Is Halloween one of your kids’ favorite times of the year? Let’s make it even better! Here are 31 fun Halloween Activities for kids (and the whole family) to countdown to Halloween all through October!
My kids love Halloween. Maybe it’s the candy. Maybe it’s just because it’s the first holiday of the Halloween-Thanksgiving-Christmas trio. But whatever it is, Halloween is always a big deal!
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We love to do 25 Days of Christmas activities each year as a way to countdown to Christmas, but you don’t have to wait that long- you can have a 31 Days of Halloween filled with fall and Halloween activities to make the holiday season more exciting and full of memories!
Here are my 31 Halloween activities, outings, and crafts to with your kids this October as you countdown to Halloween!
31 Countdown to Halloween Activities for Kids for a Fun October!
Visit a Pumpkin Patch
You can’t have Halloween without a pumpkin, right??
Find a local pick your own pumpkin patch and let the kids pick out their own special pumpkin for the holiday!
Carve Jack-o-Lanterns
Once you get your pumpkins, make a day of carving them. Add a candle and light them at night!
Note- don’t carve your jack-o-lanterns too early or they will mold before Halloween!
Paint Pumpkins
Painting is another great way to use your Halloween pumpkin.
Just give the kids some paints and brushes and let them paint however they wish! Toddlers and preschoolers might enjoy washing the pumpkin after it’s done (so they can paint again)!
Watch a Halloween Movie
Have a Halloween Themed movie night! Here are some of my family favorites:
- It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown
- The Nightmare Before Christmas
- The Witches
- Hotel Transylvania
- Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit
- Hocus Pocus
- Labyrinth
- Ghost Busters
Read Halloween Books
Head to the library or a bookstore and pick up some Halloween themed books for story time. Here’s some of my favorites:
- Biscuit Visits the Pumpkin Patch
- The Berenstain Bears Trick or Treat
- Room on the Broom
- Trick or Treat, Little Critter
- Five Little Pumpkins
Print out these Free Printable Halloween Bookmarks for even more Halloween fun!
Make Edible Candy Corn Slime
Candy corn is one of the favorite candies of Halloween. Why not make it into edible slime??
With just a few ingredients you can make edible candy corn slime that’s fun to play with AND taste!
Here’s how to make it: How to Make Candy Corn Slime
Listen to Halloween Music
Find a Halloween playlist on Amazon Music, Spotify, or your favorite streaming service and have a dance party!
Some songs to listen to:
- Monster Mash
- Flying Purple People Eater
- Ghostbusters
- This is Halloween
There are tons of kids song available to stream online as well.
Hammer Pumpkins
We love to use pumpkins for more than just jack-o-lanterns in the fall. There are just so many fun activities to do with pumpkins.
Such as hammering into them! This is a great fine motor activity for young kids, but kids of all ages will have fun!
Here’s how to do it: Hammering Pumpkins Fine Motor Activity
Roast Pumpkin Seeds
You can’t go through fall without making some roasted pumpkin seeds right?
Save the seeds when you carve your pumpkins. Then just wash, season, and roast!
Here’s how to do it: How to Roast Pumpkin Seeds
Make a Tape Spider Web
I love spider web crafts for Halloween! This a fun way to decorate your house for Halloween and gives you a place to display your crafts.
Simply place masking tape, sticky side out, in a window or doorway in a spider web pattern.
Then use it to stick crafts or treat to!
Make Your Own Treat Bags
Prep for trick-or-treating by making your own treat bags! Sure you can use one of those plastic pumpkins, but making your own is a lot of fun.
We’ve made them out of colored duct tape before and they make really great, personalized treat bags. Just take a gallon sized ziploc bag and place the duct tape overtop. Then use a folded piece of tape to make the handle.
You could also get blank fabric bags and decorate with fabric paints or markers.
Make Halloween Cookies
Halloween’s all about the candy and sweets! Make your own homemade cookies for Halloween.
My sugar cookie recipe is the perfect base for cut out Halloween cookies. Use royal icing to decorate them!
Then eat them or save them to give away to friends and family for treats!
Make Your Halloween Costume
A quick search will give you tons of DIY Halloween costumes. We stopped buying costumes years ago, and now it’s up to the kids to come up with an idea and bring it to life for Halloween. It’s less money and tons more fun.
We’ve had a DIY Lego from a large box, a arrow and target, a cowboy, Teen Wolf, a princess, a lumberjack, and so many more!
Make Pumpkin Slime
Slime is fun any time of the year! Here’s a couple pumpkin slime recipes to try:
Go to a Corn Maze
Many local pumpkin patches will also have a corn maze as part of their activities. These are so much fun for the whole family!
