Fun Alternatives to Trick or Treating

There are lot of reasons trick or treating may not be appealing to your family. It may be that your neighborhood doesn’t have a lot of houses that participate or maybe it’s too cold. In some cases the fun alternatives to trick or treating are just better than going door to door, asking for candy.

Fun Alternatives to Trick or Treating

Here are five fun alternatives to trick or treating this year

Check With Your Local Community Center

The first is get in touch with your local community or recreation center to find out if they have any planned activities for Halloween. They may have a costume party or a night filled with games for everyone to enjoy.

Get Treats at the Mall

For those who don’t want their kids to go trick or treating in the streets, their kids can still do this by going to the mall. This is because some shopping malls encourage their tenants to provide candies and other goodies for shoppers. There are also costume parades and contests which the kids will love to watch and maybe win a few prizes.

If you live in a small town, chances are there is an activity for the evening like perhaps a dance or a concert.

Have a Spook Fest

Teenage kids and adults can catch chills and thrills by hosting an evening of watching scary movies with friends. Order pizza or put some chili in the crockpot, pop some popcorn and you’re good to go. Some classic movies to consider are The Shining, Rosemary’s Baby and you can’t let a night of horror movies go by without watching The Exorcist.

Visit a Haunted House

You can also go with your kids and visit a haunted house. This event is usually sponsored by the local community to raise funds and what they do is rent a house for the evening, decorate the place and scare people all in the spirit of fun.

Have a Party

If you don’t feel like venturing out on Halloween, let the fun come to you by hosting a Halloween party. You can plan it weeks in advance so you have time to buy the decorations, stock up on food and send out the invitations. Last minute get togethers can be easy too. Call up a few friends, ask everyone to bring a dish and put out a big bowl of candy.

You and yours kids can then spend quality time together by putting the decor up like hang fake spider webs through the entry way after cutting them out using black construction paper, put out tombstones made from Styrofoam that can be made or purchased from craft stores and of course pumpkins which you can carve out yourself.

As for sounds, you can download a few songs as we all sound effects into you MP3 player then just put speakers around the house. To create a foggy atmosphere when people approach your home, buy some dry ice.

Plan a few games like the classic, bobbing for apples. Another fun activity is to gather objects that are odd to touch, put them in paper bags and have your guests try to guess what they are just be feeling.

As for dinner, serve spaghetti that look like eyeballs, tomato soup and a few other dishes that are ideal for the occasion.

Since there will be kids attending the party, make sure there are games for them as well. One game could be pin the skeleton which is very similar to pin the donkey. You can also bake caramel apples so the kids can just grab them when they want another one.

Planning and hosting a Halloween party doesn’t need to take a lot of work. The most important part of a party are the guests. Be sure to take time to enjoy the festivities too!

Originally published at Modern Homeschool Family.