What fun traditions do you do at Halloween?

[squeakermansmom]

hi everyone! just looking for ideas for Halloween. i would like to start doing some fun things that we then do each year at Halloween. something that would serve as a 'tradition' that my ds would look forward to each year. so, what do you do every year for Halloween that has become a tradition in your home????

[StarMama]

We don't have anything yet, but I'm very interested in halloween traditions too! I LOVE halloween, but feel sorta stuck right now, since Orion is still so small, and I want to *celebrate*!

[oceanbaby]

Well, these aren't very original, but we always decorate pumpkins and roast the pumpkin seeds. I was thinking that it would be fun to do a special baking project - like a particular kind of cake or something like that. Ds1 doesn't get what Halloween is yet, so we haven't really addressed it!

[2boysandadog]

Halloween is right in the middle of our worst allergy season, so we always have at least one person sick and whoever is well goes trick or treating. BUT, what I'd like to start when the kids are older, assuming we're healthier then, is something one of my neighbors does. They have a cookout in their *front* yard every Halloween so they can hang out and watch all the trick or treaters. I got to go last year, but only one of my ds' could go. It was really fun. They just have hamb. and hotdogs and chips and hand out candy. She made special H'ween cookies for the kids she knows (and those invited to the cookout). It was really fun and I'd love to have our family do that also.

[UnschoolnMa]

We celebrate Halloween as Samhain, a holy day We have a big meal and then trick or treat. We stay up very late, and will do cool divination games etc. The best part of it is the costumes and food lol

[Mom4tot]

We love Halloween, too.

We decorate outside with some pumpkins and corn stalks. A week or so before Halloween, we carve elaborate pumpkins. The kind where you trace a picture on top. My dh and dd love this and have made some really cool pumpkins! I give ds some paint and he paints his pumpkin.

We also choose our pumpkins from a farm that gives us a buggy ride out to the pumpkin patch. The kids love this. We also go apple picking.

Our next door neighbor decorates and dresses up for Halloween, and his enthusiasm ha rubbed off. The actual night is a lot of fun, we have friends over and play in the driveway, weather permitting

[frand]

OK this is on the materialistic side but my daughter is already begging to do it...we have been building a Halloween diorama based on those Department 351 (or whatever) ceramic collections -- a little haunted house, pumpkins, little trick or treaters, etc. Each year we add a piece and set the whole thing up in our window. The little figures are really cute -- something I hate to admit to because collecting miniature ceramics has always struck me as the height of suburbia -- but there's something about the Halloween one -- once it is set up it's irresistable and as I said, my daughter is begging to set it up now. She will play with the figures for hours.

Aside from that, we go to a farm that has a great corn maze and pumpkin patch with a horse-drawn wagon. Last year it was really special because we were the last family there, and we got to ride around the entire farm in a horse-drawn wagon with the grandfather and grandson-- just me, my daughter and sister and nephew. It was pure heaven, a chilly day, night was coming, and the only sound was the horses' hooves in the dirt and the bells on their collars and for half an hour I got to feel what the world miht have been like before the industrial age. We will go back this year for sure.

[squeakermansmom]

wow, awesome ideas so far

i really like the idea of having a special baking project.

love the idea of a cookout in the driveway....

apple picking, a corn maze and a horse-drawn wagon.....oh that sounds fantastic....

[Fleurette]

We carve pumpkins. This year it'll be 3, one for each child. We dress up. Our court has a Halloween get together: we have a fire going (chiminea style), we make s'mores, hotdogs, whatever. We eat, chat, play, chase after the kids, break the pinata (we have some hispanic neighbors who bring a pinata. The kids have a blast!) and then we make the rounds in the neighborhood trick-or-treating with ALL the kids from our court in one big group (that's about 10 kids knockin' on the doors!). We all hang around the fire and hand out our candy there. It's a one stop trick or treat court. Kids come down the court and all the neighbors are there with their candy. It's loads of fun. Can't wait!!!

[~Nikki~]

We carve pumpkins (one for each person), dress up, and trick-or-treat at near-by houses and relative's houses. In the past few years, the older people in my family (my sisters, cousins, and all of our husbands/boyfriends) will go to this fantastic haunted house called Phantom Farm, in my hometown. Obviously, it's not an appropriate tradition for the wee ones just yet. :P

My grandfather has a great tradition, that he's been doing for years and years. He sets up The Great Pumpkin on his front porch (just a regular carved pumpkin) with a speaker in it, and will talk through a microphone from behind the window. He'll comment on all the trick-or-treater's costumes, ask them if they're being good, and tell them to do their tricks before he'll give them a treat. When I was really young, I actually beleived that the pumpkin was real (depite the fact that it coincidentally had the same voice as my grandfather). I even remember asking my parents if we could go to the "talking pumpkin patch" to get a great pumpkin of our own.

