Crime rates have been on the rise in our neighborhoods so many parents are opting to spend Halloween at home. This does not mean that the kiddles can’t trick or treat and have fun! The following is a list of five ideas to have fun in the safety of your own home.Set up your own trick or treat stations in the backyard. Friends and family can help with this by dressing up and helping out at each station. You can get very creative with this. A pumpkin patch can be one station with candy hidden under the pumpkins, (similar to an Easter egg hunt). Pick up several pumpkins from a farmer’s market. Since it is so close to Halloween, you could get a load of pumpkins inexpensively. Place the pumpkins in a corner of the yard and make the area look like a pumpkin patch. Hide candy under the pumpkins and between them. The kids will have fun searching for the candy. Another station could be a real pumpkin pinata hanging from a tree; the kids take turns hitting the pumpkin with a plastic bat until the pumpkin breaks and the candy falls to the ground. Carve the pumpkin out and give him a scarey face, stuff with candy, and viola’ you have a pumpkin pinata. Let the kids go batty! You have heard the saying-“like finding a needle in a haystack”, a variation on that would be ,”finding a candy bar in a haystack”. Station three could be haystacks with candy hidden in them so the kids can have fun pulling the hay a part to find the candy. Toys, books, gift certificates-whatever comes to mind could also be used. Just use your imagination. Since this is your own home, fruit and baked goods could be used as well. Decorate the hay stacks with old sheets made into ghosts, pumpkins, paper, black cats, etc. Depending on the age of your children, five stations should be enough as energy is used at each station to find the treats. You could even put in a few “funny tricks”. The fourth station could be Halloween musical chairs, (a spin-off from a cake walk), the last person sitting would win a stuffed Halloween toy. Station 5 is the last station and should be the wind down station. Serve hot chocolate or apple cider at this station since the kids are apt to be tired. Set up a table and serve them the drinks. This gives them a chance to sit and compare prizes. Encourage Halloween songs to be sung and wind down time before going in for the night.
The party should last about 2 hours and is done in the safety of your backyard. Party set up time with friends should be about an hour. Have a large trash container in the back yard so the kids can toss their paper wrappers and cups in it as they leave the yard. Have them do a quick run through the yard to pick up pinata remnants and other debris. Total clean-up should be under one hour.
You can get creative and depending on the age of the children attending the party do many, different things. Let your imagination run wild! After all, it is Halloween.
Please give me feedback if you decide to try this idea and please share any ideas you come up with on your own.