The midst of a pandemic probably isn’t the most sensible time to go knocking on doors trick or treating. So, this year, YES have got your back with top tips to keep your little ghosts and ghouls entertained with Halloween at home.
Decorate your home this Halloween
Create a garland
Whether your choice of décor is more autumnal than fright night its easy to make a simple garland. Go for an autumnal theme garland and you can turn it into a scavenger hunt and get out for a walk to gather leaves pinecones and twigs, anything you want to add. Plus, it will still work as seasonal décor once Halloween has passed.
If you’d rather stay in the warm and dry you could simply use a stencil or draw Halloween shapes freehand on card or paper, then cut them out to make a simple Spooktacular decorations like this fangtastic bat garland.
Pumpkins
Carved pumpkins are the obvious way to decorate come Halloween and there are lots of free pumpkin carving stencils available online to help you create an impressive display of intricately carved squashes. But if you can’t bear the mess or the thought of pulling out the squishy, slimy guts of a pumpkin you could always paint them or decorate them with sharpies.
Pinterest has lots of other ideas for how you could decorate this Halloween.
Cook yourself a fiendish feast at home this Halloween
BBC GoodFood have got lots of great ideas for cooking up a scary treat but our faves are these Veggie Halloween Stuffed Peppers (which you could turn into mini shepherds pies for the meat eaters in the family) or these quesadilla mummies!
If you are carving your pumpkins and don’t want to waste the insides you could cook up a batch of pumpkin soup. Pumpkins are packed full of immune boosting vitamin A and C. Just make sure little (and big) hands are thoroughly washed before you start carving out the insides!
Keep little monsters entertained at home this Halloween
Country Living have rounded up some scarily-good DIY Halloween games for kids to get ghouls of all ages in the party spirit, even if 31 October is likely to look a bit different this year. Why not try a mummy sack race or a spot of pumpkin bowling?
If Halloween is a time when you would normally come together with friends and family for a party or to go trick or treating why not making these mini Halloween pinatas and dropping them off as a treat.
If you give any of the recipes, games or craft activities a go why not tag us in your photos on Instagram so we can see what you’ve been up to!
Give yourself a fright with a movie this Halloween
If decorating your home, cooking Halloween themed treats and playing games all sounds like too much effort you can always get in the spirit with some creepy movies. We asked YES HQ to come up with their top five family-friendly Halloween films.
Please note: some of these movies are 12 rated so we recommend checking with Common Sense Media to make sure they are suitable for your family before viewing.
- Hocus Pocus – a firm Halloween favourite with all at YES HQ, Hocus Pocus has stood the test of time and still pleases and entertains viewers as much today as it did when it first came out in the early 90’s.
- Goosebumps – if you loved the books (or the 90s television series) you’ll love these films. With Jack Black playing R.L Stine the plot weaves in lots of bits you might remember from the books and turns them into a whole new story.
- Addams Family – They’re creepy and they’re kooky, mysterious and spooky, they’re all together kooky, The Addams family. Whether it’s the original or the animated remake we can’t get enough.
- Ghostbusters – 80’s original or the more recent all-female reboot, we love them all!
- Hotel Transylvania – one for the littles. Taking on the point of view of all our favourite Halloween monsters this animation will have the whole family giggling.
Or, bonus recommendation, new out this year on Netflix, Hubie’s Halloween (who doesn’t love Adam Sandler!?).
Pop the tele on, serve up some Halloween Slime Popcorn and snuggle in.
A word for the sort of grown ups
If your usual Halloween celebration is more about attending a monster mash and drinking green vodka shots than mini Halloween pinatas. Just remember, the Covid-19 guidance is there to protect you and your friends and family. You don’t want your Halloween 2020 memories to centre around a 14-day self-isolation hangover for you and anyone you’ve had contact with.
Remember; hands, face, space. This is the one time in this pandemic that you can style your face covering out as part of your costume. Remember, not more than six of you can meet and you’ll need to head home by 10pm when the pubs and bars close.
You could always stay in (with five friends social distancing) and have a retro fright night with these sure to scare Halloween movies.
Not sure what you can and can’t do when it comes to hanging out with friends? Check out our article on how to socialise Covid-19 style.
Still want to go trick or treating?
If you do decide to go trick or treating this year despite the risks, please take care and as always be respectful. Only knock on doors of houses that look to be celebrating Halloween themselves and remember, Hands. Face. Space.
Anti-social behaviour can increase on Halloween – if you see anything suspicious report it to police online or in an emergency always dial 999.
Stay safe at home by limiting contact
If you choose to celebrate at home just remember the rule of six – there shouldn’t be more than six of you and you should also try to limit how many different households you mix. Seeing lots of people from different households in a short period of time will increase your risk of contracting and spreading the virus.
Great article about having Halloween at home. It’s much safer and still lots of fun. Thanks for sharing the article with us.