Are you ready for Halloween? If you're not quite ready yet and feeling bad about it, don't worry. Today I'm sharing 7 Last Minute Halloween Ideas for a Fun Holiday!
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Halloween always sneaks up on me! I am usually so excited for it and have lots of big celebratory ideas and then BAM... it's here before I know it. A few days ago I kinda got bummed out because we haven't yet done all of the fun things we usually do because we have been SO. DANG. BUSY. I'm sure you can relate because this is a busy time of year!
I had myself a pity party for a minute and then I decided to get over myself and make plans. I came up with 7 ideas that aren't hard but are fun and make me in the mood for celebration!
7 Easy Ideas to Help Celebrate Halloween
All 7 of these ideas are simple to do. You will enjoy doing them with your family and your kids will be so excited and happy!
1. Make and Deliver Cookies
When I was growing up, we didn't live near family, so we adopted ourselves into many families that lived near us. I distinctly remember visiting the house of one of our adopted family members at Halloween time and eating the best sugar cookies on the planet. Now frosted sugar cookies = love at the holidays.
Now that I'm a grown up, I love to make sugar cookies with my own family. Sure, it's a lot of work to shop for dough ingredients, make the dough, chill the dough, roll and cut out the dough, bake and frost the cookies and then clean up the mess. But I never regret taking the time to do this. It's one of our family's favorite activities at the holidays!
Several years ago our ward (church congregation) put together a recipe book with all of the members favorite recipes. This recipe makes sugar cookies that are very close to the cookies from my childhood. Of course, you could always use a sugar cookie mix or even pre made sugar cookie dough.
The best part of making cookies, besides eating the dough, is delivering them to friends and family. I like to pile a bunch on a paper plate and deliver them to our neighbors!
2. Watch a Spooky Movie
Another one of our family's favorite holiday traditions is watching spooky (or not-so-spooky) Halloween movies.
We used to have a ton of DVD's to flip through and choose from. But now we just use a streaming service to watch our spooky movies.
Family friendly Halloween movies:
- Hocus Pocus
- Halloweentown
- The Haunted Mansion
- Harry Potter
- Goonies
- The Nightmare Before Christmas
- Monster House
- The Adams Family
- Hotel Transylvania
- Goosebumps
3. Carve Pumpkins
Carving pumpkins is totally old school and not new idea to celebrate Halloween. But it's a classic!
For several years my kids were too little to use a knife and/or were too grossed out by pumpkin guts to carve. So we painted pumpkins with craft paint. But now they are all big and are good to wield a knife and give those pumpkins a face. We usually use our kitchen spoons and knives but I'm thinking of getting this kit this year. I usually carve the same traditional pumpkin face every year. Check here for other carving ideas.
4. Light a Fall Candle
Nothing says holiday time like a good smelling house!
I found this wonderful smelling candle at Honeybee Antique Market here in Middle TN. I bet these candles smell wonderful as well! I also really like having a candle lit because the candlelight glow is so cozy!
5. Hang up Lights inside your House
In the fall, it gets dark so early which can be depressing. But adding lights inside can keep the cheer up!
Even if you don't decorate a whole bunch inside, place a strand or 2 of twinkle lights or plug in lights can set a fun atmosphere in your home.
6. Cut Bats out of Cardstock
Bats are an icon of Halloween. They are easy to cut out and make a big impact.
This idea is also reminiscent of when I was a child. Back then I would tape holiday decorations to the front window of my childhood home. In memory of that, my kids and I cut bats out of construction paper several years ago and taped them to our front window. I added a string of orange lights so that in the evening, with the background of our white curtains, the bats show up from the street. We have used those same bats for years now and they are in rough/well loved shape. It's become a fun family tradition.
7. Use Photos from Previous Halloweens
As a mom, one of the things I can be guaranteed to do at Halloween, is take a photo or 10 of my cute kiddos in their Halloween finery. Why not use those photos to decorate the home?
I printed enlargements of my kids of the span of a few years. I wanted the photos to stand by themselves on our picture ledge shelves without frames. So I printed the photos in 8 x 10 and 11 x 14 in both black and white and color. Then I mounted them. Some photo printing labs can mount them on mat board for you. Or you can DIY it.
How to Mount Enlarged Photos
- Have photos printed at a local print shop (I use Walmart or Walgreens)
- Purchase a piece of foam core from the dollar store
- Lay the photo onto the foam core and trace around it with a pencil
- Use a straight edge ruler and hobby knife to cut the foam core
- Glue the photo to the foam core with a photo safe adhesive
- Place your mounted photos on your shelf and look at how cute your babies used to be!
See, these ideas aren't hard at all. There is still plenty of time to do one or all of these 7 Last Minute Halloween Ideas
linking up to: Craftastic Monday
