How to Let the Kids Trick-or-Treat at Home Instead of Going Out

There are various reasons that parents may choose to have their kids trick-or-treat at home. Maybe a child is too sick to go out trick-or-treating. There might be rain forecasted for Halloween night, or perhaps you live in an area where Halloween weather is often extremely cold, or even snowy. It may be that you live in a rural area and driving to a neighborhood suitable for trick-or-treating isn't really feasible. You may even choose to have the kids trick-or-treat at home this Halloween in an attempt to stay well during a serious outbreak of pertussis, chicken pox, or influenza in your community. Maybe you're just really tired of traipsing around neighborhoods each Halloween in order for your kids to go trick-or-treating.

Whatever the reason, having the kids trick-or-treat at home can have several benefits. For example, you might feel less pressured to spend more money than you wanted to on a costumes since your family will be the only one seeing them. Everyone can stay warm on Halloween night when trick-or-treating at home. You won't have to go through the trouble of getting kids out of costumes and into jammies after you've pulled them half-asleep from your car after a long night of trick-or-treating around the community. You won't have to be up extra late on Halloween night, or walk to countless houses after an already long day at work. Finally, you won't have to sort through candy searching for pieces that need to be thrown out (much to the dismay of your children), because you will have purchased the candy yourself.

So, how do you have your kids trick-or-treat at home on Halloween? Our family has avoided trick-or-treating around the community for the past 2 years, and my kids have loved it! The kids have trick-or-treated at home in two different ways.

Last year was the first time my kids trick-or-treated at home. H1N1 had hit hard in the city we lived in beginning the week before Halloween, so we decided to skip going door-to-door. Instead, on Halloween night, we gave each of the kids a large bowl of candy. They took the bowl to their rooms, and then trick-or-treated at each others' bedroom doors. My oldest daughter, who was 17 at the time, even took part in this home version of trick-or-treating, and all four kids had a really fun time. For days afterward, my three younger kids said repeatedly that it had been the most fun Halloween they had ever had, and that they wanted to trick-or-treat in the same way the next year.

When this Halloween rolled around, we found ourselves living in a new location. Now that we live in a rural area, it's impossible to just dress up, and walk out the door to neighboring homes for trick-or-treating. This year, we decided to let the kids do something along the lines of a Halloween candy-hunt in place of traditional trick-or-treating, since we were experiencing really nice weather. I estimated that we usually hit about 25 houses when we trick-or-treat. So for each child, I made 25 separate bags of candy. Each sandwich baggie had 2-4 pieces of candy in it, and each was labeled with one child's name on it. This way, everyone was sure to get the exact same amount of candy, and there would be no hurt feelings if a younger child couldn't find as many candy bags as an older child, because each child was only permitted to grab bags that had their name on it. My husband and I had a lot of fun hiding the total of 75 baggies of candy all over the property, and the kids had a blast running around trying to find all of the bags with their own name on them.

This method of trick-or-treating at home was obviously a hit with our kids. For the rest of the night, they were all saying repeatedly that this had been the best Halloween ever, and that they wanted to trick-or-treat at home again next year.