Our Favorite Halloween Traditions!

Halloween is not the biggest holiday at our house (that would definitely be Christmas), but I do love celebrating holidays with kids and my kids love this time of year! We stick with "fun" for Halloween with a touch of creepy atmosphere rather than scary or gory.

One thing I love to remember about traditions is that traditions are here to serve our family, not the other way around! They can also change and adapt. One example of this is that we have had a tradition for years of going to our local corn maze. It's about a 30 minute drive for us, the prices have gone up, the activities (like a bullet train ride or pony rides) are $2-5 extra per kid, and we have a lot more kids now than when we started (we had two small kids the first year we attended). On top of that, when I try to do the actual maze with the kids, they complain and don't like it. I decided this year that it's not worth it to me to take them. Does that mean we'll never go again? No. And it also is okay that we have done it every year up to now and aren't going to this year. We're also adding in some simple traditions to try out this year. It's okay for things to look a little different as your family circumstances change, or even to take a break for a year or two from traditions.

Here are some of our favorite Halloween traditions!

Decorating the Stairs

When I was growing up, we woud do crafts at the beginning of October and decorate the stairs leading down to our living space (we lived in my grandparents basement at the time). I love carrying on this tradition with my own kids! At the beginning of October, we take a morning and turn on Halloween Music from our playlist on YouTube music and make Halloween crafts out of construction paper. Then we hang up our projects on the stairs leading to their rooms and all month as we do Halloween activities, they can add art and projects to the wall there!

Songs on our Halloween Playlist

Thriller by Michael Jackson

Ghostbusters by Ray Parker, Jr.

The Monster Mash Original

Somebody's Watching Me by Rockwell

The Addams Family Theme by AMC Orchestra

What's New Scooby Doo by Simple Plan

Scooby Doo Theme Song by Ohio Express

Hex Girls by Moon Sisters

Earth, Wind, Fire and Air by Moon Sisters

This is Halloween from Nightmare Before Christmas

Shake Them Skeleton Bones by The Kiboomers

The Hanging Tree by James Newton Howard

Harry's Wonderous World from Harry Potter

Hedwig's Theme from Harry Potter

Kids in America by Kim Wilde

Display Past Halloween Pictures

I got this idea from one of my favorite bookish bloggers, Janssen at Everyday Reading, and we love it! I have 4X6 pictures of the kids in the Halloween costumes from previous years (and print last year's) in dollar store frames and we set them up in the living room. It is so fun for everyone to see those past costumes and super simple decorating for me!

Library Trick or Treating

Every year leading up to Halloween (or sometimes on Halloween), our library does a trick or treat for the kids. We walk through the library, local free museum, and city building (that are both right next to our library) and trick or treat the workers there. The workers decorate their stations in fun ways, sometimes there's a magician, and the kids get a little bit of candy. It is so fun!

I think it's always worth it to check out what is going on locally and decide which events you want to participate in. We also always do a truck or treat with our church, but there are other events (like a city truck or treat on main street) that we don't participate in because it's too much for us.

Themed Family Costume (sometimes)

This is another example of traditions being here to serve our family, not the other way around. Some years, we all are themed together, some years only a couple kids are, some years none! I always start off in the summer by exploring different themed costumes the kids might all enjoy. As we throw around ideas and the kids decide what they want to be, I don't make them stick to a theme if they don't want to. If it was really important to me to do a family theme, I'd try to find a way to do a theme and make each child happy with the costume, I just don't mind too much.

Last year, we did a dragon theme. The kids each picked a color of wings and a mask and since I was pregnant with Leah, I got a shirt that had a dragon egg on it. It was extra special because the kids picked that theme before they knew I was pregnant and after Ben and I had already started writing a children's book themed around dragons to tell them about the pregnancy. It was really fun and the kids were all on board with the theme!

This year, we never ended up finding a theme they all wanted to do together. Ashtyn has decided she wants to be a "pink thrifter" with her cousin, Rylee is going to be Elpheba from Wicked (and a cousin may be Glinda with her), Parker is going to be a cat and Leah will be her kitten, and Oliver is going to be a Jedi. They are all excited about their costumes and I've been able to find inexpensive, easy ways to put their costumes together.

Collecting Leaves and Raking Leaves

We love fall and live in a place where the leaves turn beautiful every year! We actually don't have any trees in our yard yet, so we go to my in-laws house and always rake a ton of leaves into a big pile for the kids. They love raking the leaves almost as much as they love to jump in the pile afterwards.

