How To Have The Best COVID Free Halloween!

School is here!  And whether you are in person, or elearning, this time of year always gets me excited for the Fall. With the start of this glorious season, my children always start asking me about Halloween and discussing what they want to dress up as.

I have been dreading having this conversation with them.  They LOVE Halloween.  They love going trick or treating with their friends.  My oldest loves being able to run around the neighborhood without the boring adults.  My littles love seeing all the costumes and seeing how much candy they can get.  

This year, though, will be different.  The droves of people that come to the neighborhood will be slight, if any at all.  I'm not even sure if the town is going to officially allow Halloween.  Even if they do, I'm sure not many people are going to want to partake in it.  I know I don't want my children going from house to house, getting candy from the hands of people I don't know.  

So, I have been trying to think of ways to make Halloween exciting this year.  Ways that will make it so that my children do not feel as if they are missing out this year.  There are already so many other things that we haven't been able to do because of the virus.  So many other events and activities that were cancelled or we've had to pass on.  I want to make sure that even though Halloween may look different this year, it was still a special time for them.  

I have compiled a list of what I believe to be the 10 best ways to have the greatest COVID free Halloween possible.  If you have other ways, I'd love to hear about them.  We could all use a little uplifting during this time.  We can all benefit from trying to make this time as normal as possible for our children. 

 1.  Neighborhood - This really only works if you have a close knit group of neighbors that you really trust.  You can get a small group of you to plan to do Trick or Treating just within your area.  This way you know the houses that the candy is from, and you can trust that your neighbors are being safe.  Usually all of the neighbor kids are friends anyways.  Even if they are different ages, there is something about proximity that makes them all enjoy each others company. 

2. Trunk or Treat - Organize a Trunk or Treat with your school.  If your children are back IN school, they are basically around all of these families anyways.  Passing out candy, socially distanced, wearing gloves, from your trunk, isn't much different than the kids being in school.  Also, you can have a decorating contest.  The families can have fun decorating their trunks and showing them off with all of their friends. 

3. Easter Egg Hunt - Instead of going from house to house, buy your own candy, and set it up like an easter egg hunt.  Most kids love finding those eggs with the chocolate prizes inside of each of them.  I'm sure they'd love to do an Easter Egg hunt during Halloween as well! These pumpkin "eggs" would be the perfect way to do this! 

4.  Zoom a parade - Get all of your family and friends in on a Zoom call.  You can have your kids parade around the house and yard, like they might have at school.  Family from far away can see them in their outfits, and the kids can see their friends and family members in their costumes as well.  

5. Game Night -If you have multiple kids, this works great! If you only have one, or two, then let them pick a friend or two, from families that you trust, to have over for a party.  Create lots of little games for the kids to play.  Winner receives a piece of candy.  Kids get a certain joy about "earning" their candy by walking from house to house.  This way, they can still feel like they are earning it when they win it! You can find a ton of games online like the Spider Ring Toss game, the Spoon Race game with eyeballs instead of eggs, and Pin the Eye on the Monster!

6. Trick or Treat Trail - Do you know anyone with some property? Better yet, do you know anyone who has some wooded property?  Creating a trick or treat trail could be a LOT of fun.  Get a group of your family friends together for this one.  The parents can decorate the trail quickly before  hand.  Then the adults place themselves throughout the trail with candy to hand out.  The kids can go through the trail to collect candy.  Since it's just your group of kids, they can go through over and over again!

7. Spooky movie marathon - Rent a bunch of spooky movies to watch all day and night.  There are plenty of Halloween movies for each age.  You can make it fun by adding a little candy bet to it.  Each person starts with a pile of candy of their own.  When they get scared, jump, or scream, they have to give up a piece of candy to someone else.  I'm pretty sure I would lose at this game and my pile would run out before the first movie ends!

8. Fashion show - Let your kids pull out ALL the costumes!  They will have a blast trying on all the costumes and pretending to be different people all day/night long.  They can have an imaginary fancy ball with all the characters of every show invited!

9. Halloween party - Have just a regular ol Halloween party.  You probably have a group of friends that you trust, and you've been hanging out with during this whole pandemic.  You can have fun with your kids decorating your house and creating fun Halloween food, like these awesome Cake Pops! Then, when your friends are all over, you can enjoy their company while all the kids play! 

10. Buy candy and eat it yourself! - Not much to explain with this one.  Just buy candy and eat it.  No games, no trails, no neighbors.  Just you and your candy!