Halloween fun

I love holidays.  When my children were little once a month we would take down the decorations for the holiday that had just passed and put up our decorations for the holiday coming.  This was a fun family activity and helped the children sense the passage of time. 

Like many of you one of my favorite holidays is Halloween.  I love trick-or-treating.  I loved taking the children around the neighborhood.  It was a great way for me to see and meet many of the neighbors.  My children loved it when I would go with them.  One year dad took them out trick-or-treating.  He went around the circle and came home.  Then our children asked me if I would take them back out.  Although I have heard them say they had to beg me to go home and I would say, “just one more house”.

Here are a couple of games and some ideas that are easy, simple, and have made for fun traditions in our home.


Spider Hide N’ Seek

 One year someone gave us a rubber spider.  I didn’t know what to do with it so I started hiding it for the children to find.  Pretty soon we had a game.  Every year when we pulled out the Halloween decorations I hid the spider first.  Then the game began. Whoever found the spider hid it next.

At first we had only one rule.  It had to be in plain sight.  As the children grew this rule morphed into you had to be able to see at least part of the spider.  We also added another rule.  If you hide the spider and it hasn’t been found in two days you needed to hide it in a more obvious spot.  This kept the spider moving and gave everyone a chance.

I now hide the spider and my grandchildren love to come over and play spider hide n’ seek.

Witch’s Brew

We created this game for a family activity.  The family sits in a circle.  One person is “it” and they stand in the center of the circle.  Each person in the family is given a name of something relating to Halloween like: witch, ghost, bat, pumpkin, etc.  The person in the center calls out a name or two and they have to switch places.  The person left standing is now “it”.  Once in a while the person who is “it” will call out, “Witch’s brew”, at which time everyone sitting has to change where they are.  It is a lot of fun, gets everyone moving, and the faster you go the wilder the game can become.

Grilled Cheese Jack-o-Lanterns

Another thing we enjoy doing during October is to eat things that are Halloween themed.  You can have dinner where everything is orange, black, green, and/or purple (Halloween colors).  We love making and eating grilled cheese jack-o-lanterns.  These are very easy to do.  The bread is easier to carve if it is frozen.  Take a piece of bread and put a layer of cheese on top.  Take another piece of bread and carve out a face using a knife.  Put the carved bread on top of the cheese and grill.  Don’t forget to put oil or butter on the bread or in the pan so the sandwich won’t stick. It puts a new twist on a classic dish. 

You can do this with tortillas and have Halloween quesadillas.  You can change the face or add ingredients to your sandwich.  Just experiment and have fun with it.

Halloween mini pizzas

Halloween is a great time to let your children create their own Halloween monster pizza.  For the crust you can make your own dough or use refrigerator biscuits, English muffins, tortillas, or whatever you would like.  Then we put on sauce.  The sauce can be anything from a jar of spaghetti sauce to making your own (see simple recipe below).  If you are making a mummy or ghost use a jar of white Alfredo sauce and any white cheese of your choice for the base. Then let your children have fun making a pumpkin, witch, ghost, vampire, mummy, whatever they want.  Let their imagination run wild.  Use pepperoni, sausage, tomatoes, olives, mushrooms, green pepper, and other toppings you can think to make the face.  You can cut the topping ingredients to different shapes or use as they are.  Bake it as directed on your dough recipe. If using English muffins or tortillas usually baking in a 350 degree oven for 5 minutes will do it.  You’ll know it’s done if the crust is brown and cheese melted to your liking.

Simple pizza/spaghetti sauce recipe:

1 15 ounce tomato sauce

1 teaspoon oregano

1 teaspoon basil

½ teaspoon garlic powder

½ teaspoon onion powder

½ teaspoon salt

¼ teaspoon sugar

Combine ingredients in a saucepan.  Bring to a boil over medium heat.  Boil for a few minutes to allow the spices to combine their flavors.  You have a great, simple sauce.

Carving Pumpkins

One last Halloween tip, as my children became teenagers we discovered pumpkin carving.  If you wait until it gets closer to Halloween or it is over, many of the craft stores and grocery stores will sell their pumpkin carving tools and pattern books at a discounted price.  Put them with your Halloween decorations for the following year.  This is an easy way to remember and find them for the next year. We also found if we copied the original pattern and used the copy then we could use the patterns over and over again.  My children also liked making their own patterns.  They would draw it out on paper first and follow the same procedure for carving a pumpkin.  

Jan