Halloween Fun at Home With the Family | Crafts, Recipes, Activities, and More!

Halloween isn’t a day, it’s a season! From recipes to crafts to activities, we have enough ideas to keep your little ones entertained all month long.

Boston Moms is happy to present you with this list of resources made to help families find all sorts of FUN celebrating Halloween however you like, whether you’re out and about or sticking closer to home.

How to Use this Guide

Each image leads to a family-friendly Halloween resource. Click on an image to find more info, or take your time scrolling through to find the information that best suits your family.

Recipes

Halloween is all about the TREATS! Trick-or-treating is, of course, the culmination of the spooky season, but there are SO many fun themed foods you can try all month long! Here are a few options that are sure to make your family smile.

Halloween Snack Mix

Halloween snack mix is a super fun and 100% customizable way to make snack time SPECIAL this month! There are so many ways to create a snack mix. Below you’ll find one snack mix that includes many extra special treats. For a healthier alternative, opt for things like yogurt-covered raisins, apricots, dried orange slices, and nuts!

For the snack mix:

Simply add all ingredients to a large bowl and mix together! Store in an airtight container for up to 1 week. Enjoy!

Ingredients:

Bugles
Pretzels
Teddy Grahams
Mini candy corn
Mini peanut butter cups
Reese’s Pieces
Marshmallows
Peanuts

Spider Donuts

Spider DONUTS? Yes!

These adorable breakfast treats are sure to put a smile on your kiddos’ faces! Pair them with a ghost banana (instructions below) for a complete breakfast.

Spider donuts:

Donut holes or mini donuts

Pretzels (big, not the tiny ones)

Black cookie icing

Candy eyeballs

Carefully break your pretzels to make 8 spider legs per donut

Push the “legs” into each side of the donut

Use black icing as glue to secure candy eyeballs

Enjoy!

Spooky Smoothies

By Tracy Skelly, Boston Moms contributing writer and founder of The Little Cocoa Bean Company

With the last bit of mild weather upon us, these slushy, refreshing, tasty treats are a guilt-free way to celebrate Halloween with your littles. This activity allows the kids to practice healthy choices in a fun and on-theme way. Get the kids involved by allowing them to pick the color they’d like their spooky smoothie to be. Next, brainstorm with the kids and write down a list of fruits and veggies that are the color they chose. Take that list to the grocery store and pick out the ingredients for your smoothies. My family chose green, white, and orange. Spend time decorating your smoothie containers with fun Halloween-themed stencils. We chose mason jars and decorated with glass pens, but you can use regular glass cups, mugs, styrofoam cups, or plastic cups. Once everyone has decorated their containers, peel and cut your ingredients. Blend with ice. Use fun reusable straws, and enjoy!

Goblin Green Smoothie:

Kale
Bok choy
Spinach
Kiwi
Green apple
Ice and water

Pumpkin Orange Smoothie:

Papaya
Mango
Nectarine
Carrots
Orange juice
Ice

Ghostly White Smoothie:

Banana
Dragon fruit
Honeycrisp apple
Coconut cream

Mummy Hot Dogs

Think “pigs in a blanket” but HALLOWEEN STYLE! This super easy and inexpensive treat is sure to keep your family happy this Halloween.

Cut crescent roll dough into long strips. Wrap the strips around each hot dog, just like a mummy! Place seam down on a cookie sheet and bake at 350 for about 20 minutes (depending on the thickness of your dough strips). Serve with ketchup and mustard!

Bun-length hot dogs
Crescent roll dough
Ketchup
Mustard

Apple Nachos

This one’s a fun after-school or after-sports snack for kids of all ages!

Slice apples and lay flat on a plate or platter. Use melted peanut butter, melted Nutella, or caramel sauce to drizzle on top of the apples. Top with the toppings of your choice!

Apples
Melted peanut butter, Nutella, or caramel sauce
Shredded coconut
Chocolate chips
Sprinkles

Alternate toppings: nuts, raisins, mini marshmallows, butterscotch chips, etc.!

Apple Monster Pops

By Chelsey Weaver, Boston Moms Community Engagement Coordinator

These pops are perfect for a fun monster treat for younger kiddos — or tweens who want to “try it themselves.” They’re chocolatey, easy, and have endless decorating possibilities!

Ingredients and Materials:

Large apples (expect to get 4 slices out of each apple)
Melting chocolate
Cake pop sticks
Sprinkles
Candy eyes
Tray lined with parchment paper

Directions:

Wash and thoroughly dry your apples, then slice them vertically. Make sure the slices are thick enough to stick a cake pop through. “Dry” the flesh of the apples with a paper towel to suck out some of the juice.
Melt your chocolate using a microwave or a double boiler.
Poke the cake pop stick into the apple, making sure it doesn’t poke out the other side.
Dunk the apple into the melting chocolate. To prevent the apple from sliding off, use a spoon to help brace the non-stick side.
Let the excess chocolate drip off, and place the apple on the tray with parchment paper.
Decorate quickly, before the chocolate starts to dry!
Once finished, set the apples to harden at room temperature. Do not put them in the refrigerator or freezer (unless you want a giant, mushy mess and a very disappointed kid).

Chocolate Covered Marshmallows

By Chelsey Weaver, Boston Moms Community Engagement Coordinator

This easy-to-make dessert is a crowd pleaser (or at least it was, back in the day when we had crowds!) and has lots of easy variations! You can make them as simple or elaborate as you and your kids want, and they’re still just as delicious!

