This year’s Halloween is going to be very different from traditional trick-or-treating, candy, and costumes. Even though children can’t go out and celebrate with friends, there are plenty of fun activities and traditions you can still host at home! Keep reading below for festive activities like in-house trick-or-treating, spooky movies, and an at-home costume contest!
Halloween Traditions at Home
In-house trick-or-treating: Can’t go out to trick-or-treat this year? Bring the tradition to you! Go crazy with the indoor decorations, and then set up bowls of candy scattered around the house. Each room in your home can have a different theme, like ghosts, witches, etc. Your children will love getting candy and going on a mini adventure. Decorate your home with the free spider and skeleton art projects (below)!
Costume Contest: Even costumes are going to be different this year. While your children may already have costumes picked out, make a game out of it by challenging them to come up with a costume with just items from their closet. See what they can come up with and hold a costume contest just for your family! Make it a virtual costume contest by including family and friends on FaceTime.
Halloween Scavenger Hunt: Put a twist on gathering candy with a scavenger hunt in your home! Write riddles or clues directing your children to a specific spot in your house, whether it’s a room, landmark, or object. When they find the object or room, reward them with candy! Here are some examples of clues you can write:
- Find me in the room where you watch movies. I am small, white, and can fly. Answer: A ghost in the living/TV room.
- As a witch, I think Halloween is really cool. Find me where you get dressed for school. Answer: witch in the closet.
- Cut me up and make me glow. Find your candy if you know where to go. Answer: jack-o-lantern.
Trunk-or-Treat: Organize a small group of one or two other families and have a mobile trick-or-treat experience. This is a safe way to get out of the house this Halloween; your children can show their friends their costumes from a safe distance and get some candy while they’re at it! To make this more of an activity, drive around the neighborhood and look at the decorations!
Spooky Movie Marathons: Make your house and holiday extra festive by playing some classic Halloween movies! Here are some of my favorite Halloween movies for children:
- Scoob
- Casper
- Mary and the Witch’s Flower
- Halloweentown
- The Nightmare Before Christmas
- Hocus Pocus
- Kiki’s Delivery Service
- It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown
Halloween-Themed Food and Recipes: Check out some of these fun recipes that you can make at home as a fun Halloween activity! From Harry Potter treats to Halloween snacks, there’s something for everyone! Eat or drink these during your spooky movie marathon:
- Harry Potter’s Butterbeer
- 21 Fun Halloween Snacks for Kids
- 20 Fun and Easy Halloween Treats to Make with Your Kids
Boo Bags: Send a little Halloween cheer to friends this year with a boo bag! Create a goodie-filled bag or basket! Secretly place the bag or basket on the front porch of a friend of neighbor. Include a note, “You’ve been booed.” - Halloween candy
- Evan-Moor Halloween art
- Snacks
- Mini pumpkin
- A game or puzzle
- Halloween-themed book
Other Halloween Activities & Free Printables
If you’re looking for some crafts or other hands-on activities, check out these free activities that are fun for the whole family!
Free Headband Craft for Favorite Story Characters and 
Halloween Costumes: Here’s an activity that brings well-known stories to life and is fun for Halloween celebrations! Your child can decorate and color one of the headbands as part of a Halloween costume, and is still able to wear a mask, if needed. (From Retelling Tales with Headbands, grades PreK-1.)
Download your free Headband crafts here.
- Read the story to your child
- Have your child do the activity page.
- Have your child color the headbands. Help your child cut them out and put them together.
- Have your child wear the headband and re-tell you the story!
Easy Hanging Spider Craft: This is a quick and easy craft project to decorate your home! Using construction paper, string, and other basic supplies, you can have little paper spiders hanging all around the house!
Skeleton Art Project: Check out this fun skeleton project to make silly dancing skeletons! Using the materials provided you can make all kinds of different looking skeletons. Click here to see the full blog on this project, which includes additional science and reading activities!
Pumpkin Shape Book: This is a simple shape book project that includes the reproducibles and a pumpkin poem for students in grades K–1 to enjoy!
Halloween Thinking Activities: Practice critical thinking and writing skills with this grade 1–level Halloween activity unit! There are writing, math, and thinking activities included.
Pumpkin Poems: For grades 2–3, this small unit uses pumpkin poems to teach students about rhyming, couplets, and more! It features reading comprehension activities, activities based on the poems, and a chance for students to write their own Halloween poems.
Halloween Language Activities: Children grades 3–5 will enjoy these word and language activities, such as solving word searches, unscrambling Halloween-related words, and solving a code!
Human Skeleton Cut-out: Cut out and paste together the pieces of the human skeleton to make a life-sized paper version! Great for grades 1–6!
Even though Halloween is going to seem different this year, children will still have the opportunity to enjoy the traditions they love! Perhaps they’ll even discover a new activity they love that will become tradition going forward. Enjoy your safe, at-home, Halloween celebration with Evan-Moor activities.
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Christine Wooler has experience working with children as a youth soccer coach and summer camp counselor. She is currently studying English Literature and journalism in college. She enjoys exploring educational topics that help students have fun while learning.