Halloween Traditions & Activities - 15 Fun & Scary Ideas for Families

Many people unfortunately choose not to participate in this fun holiday simply because of the somewhat strange, evil, and even unhealthy activities and traditions associated with this holiday. Truthfully, they have every right to think this way, because let’s be honest – Halloween is just weird! At the same time, like everything in life, we have a choice to be dictated by circumstance or to create it ourselves. In other words, we can choose to focus on the negative aspects of this holiday and thus not participate; or, we can simply choose to focus on the fact that this holiday also provides a wonderful opportunity to have some good clean fun, spend time with family and friends, take opportunities to serve others, and justify the excessive eating of candy and sugar. Why would anyone complain about that?

Below I have listed just 15 of the many ideas that individuals and families everywhere can implement to make this holiday fun, meaningful, and memorable:

1) Make October 1st ‘Pumpkin Carving’ day. Each family member gets their own pumpkin to carve (or decorate).

2) ‘Halloween Give’ – The day after Halloween, have your kids pick out a few candies and go give them to: kids at the hospital or orphanage, new kids in the neighborhood, children at a homeless shelter, etc.

3) ‘Phantom Halloween’ – Choose a local family who is in need and collect clothes, toys, books, and especially lots of candy – and leave it on their doorstep secretly with a note. Or just choose a friend or neighbor and leave a treat for them from the ‘phantom ghost.’

4) Dress up in a costume and act as a prop, or hide in dark clothes – and scare the older ‘trick or treaters’ as they come to your house.

5) ‘Donuts and Hot Chocolate’ – sit out on the porch every year and have donuts and hot chocolate as you pass out candy.

6) ‘Costume Party’ – Invite friends, family, or neighbors over and have a dress-up costume party.

7) Take a picture of the kids in their costume each year.

Each year, visit a local pumpkin patch, haunted house, or corn maze together as a family.

9) Just have fun! Dress up as you pass out candy, try to scare kids, or ask kids to do a ‘trick’ before getting a treat (and then when they place their bag down to do the ‘trick’ – take it and run inside).

10) Do a neighborhood ‘trunk or treat’ for the smaller children. Go to the local school, church, or parking lot and everyone will park their car in a circle and decorate their trunks. The smaller kids then walk around the circle of cars and collect candy.

11) Make some pumpkin pies or cookies (with orange frosting) and deliver them to neighbors, family, friends, or those in need.

12) Watch a scary movie or read a scary story together.

13) Take a drive as a family one night before Halloween to just look at houses that are decorated around town.

14) The day after Halloween, go as a family and spend an hour or two cleaning up smashed pumpkins from the streets in your neighborhood.

15) Family Game Night – after all the kids come back from ‘trick or treating,’ just spend time together as a family playing games, watching a scary movie, and just having fun eating candy and being together.

As is obvious, the fun of Halloween is actually not in the ‘trick-or-treating’, the candy, or the scary costumes and parties; Halloween is fun and is meaningful because we spend time with friends, neighbors, and family. And although the media, movies, and even businesses focus on the shock value (evil) aspects of Halloween – ironically this holiday can actually become extremely meaningful if we take the opportunity to serve others, have clean and wholesome fun, and most importantly – spend time with family. 

Halloween Traditions & Activities - 15 Fun & Scary Ideas for Families