Ingredients and Materials:

Marshmallows
Cake pop sticks
Melting chocolate
Sprinkles
Any other decorating materials
Cape pop holder (can be as simple as holes drilled into an Amazon box!)

Directions:

Put your marshmallows on the cake pop sticks, and arrange them into the holder.
Arrange all decorating materials (since you’ll have a limited window to decorate!).
Melt the chocolate in the microwave or double boiler.
Dip the marshmallow into the chocolate to the desired depth, let the excess chocolate drip off, and place back on the cake pop holder.
Decorate! You may need to decorate one by one so you don’t end up with chocolate that’s already hardened!
Want some other decorating ideas? Make the marshmallows into a pumpkin, ghost, Frankenstein, monster, candy corn, Minion, or mummy. Or, add white-chocolate-covered pretzels to the cake pop stem to make a skeleton.

Crafts

Roll up your sleeves and embrace the “crafternoon.” We know your schedules are crammed, but try to set aside time to get messy and CREATE together!

Candy Corn Window Cling

Follow these easy instructions to create your own stained “glass” candy corn for Halloween!

Materials:
Black cardstock or construction paper, orange tissue paper, yellow tissue paper, white tissue paper, contact paper, scissors, a pencil.

Instructions:
1. Fold your cardstock in half and sketch half of a candy corn shape as a guide when cutting (see pictures below for examples). Cutting while the paper is folded will ensure you have a symmetrical candy corn!

2. Cut out the candy corn shape. Be careful to center the candy corn on the paper so you have a “hole” in the cardstock paper and the entire paper is not cut.

3. Cut a piece of contact paper just large enough to cover the entire piece of cardstock.

4. Lay the cardstock on top of the sticky side of the contact paper.

5. Allow your child to decorate inside of the candy corn with tissue paper shapes or scraps! The contact paper will ensure all the tissue paper scraps stick inside of the creation.

6. When your child is finished, place another piece of contact paper (sticky side down) on top of the candy corn shape. This will “seal” your artwork and ensure nothing stays sticky!

7. Tape your art to a window, and let the light shine through like stained glass!

Paint a Pumpkin

A Twist (or Squeeze) on Pumpkin Painting
By Sarah Casimiro

With an almost 2-year-old and a 4-year-old in our home, pumpkin carving is out of the question, especially when the little one is quick to grab and run away! This year, we decided to paint our pumpkins, but in a less traditional way — using fluorescent paints and squeeze bottles!

Starting with an old, unused, vinyl tablecloth, we set the scene for an easy cleanup — outside. We then filled each squeeze bottle with a different paint color. Next, the fun began. My 4-year-old pointed and squeezed paint all over each pumpkin, taking care to cover and layer the colors atop each gourd. Once each color was added, she used googly eyes in various shapes and colors on each pumpkin. The biggest pumpkin even had the honor of being decorated with tiny, colorful, glittery pompoms.

Last, and why I’m most thankful we completed this project outside, she sprinkled (i.e., dumped) glitter all over her newly painted friends. This all happened while the almost 2-year-old danced, laughed, and pointed at the pumpkins her sister decorated, shouting “punkin!” and “pwitty!”

The end result was a pack of psychedelic, festive Halloween pumpkin monsters that we now have proudly displayed on our front porch! Fair warning — if your child is as heavy-handed with the paint as mine is, it will likely take more than 24 hours to dry!

Apple Stamps

Ghost Hand Keepsake

Busy Toddler Halloween Sensory Bin

Activities

Want to focus on family togetherness but with something NEW or FUN to do? Start here! These are some great ideas for activities your whole family will enjoy.

Neighborhood Activities

"Boo" Your Neighbor

By Megan Samborski, Boston Moms Contributing Writer

“Boo”ing our neighbors is an activity my daughters have so much fun with every year!

What is “boo”ing your neighbors? In our neighborhood, boo’ing begins in early October, when families create fun Halloween packages or treat bags and anonymously leave them on another neighbor’s doorstep. The package has instructions on how to keep the fun going and surprise more neighbors in the weeks leading up to Halloween. Your neighbor will hang up the sign on their door (which you include in the package) announcing they have been boo’ed, then they’ll “boo” two more neighbors.

Ready to get started?

Gather your supplies — candy, stickers, Halloween flair, or decorations (make it as spooky as possible)! The Dollar Tree and Target dollar section have so many fun trinket options.
Print our free BOO printable to add to your package. This gives the recipient instructions on how to keep the fun going throughout the neighborhood!
Create your package or treat bag and leave it with the instructions on your neighbor’s doorstep!

We love this activity every year because it promotes some community fun in anticipation of Halloween, and the kids love trying to guess who “boo”ed them! With the uncertainty of Halloween festivities in 2020 and social distancing still in play, this is a tradition that requires no interaction but is still a lot of fun!

Pumpkin Tic-Tac-Toe

Mystery Halloween Touch & Feel

This is a fun game for older kiddos using things you probably already have around the house!

Label black (or any paper) bags with spooky words like “witch fingers,” “eyeballs,” “worms,” etc. Place mystery items from around the house in each bag. Ask your kids to reach in and feel the sticky, gooey, silly insides. See if they can guess what’s really inside!

Items to include:

Marshmallows
Grapes
Carrots
Banana peel covered in olive oil
Noodles
Nuts or shells of nuts
Rubber glove filled with flour or water
Toothpicks
Cotton balls
Jello

Make a Monster

Halloween Scavenger Hunt

Halloween Candy Bingo