I'm hoping to take Brynn there this year, to see The Great Pumpkin. Hopefully my father will carry on this tradition once my grandfather is gone (he's nearing his 90's now. ).

[karen ann]

We always decorate turnips instead of pumpkins. We used to carve them when I was a child until the "Turnip Incident" which ended with my mother spending Halloween in emergency getting stitches in her hand while a neighbor took my sister and me trick or treating. Now it's garbanzo beans for eyes, paint for the features, etc.

We usually go apple picking in October & make lots of baked goods (apple streudels, baked apples, apple bread (my favorite), apple pies).

With DS, I take him only to 4 houses, neighbors I've known for years.. Much more than that would be too overwhelming for him.

My family (my parents, specifically) also celebrates Samhain as a religious holiday, but not on Nov 1 (nor its eve). My parents always separated the "secular" Halloween, May Day, etc. & allowed us kids to have that and celebrated the religious holidays at the cross quarters. So our Samhain celebration will be when the sun is at 15° Scorpio.

[Aura_Kitten]

i make pumpkin soup + we watch the Nightmare Before Christmas while handing out candy to trick or treater's.

[Mama J Rock]

The last few years I've taken my little ones during the day all dressed up in costume to the assisted living facility in town. The older people love to see them dressed up (they love to see them even if they're not dressed up) and it really makes their day. My parents raise pumpkins so we usually take some smaller ones to give to the residents as well.

[littleaugustbaby]

I love all of these ideas!

DD is still a little young to get into Halloween. Before she was born, my good friends would get together at someone's house, and we'd all pile on the couch and watch TV and pass out candy to the trick-or-treaters together. It was always so much fun, and the kids are always so cute in their little costumes!

Last year, DD was only a couple of months old on Halloween, so we stayed home. I did have a cute little costume for her, and I dressed her up and took her to DP's office so that everyone could see her in her costume. Then we came home and handed out candy, but it was cold and snowy outside, and we ended up only getting one trick-or-treater.

This year, I think that we'll probably just stay home. I'll probably get DD a costume just for fun (and pictures!). DD LOVES kids, she could sit outside all day and watch the neighborhood kids play outside, she's just fascinated with them. So I'll probably take her out in her costume and we can walk around the block so that she can see all of the trick-or-treaters.

[Fieryfly]

We have some fun family traditions. They really aren't anything big, but its fun to look forward to them each year.

We take the kids to one of the pumpkin farms(there are about 3 in the area) at least once. Usually we go as a family, with our homeschool group, and then the kids go again with a set or two of grandparents! We usually end up with a lot of pumpkins! We carve them or just decorate them with markers. Eventually they are passed on to my mom who uses them to make Thanksgiving and Christmas pies.

Shopping for Halloween candy is just as fun as shopping for a costume. We get candies to pass out and then also the Halloween versions of our favorites. The kids usually get a new costume each year, but DH and I continually add to our costumes(I'm a witch, DH is a medieval warrior).

We also keep an eye out for Halloween television specials, especially the Great Pumpkin one.

On Halloween we will usually visit family in the area so they can see the kids in their costumes and give the kids candy. We attend the community Halloween carnival and then go trick or treating. We let the kids eat as much as they want on Halloween night, and then ration out the candy after meals after that.

We have tons of fun every year!

[Stevie]

What fun traditions!!!

We always go to the pumkin patch with a hay ride and some games. the biggie "must do" has been taking DD's picture in front of a "how tall this fall" sign. The first year she was 7 months old and I helped her to stand. then on Halloween I take her in costume to visit the salon, the chiro, the vet, G'ma and an older friend. We do this during the day so we can hand out the candy at night.

Last year was very different; DS was born on the 25th in OK 14 hours away and we were still in the state waiting for paperwork to be completed on Halloween. DS and I stayed at the hotel while DH took DD trick or treating with the birth mom coordinator from our attorney's office. I had a bunch of candy, but not one trick or treater came! She did get her picture taken at the pumkin patch though!

I am really looking forward to getting back to our tradition of visiting folks.