Family Friendly Halloween Traditions

Are you looking for some fun things to do with your family during the Halloween season?  Well, you've come to the right place because I have Family Friendly Halloween Traditions that are a blast to do, no matter how old your kids are!


Family Friendly Halloween Traditions  -  fun ideas for family to do during the Halloween season

I stinking LOVE celebrating and holidays!  There can be so much build up for just one night that I like to do little things to celebrate the season and make it last longer.  

Halloween Traditions that are family friendly

I have passed on my love of celebrating to my kids so they look forward to these things every year!


paint or carve pumpkins

We went through several years where carving pumpkins grossed our kids out.  So we painted them with craft paint.  Now that they are older, we're back to carving.  My kids like chasing each other around the kitchen with pumpkin guts!


Family Friendly Halloween Traditions  -  carve or paint pumpkins

make and decorate sugar cookies

I'm not going to lie, I don't love making sugar cookies from scratch.  It's a ton of effort (dude, it takes some serious arm muscles to stir 4 cups of flour into the dough) and makes a huge mess.  But once a year, I usually talk myself into making them.  They are SUPER tasty and my kids love to decorate them.


Family Friendly Halloween Traditions  -  decorate sugar cookies


movie nights with decorations

It takes very little effort to hang up a strand of lights and make movie watching fun and spooky!

Family Friendly Halloween Traditions  -  movie nights


We aren't fans of scary or gory movies, so we keep it pretty much PG rated.  Some of our favorite family friendly Halloween movies are:

  • Hocus Pocus
  • Harry Potter, any of them.  Of course I'm a total HP nerd, so I think these movies are perfect any time of year!
  • Halloween Town 
  • Goosebumps
  • Spooky Buddies
  • Hotel Transylvania

visit the pumpkin patch

Even though my kids are older, we still visit the pumpkin patch every year.  I cannot let a year go by without this holiday staple.  Of course, we usually don't buy our pumpkins there (unfortunately they are quite pricey) and opt for grocery store pumpkins.


Family Friendly Halloween Traditions  -  visit the pumpkin patch


decorate a haunted cookie house

You can buy a kit at the store (like this one at Trader Joe's) or just use graham crackers like I do at Christmas time.  With a little bit of frosting and a bunch of candy, this would be a super fun activity to do with family members.


Family Friendly Halloween Traditions  -  decorate at haunted cookie house

cut sandwiches in Halloween shapes

For school, my kids have always taken lunch from home.  At this time of year, I like to jazz up their PB&J by cutting them into shapes with cookie cutters.  My youngest is in middle school now so I'm sure it's super embarrassing, but whatever!  A crafty mom has to do what a crafty mom has to do!


Family Friendly Halloween Traditions  -  use cookie cutters to cut sandwiches into Halloween shapes


drink out of pumpkin cups

I found a package of 4 jack-o-lantern cups at Walmart for $1.  How fun is it to use them for our every day drinking cups in October?


Family Friendly Halloween Traditions  -  drink out of pumpkin cups


have candle lit dinners

This one costs no money.  You can set a spooky scene and make regular dinners a little more special simply by lighting candles and eating by candle light.


Family Friendly Halloween Traditions  -  candle lit dinners

countdown calendar

I made this perpetual calendar several years ago from scrapbook paper and embellishments.  We have so much fun sticking these magnets on our fridge every day!


Family Friendly Halloween Traditions  -  Halloween count down


Celebrating the little things in life are what make it more fun!  These Family Friendly Halloween Traditions make the spooky holiday even more special!


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