It’s Halloween Time

Have a Happy Halloween with your family this year. Find a few local Halloween activities and join in the fun. Most towns and cities host downtown trick or treat events, Halloween costume contests, Halloween parades and Halloween parties. Check out local farms in your area for corn mazes and pick your own pumpkins. Times have changed since you went trick or treating, carrying your pillowcase around to neighborhood houses. You can find family Halloween activities that are fun for toddlers or scary enough for teenagers. Halloween Fright Night events have come a long way since haunted houses of years ago.

Halloween Costume Ideas

Even the family dog has a chance to dress up in a Halloween costume and win a pooch prize in most areas. Halloween isn't just for kids anymore but a casual family holiday without the stress of cooking big meals or buying presents. A Halloween costume can be as simple as a few pieces of old clothing and some face paint to a homemade intricate costume of fairies, superheroes, ghouls, ghosts, vampires, favorite TV characters or movie stars. Adapt your child's favorite book character into a Halloween costume, for instance Little Bear, Curious George, Babar the Elephant and for older kids, the Wimpy Kid, Harry Potter, a character from Lord of the Rings or the Indian in the Cupboard. Of course, you can always go to one of the specialty Halloween stores for costumes if you don't have the time to make one yourself.

Halloween Decoration Ideas

Like costumes, you can make your own Halloween decorations or buy them at a Halloween store. Homemade Halloween decorations are fun for the whole family from pumpkins made out of construction paper to carved jack-o'- lanterns. Search the internet for carved pumpkin templates and you will be surprised at how many sites offer free pumpkin patterns.

If your kids do not mind spiders, hang plastic or homemade spiders from strings all around your house. Spiders give a creepy look to any room. Remember the black bats, black cats and witches too. You can make all of these Halloween special effects with simple paper, paint and construction paper. Create more detailed creepy crawlers from wood, felt, fabric and craft-foam.

A scarecrow is a traditional Halloween decoration for the yard. Check out your attic and closets for old clothes and design your own scarecrow. You can even make a whole family of scarecrows from your family's old clothes. Stuff the clothes with dried leaves from your backyard if you do not have any straw. Leaves work just as well, plus there is always plenty to go around.

Get involved in Halloween happenings with your family this year. Enjoy all the spooky events your town has to offer, giving your kids a chilling Halloween experience they will always remember.