We love to go to the creek by my in-laws house or a place up the mountains that has a park and a little stream to collect leaves. We do crafts and activities (Pinterest is full of ideas) with the leaves afterward. It wouldn't be fall for us without some leaf collecting!

Pumpkin Pancakes for Movie Night

We do movie night and breakfast for dinner each Friday. I love to make pumpkin pancakes at least once leading up to Halloween as we watch a Halloween movie for movie night! I did a post sharing our favorite Halloween movies here.

Halloween-themed School Activities

One of my favorite parts of homeschooling is that I can do fun holiday activities as part of school! We love to do worksheets, math activities, crafts, and science all themed around Halloween.

Witch Cauldrons

This is something my kids love to do every single year. I put baking soda in little witch's cauldrons and give them vinegar, food coloring, and other little things (sticks, tiny spiders, googly eyes). They get to make fizzing witch's potions then. We can turn it into a science lesson if we talk about why the baking soda reacts to the vinegar, or just do it for fun!

Halloween Bingo

I didn't even realize how much my kids love this tradition until they started asking almost daily when we're going to do it this year--but Halloween bingo! I printed off some free Halloween Bingo cards a few years ago and laminated them. Then I buy candy corn and we use those as place markers for the bingo board. As we play, they eat a few and afterwards, they get to eat all the candy corn (I am firmly in camp "candy corn tastes like wax" but my kids all love it). It's simple and they love it!

Halloween Scavenger Hunt

This is a new tradition I would like to start with my kids (and probably their cousins) this year! I am going to make up a list of Halloween things that are often found on people's Halloween decorations and the kids can take that list around the neighborhood to find them.

Make the Same Face as your Pumpkin

My kids love to paint and carve pumpkins, of course. One fun tradition we have each year is to take a picture of the kids trying to make the same face as their pumpkin. We've gotten some priceless pictures this way!

Jack O'Lantern Pizza and Taco Soup before trick or treating

On Halloween, we always have the same dinner. I buy a jack o'lantern pizza from Papa Murphy's and make taco soup. I also make things like carameled apples and pumpkin muffins. We always have a big group for trick or treating, so we invite them all to join us and whoever can, comes!

After we are done eating, we all set out together to trick or treat our street! Ben stays behind to hand out candy and when we all get back, anyone who wants more dinner can have some. It's a super easy dinner that everyone loves and fits perfectly with the feeling of Halloween.

Visit Grandma to Trick or Treat

After we finish trick or treating, we let the kids stay up late and go trick or treat Grandma! In the past, we've stopped at my husband's grandmother's house and his parent's house. This will be our first year after his grandmother passed away, which is sad to think about. We are still planning on stopping at his parent's house. I have memories growing up of stopping at my grandparent's house after trick-or-treating as well and I love that I get to share that tradition with my own kids.

The Switch Witch

My least favorite part of Halloween was always the unending candy for weeks afterward. I got sick of it and I felt like my kids got sick of it. When I heard about the Switch Witch (a witch who comes to your house after trick or treating and switches candy for a toy), I decided to try it. We've done it every year since!

When we're done trick or treating, we have the kids dump their candy out in a pile and go through it. They get a quart sized freezer bag to put their favorite candy in (so they still get plenty of candy for the trick or treating efforts) and the rest goes into a big bowl. I'm always amazed at how much candy is leftover after filling their plastic baggies. While they are sleeping, the candy in the bowl disappears and something is left in its place.

The first few years we did this, the Switch Witch brought kinetic sand. Last year, the kids got water colors and colored pencils. This year, the Switch Witch is bringing molding clay for each child. Our kids know the Switch Witch is me, because I have talked about it that way from the start (our two youngest don't know about Santa or the Toothfairy yet). I love doing it this way because my kids get to enjoy a lot of candy at Halloween still, but it's so much more of a manageable amount. I also love that they wake up on Halloween and spend all day doing whatever it is the Switch Witch brought, rather than just eating a ton of candy (they do eat candy, but honestly, they forget about their candy for hours every single year because they are so busy playing).

I hope some of these traditions have inspired you, not only with some ideas of traditions that will work for your family, but also showing that traditions don't always have to be big and flashy! Some of our favorite traditions are simple and easy. Now inspire me! What are some of your family's favorite traditions?