8 Ideas for Hosting Halloween at Home

It's official: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advise against trick-or-treating this year. But turn that frown upside down because that doesn't mean Halloween is cancelled! There are many ways to make Halloween as festive as ever. So get your costumes ready, and let’s make it the happiest Halloween, at home, possible.

1. Create a scavenger hunt

Create and hide clues with a grand prize at the end, or simply hide candy around the house and yard and let the kids get tuckered out trying to find it all! If you want them to get tired and burn off energy from eating candy, build jumping jacks, burpees, or other physical activities into their scavenger hunt!

2. Carve pumpkins

Is there any more classic, traditional Halloween activity than carving pumpkins?! Miniature pumpkins are great for younger kids, who can paint them for display as a centerpiece or elsewhere around the house. Help the kids with carving or painting, as needed, then put them to work in the kitchen cleaning and spicing the pumpkin seeds so you can bake them.

3. Make a Halloween-themed dinner

You can have a ton of fun with this one. Consider mummified pizza or Jack-O'Lantern stuffed peppers filled with beef, rice, and vegetables. See our Halloween snacktivities for more inspiration!

4. Spread the Halloween love - Go “ghosting”

Make a bag of Halloween-themed goodies and leave it on a friend or neighbor's doorstep with a note that encourages them to "ghost" someone else.

5. Do a blind taste-test

Separate your treats by chocolates, gummies, sours, or whatever categories the kids come up with, blindfold your party, and take votes on the best candy in each group based on your senses alone… you might just find a new favorite!

6. Play Halloween music, nonstop.

Halloween always makes me think of my dad, who loves to blast the Halloween mixed tape of ghosts, ghouls and goblins while he hands out candy wearing wobbly light-up pumpkin antennas on his head! This year my parents will be leaving out little grab n’ go baggies of candy at the end of their driveway for appropriate social distancing.

7. Have a scary movie marathon

Show each family member’s favorite Halloween flick and make some Halloween-themed snacks to feast on, like pumpkin seeds, tangerine pumpkins and banana ghosts, or these other healthy Halloween snack ideas from the Super Healthy Kids blog. Make sure the movies you show are kid-friendly, like Hocus Pocus, Casper, and Corpse Bride.

8. Get outside

If you simply MUST get out of the house for a fright-night activity, see if there are any open-air, one-way, walk-though haunted forests near you, where appropriate mask use and social distancing measures are enforced.

How ever you choose to celebrate Halloween this year, make sure to be safe and have fun. Check out the CDC’s website for guidance on low-risk, moderate-risk and high-risk activities.