Have A Howl This Halloween (And Not A Covid Scare)

Use project management tools to colla-boo-rate with your family for a frightfully great night.

Don’t abandon all hope! With a little out-of-the-coffin thinking, we can bring Halloween back from the grave. Photo by Sudan Ouyang on Unsplash

Thanks to coronavirus, it looks like Halloween parties and trick or treating are dead to most families this year. But that doesn’t mean that Halloween can’t be frightfully fun. If you get your brains together and colla-BOO-rate you can still have a night so good it’s scary.

For the fiendish families out there, here is a project and event manager’s guide on how to reanimate the spookiest night of the year and leave your kids screaming for more.

It’s okay to be a bit sad but try to think about what your kids really enjoy about Halloween as an event. Is it the candy? The costumes? Being spooked and scared? (It’s the candy, isn’t it.)

Often we get so attached to the habits around an occasion we forget what the purpose of the event is. And while traditions are nice, sometimes it’s good to bring the focus back to the event’s purpose rather than its rituals. So, if you want to have loads of spooktastic fun, read on!

Setting ghouls for the whole family

Blow the cobwebs off your thinking caps — ask your kids (your key stakeholders in this case) what they enjoy most about the night and what their Halloween goals are. Write them down, have a brainstorm, and look for themes and key goals that come up again and again. These are your project goals.

(If they’re like mine, they’re probably mainly just in it for the costuming, light scares and multiple buckets of sweets.)

Then have a think about what resources you have available to you. If you have time, a chat with your neighbors can be very useful too. I heard of one street, here in Ireland, where everyone has agreed to “hide” a pumpkin somewhere in their front yard. The kids get to enjoy the game of hide-and-spook — every time they spot a pumpkin their parent gives them candy, while the householders can wave from behind their windows.

You could also look up what your town is up to online. My city has several drive-by parades planned as well as online story-telling and discos — we can’t fit everything in on Saturday so we’re making a weekend of it!

Get some ideas on what the purpose of and best things are about Halloween are for your kids, and then get planning how to make them happen.

Brainstorm and set the (horror) scene

Collaborate, explore and define ideas around your family’s goals — make a plan with them to deliver things they enjoy most, and set their expectations for that rather than dwelling on what you usually do.

Let the kids flesh out their ideas — I know of one child who asked her parents to trick or treat around the different rooms in the house with them answering the doors, which is super cute, easy to do, and completely corona-safe.

Tricks and treats all over the house! Credit to Twisted Doodles

Pick a couple of ideas you can run with; that way if one falls a little flat, one of the others is bound to be more spooktacular. Don’t forget to set a budget as well as your expectations (unless you want to end up gasping in horror at your bank balance on Nov 1) and do up a rough timeline of what needs to be done when to make it all come together. This is your project plan.

Then, set your little monsters to work!

Get by with a little help from your fiends

Delegate as much as you can. Don’t micro-manage, let them have a go at creating their own Halloween traditions, decorations, tricks and treats.

Try to keep your resting-witch-face under wraps and let them explore how to implement their ideas. Yes, there’s probably going to be a ghastly mess at some point but teams thrive when they are trusted and supported — you may be surprised by how capable and creative they can be!

It’s not just about saving you effort, research has found children are more motivated when they have a choice and can work on things they find meaningful. Give them a little wiggle room as to how things can be done. Keep an eye on the schedule and cost to make sure neither of those are going out the haunted house window, but other than that, have fun!

Be the braaaaaains of the operation

Check-in occasionally and manage the project — are you going to deliver their goals? How will you know when you have done this? Are the goals SMART (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic and Timely)?

Don’t wander off the path and start chasing fairies — keep an eyeball on what your kids’ expectations are, and aim to deliver what you all agreed on.

And, importantly, keep asking yourself are you all having fun. Knocking off tasks is a great feeling but having fun with the whole process is a priority here too! Work with your minions to keep them on track, remember why you’re doing this, and try to enjoy the build-up as well as the event.

It’s alive!

Come up with your frightfully good ideas, it’s time to bring them to life! It will be dark and dreary here in Ireland, so our plans need to be waterproof. Some ideas we came up with include:

1. A torchlit haunted house search around our home for their candy.
2. Some spooky video calls to their friends to see costumes.
3. A ghost-story and walk around the neighborhood, with a sweet for each spooky house they spot.
4. Traditional Irish Halloween games, including the Mummy’s tomb and bobbing for apples.
5. Making pop-up cards to scare Nana and Grandad (sorry, guys!).
6. A torchlight disco, spooky movie and popcorn to round off the night.

For those of you in the Southern Hemisphere, it’s likely to be a balmy bright spring night (I’m not jealous — no, wait, I am) so wet outdoor games such as bobbing for apples and playing with slime actually sound a lot more a-peeling there.

That’s our list so far, if you come up with good ideas I would love to hear them — pop them in the comments!

Socially distancing doesn’t mean we can’t do spooktacular. Photo by Sašo Tušar on Unsplash

Hopefully your Halloween is all set up to be a howling success! Enjoy the night and — for bonus project management points — make sure to get feedback after.

What did they really enjoy? What was a bit more effort than fun? Are ghosts real? Is there any such thing as too many sweets? (My children tell me there isn’t, the little monsters.)

Have a happy — and safe — Halloween!