it’s as easy as that! Just make sure to garnish it with a set of glow-in-the-dark vampire teeth for good measure – everyone at the party will love this vampire’s brew!
Even though our little cuties always have a magical way of enjoying themselves, we recommend making plans for Halloween games for kids. For older children, if you want to test their brains at ghoul school, why not try a spooktacular quiz? Or get everyone involved in some active fun – here are our favourites to try this year which will have kids giggling throughout:
- Mummy wrap – race against each other to see who wraps themselves in toilet paper from head to toe the quickest.
- Pop the pumpkin – fill orange balloons with sweets and then inflate them, everyone can join in and use pencils to pop them to reveal their prize within.
- Monster mash freeze dance – play fun Halloween songs for kids like “Monster Mash” and have everyone show off their best dance moves. But when the music stops, make sure to freeze!
Halloween Crafts for Kids
If you’re in need of some other Halloween activities to entertain your children this year – why not try crafts? There are lots of fun ideas for Halloween crafts for kids to try out:
- Design a pumpkin
- Make plastic cup ghosts
- Create Oreo spiders using Oreos, liquorice laces and smarties
- Design ghosts with marshmallows and black food colouring
- Make black cats out of pom poms
- Create pumpkins out of playdough
Remember – Halloween is meant to be a fun-filled day for all children. At Kiddies Kingdom, we believe it’s never too early to start planning ways little ones can have fun on this holiday. Everything from wearing kid’s Halloween pyjamas to prancing about to Halloween music for kids is enough to get your cutie ready to enjoy this Spooktacular day.
