Halloween 2020: How to make it a special day for our children

Trick or Treat!

Those three words excitedly shouted from the mouths of young children dressed up as their favourite princess, super hero or scariest villain will likely not be heard throughout your neighbourhood this year on the evening of October 31^st. This will likely be a Halloween unlike any other! Due to the rising cases of COVID-19, many parents are choosing not to send their kids trick or treating and many households are choosing not to hand out candy. However, that does not mean that Halloween will be cancelled or that your little ones can’t still dress up. Collect candy and have the best sugar-high of their life! It does mean however, we have to get a little more creative than normal to make it happen. Here are some great ways to ensure that your kids can still partake in Halloween festivities. 

1. Scavenger Hunt: Whether you are planning your scavenger hunt indoors, in your back yard or even around your neighbourhood this will surely entertain the kids on Halloween day or night – Here’s how! Write down clues and hide them in various locations. With each clue you can include a small bag of candy or other treat (stickers, erasers, small toy etc.). Make sure that the clues are age appropriate. If you have a child in Kindergarten, try to include some sight words and have your child practice reading the clues. If you kids are older, you can even use riddles or puzzles for them to solve before revealing the next clue location. While the kids are making their way from clue to clue, they are also filling up their bags with candy and won’t even realize that they are missing out on the traditional style of trick or treating. If you are short on time, the is always Pinterest to help you with printable scavenger hunt clues and templates. 

2. Candy Exchange: Just like at Christmas when a group of friends get together to exchange cookies, this year consider hosting a candy exchange! Gather a group of 5 – 10 adults who will each commit to making individual bags or candies and treats. Make sure that each person makes enough for the total number of kids in the group. Have each person place their goodies bags in a big bowl on the porch or arrange a time to exchange the treats while ensuring physical distance is maintained. Once all of the treats are collected, the child will have a large variety of candies and other goodies in their Halloween bags. And the fun doesn’t stop there. This option allows your creativity to soar like a witch on her broom. You can use the goodie bags for your scavenger hunt, you can drive your children around to the individual houses to collect the goodies on the porch or event hide them around the house/yard without the clues of the scavenger hunt. The options are endless!

3. Trunk or Treat: What better way to keep the spirit of trick or treating alive than with Trunk or Treating. Again, this option will take a bit of participation from others in your community, but can allow kids to still go around collecting candy and look at all the different Halloween decorations. This option works best when a bunch of parents band together (typically in a school or church parking lot), decorate their trunks with Halloween the most elaborate decorations, and have the kids wander, keeping distance of course, from car to car, collecting candy at each stop.

4. Virtual Halloween Party: Following the theme of how people connect in 2020, you can always plan a virtual Halloween Party! Make everyone at the party feel connected by planning a spooky theme. Have your friends or family dress up to fit the theme and have a costume contest with a virtual prize (like a candy subscription box) for the winner. If you are using Zoom, try to find a background for your video chat that compliment your theme. Another great idea is to share the menu plan ahead of time and have everyone prepare the same snack or beverage to enjoy together (while apart). There are also a lot of games for the kids that can be played together over the computer.

• Costume Contest
• Pumpkin Carving
• Best Wall decorations (behind the computer screen)
• Halloween-themed TicTok Challenges
• And more….

5. Plan a Not-So-Scary Movie Night: With lots of treat of course! Kids love movies. Since Halloween is on a Saturday this year, consider allowing the kids to stay up late and set up a ‘spooky’ camp scene on the living room floor. Gather lots of blankets, sleeping bags, pillows and get comfy! Make your favourite Halloween treats and watch your favourite Halloween movie! Each person can even dress up like a character from the movie.

Take advantage of the extra time to spend with your family rather than sulking about the fact that the kids likely aren’t going house to house filling up their bags with as much candy as they can carry. Remember that this is just a small time in history and although it is unlike any Halloween you may have had before, there are still many ways to make it great!!