Little ghosts and goblins and princes and princesses will soon be hitting the pavement on the prowl for the best candy of the year! But, do you have the BEST of the BEST for everything Halloween ready yet? No? Now’s the time to start!
Party or Not to Party?
Many families opt to just go for a night of trick-or-treating. That’s all fun and well, but what if you don’t want to do that this year? Consider the age of your kids. If you have older children, they may not want to go running amuck with the littles. So, a party for them would be best. Also, if you’re kids are just too small, staying home on an otherwise cold night, would also be good. Or, maybe you live in an isolated area. Sometimes partnering up with friends and family to visit their neighborhoods is good, too.
However, if you’re planning to have a party at your house to celebrate Halloween, stock up now while the gettin’ is good! Need some ideas? Check out our Pinterest boards. You’ll find some awesome ideas for some pretty spooky-fun treats. But, the key is — make your lists now!
- Menu List: Go ahead and create a list of what you’d like to have for food, treats and drinks. Don’t worry if your list is long, the more options you have for what you can do the better. If you make your list now, once you figure out the number of people coming, you’ll be able to make a more precise decision on what’s worth having. For instance, you don’t want to spend too much time on a delectable treat if it only yields a small amount and your guest list is huge!
- Guest List: The list everyone dreads. Go ahead and plan for family because 95% of the time they’re going to come anyway (if they’re all still in the same local vicinity as you that is). Then go down your friends list. Include everyone on the list that have children, especially the ones that are new to the area or who live in an area without a neighborhood. Once you’ve got your long list, go back over it and really determine whether or not they would be able to make it.
- Decor List: Again, visit us on Pinterest! We’ve rounded up a ton of fun and easy-to-make items that are great for decorating the home. Or, here’s a craft we’ve done in the past that is so EASY to do: Eyeball Halloween Wreath, Monster Mums or Giant Spider Egg. Need a little inspiration? Check out our Crafty Inspiration for Halloween post. Now, it’s just whether or not you want to make them. If you do, getting them started now is best. That way, as time approaches, all you have to worry about is putting them up. If you start creating your own decor now, you’ll have more time to do it right and make it look good. Now, you don’t want to neglect the little things. Plan to have a few small items to set around the food and on the tables around the house, too. Now that you’ve made your decor list and made the decision of what to make or what to buy, start planning on when to make them as well as where and when to put them up. Starting your Halloween crafts now leaves you more time to deal with other items — like the food!
Hatch a giant spider egg using only a white balloon and a bag of spider web material that comes with spiders.
Your mums can get in on the action by painting eyeballs on pieces of egg carton.
Scrunch up black fabric around a wreath and add small white balloons decorated as eyes for a spooky door hanger!
Gotta Have the BEST Halloween Costume!
This year seems to have been a great year when it comes to movies and you’re going to see a lot of those characters come Halloween night — like Star Wars: The Force Awakens. You can either buy your child’s costume or make it yourself, too. So, if you’re opting to personalize it and make it your own, better start gathering those materials! That way you have time to craft it and make adjustments. Here are some costume ideas that we think are going to be tops this year (in no particular order — some of these you might dress up, or dress down, depending on theme and age of your child):
Ages 0 – 3
- Pikachu baby, dad as Pokémon trainer
- Nemo or Dory from Finding Dory
- Slimer from Ghost Busters (best for baby wearing)
- BB8 from Star Wars: The Force Awakens
- Minions
- Angry Birds
- Cave boy from The Good Dinosaur
- Ryder from Paw Patrol
- Lambie or Stufy for the baby and Doc McStuffins for the Mom
- Spider baby in carrier with parent as the web
Ages 4 – 6
- PJ Masks
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle
- Shopkins
- Disney Descendants‘ characters
- My Little Pony
- Inside Out characters
- Officer Judy Hopps from Zootopia
- Emoji’s
- LEGO characters
- Really, any princess or super hero fashioned out of a tulle skirt
Ages 7 and older
- Star Wars the Force Awakens characters
- Pikachu and Pokémon characters
- Ghostbusters
- Wonder Woman
- Batman
- Alice in Wonderland
- The Joker
- Harley Quinn
- Deadpool
- Minecraft characters
Halloween Express shares what they think will be the top costumes for kids this year and that includes Armored Batman, Calico Cat Kigarumi Funsie, Lego Nexo Knights Clay, Shopkins Strawberry Kiss, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle 2 Raphael, Disney Descendants Mal Isle of the Lost, Halo Blue Spartan, Disney Princess Jasmine, Star Wars Kylo Ren and Wonder Woman. With that said, you should expect those costumes to be hard to find the closer it gets to Halloween!
Oh, the CANDY!
Kids talk and around this time of the year, the main focus is on where to go to get the best candy! Yeah, everyone’s always told to trick-or-treat in your own neighborhood, but we all know that’s not gonna happen. Parents strive to be the crowd-pleasing cool parents. So, whether your going to provide the top candy or you’re going for the hunt, here’s what you need to know:
- If you’re opting to just have a party, encourage the other parents to bring a bag of candy. Set up a candy loot bag station with all the candy out on display and the bags and ties set to the side. This is a fun way for kids to pick and choose what they want and fill a little bag to take home.
- If you’re going to buddy-up with a friend and go in their neighborhood, take a bag of candy for whomever stays behind to hand out while you’re out with the kids.
- Watch the sales papers for candy coupons and which stores are putting them on sale, too. You don’t want to be left with purchasing the expensive stuff last minute — which could also be slim pickin’s.
- Plan to purchase at least one bag a week leading up to the big day. That way you can get the best of the best and pace yourself.
- Consider little party favors, too. It doesn’t have to be all candy, anyway, right?
