Making Halloween Enjoyable for Preschoolers

My three year-old son is usually a daredevil. He constantly strives to keep up with his older siblings. But, when it comes to Halloween, he is a big chicken. He is petrified of even the cutest Halloween decorations - and that's because of some really scary Halloween decorations that he saw at a store.

I have noticed over the past few years that Halloween has become a much bigger holiday. Stores go all out decorating and there are tons of products available now too. With this increase in popularity, things have also gotten a bit more ghoulish and scary too.

I mean, what's up with a life-sized figure who pulls his face off to reveal a gory and oozing skeleton underneath? (That's the thing that pushed my preschooler over the edge.) It even makes me feel creeped out. My older kids avoid some of the Halloween stuff as well. It's just too scary for them.

I understand that teenagers and certain adults LOVE the gore and freaking people out. For most of us, especially those with young kids, it would be nice to have the scarier stuff put on separate aisles.

Just this morning, I took my preschooler to Sam's Club to shop and we had to do some serious meandering around the store to avoid Mr. Pull-His-Face-Off. But then as we waited for the staff person to check our receipt as we left the store, my son noticed another Mr. Pull-His-Face-Off that they had put at the store entrance. Oh, my! I couldn't believe how tightly my son was plastered against me.

We are working on getting him excited about the innocent and happy side of Halloween. He has enjoyed the Halloween episode of Dora the Explorer. He is walking around with a plastic Jack-o-lantern bucket. We have tried talking to him about getting lollipops on Halloween (his favorite candy) - but just the word "Halloween" throws him into a scared frenzy.

With my daughter we did the following crafts and food goodies when she was three to get her all excited about Halloween. (I'm hoping that they will work with my son as well.)

Trick or Treat Goody Bags - buy the cheap little paper Halloween trick or treat bags. Have your preschooler practice his sorting and counting skills while placing candy and/or little Halloween trinkets in the bags. They can also help count how many are completed.

Picking a Pumpkin - take your preschooler to a pumpkin patch to pick out a special pumpkin. This will create wonderful memories for both you and your child.

Carving Pumpkin - let your preschooler pick out the design that you carve on the pumpkin. Those carving stencils are neat and they have a lot of "non-scary" options. They'll probably not want to have anything to do with cleaning the guts out the pumpkin - that's really gross to most kids. But they will love placing the finished jack-o-lantern on the porch for everyone to see.

Vanilla Wafer Spiders - take a vanilla wafer and spread some vanilla frosting on it. Then place tiny pieces of licorice strings around the edges to make "legs". Then put another vanilla wafer on top. You can add some tiny chocolate chips as eyes (attach with dots of frosting). This demonstrates that "scary" things are sometimes fun and silly. (and tasty)

Paint a pumpkin - buy some of the tiny little pumpkins and let your preschooler paint silly faces on them.

Trick or Treating - If your preschooler is still too upset to wear a costume, try taking them to some family members' homes or a few neighbors' homes, just wearing an athletic uniform or even just their own clothes. Go early to avoid the older kids who might be wearing really scary stuff. I would avoid the stuff at businesses - just because there are sure to be really gory costumes there.

Fall Festivals - You may consider skipping the trick or treating activity all together and just take your preschooler to a fall festival. Many churches have these now. They feature carnival games and fun treats without the costumes and scary stuff.

I hope everyone and their preschoolers enjoy a wonderful Halloween!