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I have reluctantly been drawn into the whole Halloween craze in the past couple of years. I’ve never really understood the excitement surrounding all things ghoulish in October. However as the kids have become that little bit older I’ve started realising how fun Halloween really can be.

Here’s our list of must-do Halloween activities.

Visit a Pumpkin Patch

Every supermarket seems to sell the larger pumpkins at the end of October, but it’s much more fun to visit a pumpkin patch and buy your pumpkin from a local farm.

Carve or Decorate a Pumpkin

I never enjoyed carving pumpkins, mostly because the smell of pumpkin makes me want to vomit! In the past few years we have had to set up a system where my husband helps scoop out the flesh and I help the kids with the carving. It’s so easy to do when you have pumpkin carving tools! We’ve done a few different ones over the years, from Batman to bunnies, to Jack Skellington and Peppa Pig and it’s nice to sit and do it all as a family.

Read Halloween stories

Along with recalling your own ghost stories, there’s plenty of children’s books that are ideal to read at Halloween. We love :

Make Toffee Apples

It’s great to get the kids involved in making toffee apples. You can make the traditional “toffee” using golden syrup, caster sugar and a bit of food colouring. However we prefer to use melted chocolate. The kids can dip their apples into the melted chocolate, roll them through so sprinkles and voila! The perfect Halloween treat.

Watch A Halloween Movie

There are plenty of kids films that are great for Halloween. They may not be as scary as IT or The Exorcist but they’re fun to watch as a family! We wrote a list of our favourite Halloween movies for kids.

Bobbing For Apples

The traditional Apple Bobbing never goes out of style! It’s simple, cheap and most of all fun!

Make Halloween Cookies

Again, something fun to do with the kids which doesn’t cost the earth. You can by cookie cutters and use icing to make your own little ghosts or pumpkins!

Scavenger Hunt

If Trick-or-treating isn’t your thing, a scavenger hunt is a great alternative. Create a list of spooky things to find, and head around your neighbourhood on Halloween nighty and tick off the things you find. Cobwebs, cauldrons, children dressed as witches – there’s so many things you can add to your list!

Go On A Spooky Ghost Train

A couple of years ago we had a great time on East Lancashire Railway’s Halloween Ghost Train. The kids loved showing off their fancy dress outfits as we embarked on a haunted steam train ride, complete with scary characters!

Trick or Treat

The most obvious of all the Halloween activities and we only did it for the first time last year. It had never appealed to me, and the children had never asked to go so we never bothered. Last year they did ask so we took them and to my surprise we all had a lovely time! We took them around the houses close to their school and they saw so many of their school friends (and even teachers!) and there was a really lovely atmosphere. We’ll definitely be doing it again this year.

What do you enjoy doing at Halloween? Or do you try and avoid it all together? Let me know in the comments!

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