Needless to say, Covid-19 is going to make for a very weird Halloween! Do we trick-or-treat? Do we not? As a parent, you want your child to celebrate Halloween, but you also want to keep them (and everyone else) safe. Rosie is now a toddler, and although she doesn’t know what Halloween is per se, we don’t want her to miss out on what will be a very fun holiday. I’ve been brainstorming ideas for what we can do to still make your Covid-19 Halloween special. These 13 ideas will make this Covid-19 Halloween fun for all ages!
- Trick-or-treat in different rooms – Make each room in your house a different place to trick-or-treat. There can be different candy in each room, or even a different theme in each room. Kids can still get a feel for going ‘house to house’ but it’s safe and within your own home. You could even expand this to your yard.
- Halloween costumes that have masks – So many Halloween costumes already have masks! Choose costumes where you can keep your nose and mouth covered. Fun ones include: doctor, super hero, animals (whiskers drawn on), ghost, or mummy! It could add an extra fun element to give awards for the most creative costume that has a mask.
- Dress up all week – Have your kids dress up every day the week of Halloween using items from their closet. You don’t have to buy a bunch of costumes (or spend money at all!) This is an opportunity to be really creative but also dress up more! These costumes also don’t need masks because you can dress up at home.
- Fun Halloween foods all week (or month!) – There are so many fun Halloween foods on Pinterest. Add a fun menu for Halloween this year. Think mummy or pumpkin pizzas, grave yards, etc. Get creative!
- Pumpkin carving and decorating – Carving or decorating pumpkins may be part of your normal tradition, but make take that up a notch. Get multiple carving pumpkins or new and different art supplies. Decorate pumpkins all week leading up to Halloween.
- Zoom Costume Contest – Instead of trick-or-treating with friends, get on a Zoom call to show off your costume. You could have a costume competition, play different games, or just hang out. This could be a good alternative for adults as well. Instead of hosting or attending a Halloween party, encourage everyone to a Zoom call.
- Halloween Parade – Similar to all of the birthday parades we saw with quarantine, have a Halloween parade in your neighborhood. As long as you cover your face and stay 6 feet apart, this could be a safe and fun way to see your friends and show off your costume.
- Movie Night or Scary Stories- We have been loving family movie nights around here, and Halloween is a great opportunity to watch a fun (or scary!) movie with your family and even wear a costume! Parents can make it even more special by having special treats or food for the movie. If your kids aren’t into movies, tell scary stories!
- Hand out candy safely – If you plan on giving out candy, there are a number of ways to do this safely. Prepare goody bags of pre-packaged candy and leave them spaced out in your yard. Another good alternative is having some sort of shoot or slide to slide candy out of your window? Get creative!
- Ding Dong Ditch – This is kind of “reverse trick-or-treating” where you ring a friend’s door bell and leave candy at their door before they have a chance to answer. This is a fun way to still go door to door without having any contact!
- Walking window measure hunt – Remember back in the Spring when we were walking around looking for 4-leaf clovers and teddy bears and all kinds of stuff? Do this for Halloween! Have your kids look for skeletons, scare crows, etc. You could do this on Halloween or even each day leading up to Halloween.
- Transform your house or garage into a haunted house – Maybe spooky Halloween decor isn’t your norm, but this would be a fun year to really go wild and decorate your living room or garage (or wherever!) into the most haunted house your kids have ever seen.
- Halloween drive-thrus – In Minnesota there is at least one (that I know of!) haunted Halloween drive throughs. This Abandoned Haunted Drive-Thru is open for 2020 and could be a good (and safe!) Halloween activity for a family with older kids.