You can do it in the daytime or try a haunted corn maze at night- if you aren’t too scared!
Search for Bats
Bats live in most areas of the USA. Have you ever looked for them outside at night?
Go outside in your yard (or to a park if you live in the city) and search the sky for bats. The best time to see them is right around dusk, when there’s still enough light to see but it’s dark enough for them to come out to hunt.
Make Halloween Paper Crafts
Paper crafts are tons of fun for kids of all ages. This isn’t the time for picture perfect crafts, but just hand out some raw materials and have fun together making Halloween crafts.
Gather supplies such as:
- paints
- construction paper
- glue
- googly eyes
- pipe cleaners
- markers/crayons
And then get crafting- bats, monsters, Frankenstein’s Monster, werewolves, skeletons, witches- whatever you want!
Paint Halloween-Inspired Rocks
Rocks are another great medium for Halloween activities. You can use them to decorate your yard, garden, porch, or leave them in places such as the park or greenway for others to find. Smooth rocks and acrylic paints make for the best final product.
Here’s some Halloween rock painting ideas:
- Candy corn
- Pumpkin/jack-o-lanterns
- Aliens
- Monsters
- Spider/Spider web
- Ghosts
Just use your imagination!
Play with a Halloween Themed Sensory Bin
Kids love sensory bins! Make a Halloween one to explore.
You can use color, cooked pasta for a fun filler or just colored rice. Add in some spiders, pumpkins, or other ghostly toys and treats to play with.
Pumpkin Bowling
Pumpkin bowling is a fun outdoor Halloween activity for kids of all ages!
All you need is a few plastic bottles (raid the recycling bin!) and a small round pumpkin. Set the bottles up and roll the pumpkin down just like in real bowling.
Make a Jack-o-Lantern Pizza
Make pizza night more exciting by turning it into a jack-o-lantern!
Use pepperoni or other toppings to create the face and don’t forget to make a little stem in the crust!
This would be the perfect thing to bring to a Halloween Potluck!
Decorate Your Front Porch/Yard
Get the kids involved in decorating the house for Halloween.
Grab some pumpkins, gourds, hay bales, and maybe even make a scarecrow to create a scene in the front yard.
You can also go spooky if you want!
Have a Halloween Scavenger Hunt
Make your daily walk more exciting by turning it into a scavenger hunt! Here are some things to include in your list of things to find:
- a jack-o-lantern
- a spider
- a ghost
- black cat
Take a neighborhood walk or a trip to the park with your list. You could also hide items around the house or yard and then have the kids search for them!
Want a ready-made Halloween scavenger hunt? Check out these: Free Printable Halloween Scavenger Hunt (3 Different Versions!)
Go Apple Picking
Apple picking is a fall family tradition in our house.
Take a trip to a local u-pick farm and pick apples. Then make homemade applesauce!
Hold a Halloween Party
Get together with friends or family and hold a Halloween party.
Don’t forget the fun foods, music, and activities!
Take a Walk or Drive to Look a Decorations
Some people and neighborhoods go all out for Halloween in terms of decorations. Take a drive (or walk if you live in one) and take a look at all the different decorations and scary scenes in the front yards!
Make a Leaf Pile
What is fall without jumping is the leaves?
Get out the rake and make a big pile of leaves to jump in! My kids also love to bury themselves in the leaves and throw them EVERYWHERE!
Have a Bonfire or Cook Out
Cool fall evenings are a great backdrop for a family cookout or bonfire.
Get some hot dogs and some supplies to make s’mores and keep warm by the fire one night!
Visit a Fall Festival
You can usually find all sorts of festivals going on in the month of October.
Search your local paper or online for festivals near you- Bigfoot, Apple, Pumpkin, or even just general Fall festivals put on by schools or churches.
Make Caramel (or Candy) Apples
Caramel apples are one of my favorite fall treats to make for Halloween, so we always make sure to set aside a day to make a batch as we countdown to Halloween.
Here’s a great recipe to try: Homemade Caramel Apples
Go Trick or Treating
You can’t have Halloween without some Trick-or-Treating can you?
Put on your costumes and grab the treat bags and head out for some old fashioned trick or treating!
You can do a trunk or treat at a church, a neighborhood door-to-door, or even set up you own at home!
We’ve done our own version at home setting up different stations throughout the yard- front door, back door, barn door, a couple car trunks, etc.
Host a Halloween Egg Hunt
Halloween egg hunts are a annual tradition at our house.
Just like your Easter Egg hunts, but with a Halloween twist. It’s great for all ages and so much fun!
Here’s more on how to Host a Halloween Egg Hunt.
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