Halloween Activities to Do with Your Children

Want to have some fun with your kiddos this Halloween? Instead of bringing out the old decorations, or spending a lot of money on treats and toys that will just be thrown into the attic for a year, try some new ways to enjoy Halloween. These ideas are cheap and fun!

Here are some unique ways to celebrate Halloween, (and have fun with the kids while doing it):

1. Instead of cutting pumpkins, paint them.

Parents of small children would rather not hand over a pumpkin and a knife to their hyper little toddler. Provide your children with scary stickers and paint and have them go to town! Buy a small pumpkin for each of the people in your family, and let your children draw faces on the pumpkins to make them look like Mama, Daddy, brother or sister.

2. Toilet paper your house!

Actually, use colored crepe paper. Pick out some festive Halloween colors of crepe paper with your children at a dollar store. Wrap the crepe paper around porch railings, stair railings, or come up with your own creative way of hanging the paper into streamers.

3. Invite spiders to your home.

Cut out gigantic paper spiders in different colored paper. Hang with double-sided tape to the side of your house where they won't get wet. Use white yarn to design your own webs. Drape cobwebs (cheesecloth) on windows. Place plastic spiders in the cloth. Paint pumpkins black and cut out legs, eyes and teeth out of paper and glue to pumpkins to make a family of spider pumpkins.

3. Dangle lanterns.

Buy paper lanterns and decorate with stamps, letters or paper spiders and hang on your porch for extra light and a ghostly glow.

4. Wreath it up!

But a wreath or use an old Christmas one and spray paint it black. Dangle spiders, pumpkins and cobwebs from it. You could also use this as a centerpiece for your dining table. Just place a pumpkin or candles in the middle.

5. Make Halloween treats with your kids!

Some ideas: black crispy treats, bag candy corn in with spiders and add stickers, Halloween-shaped sugar cookies, pumpkin soup or juice (from Harry Potter), popcorn balls, put popcorn in clear gloves and tie it with black yarn, and various trail mixes (don't forget to add spiders!)

6. Movie day!

Television can play some seriously scary movies on Halloween. If you have younger children, get to the movie store and look for some more family friendly titles.