I’m still amazed that it’s really October! The conversation at our house has pretty much turned to non-stop Halloween topics. Same for you? I keep warning the kids that Halloween is not a big deal in France (and that October 31st falls during a 2-week school break), but they can’t help themselves.
They are daydreaming about throwing a party for their friends. Bobbing for apples, pumpkin carving, maybe a spook house in the barn. Martha’s new book Handmade Holiday Crafts, came in the mail last Friday, so they’ve been taking turns bookmarking their favorite ideas from the Halloween section. Personally, I’m feeling drawn to the glittery projects (skulls, bones and pumpkins). I suppose I’m just looking for an excuse to get my glitter on.
Have you started making Halloween plans? Are you hosting a Halloween party this year?
UPDATE: The good people at Martha Stewart saw this post and want to offer 5 (autographed!) copies of Handmade Holiday Crafts to Design Mom Readers. So this post just turned into a giveaway. Woot! To enter, leave a comment below telling us about your favorite Halloween craft or tradition. The five winners will be announced on Wednesday.
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The winners are Kelly, Rik, M. Peterson, Heather and Janeannechovy. Thanks for playing!
I love to glitter as well. And have a skull head covered in it. Also just finished making a candy corn wreath!
I love the candy and treats more than anything about the holiday. Adding a baby this year makes me stress about costumes, where before I never cared.
Now that my son is old enough to understand the joy of costumes, I’m excited to begin making his, with an eye to things that can be used again for dress up after Halloween. This year, it’s a cape and pipe-cleaner glasses – instant Harry Potter now, vampire or superhero later!
We love Halloween, and have a GREAT neighborhood for trick-or-treating (last year we went through over 600 pieces of candy!). We invite friends and family over, make spider cupcakes and pot roast…lots of fun!
I love how excited my kids get about decorating, the costumes, the fun food we make (mummy hot dogs, spider web dip and goulish drinks)
Our halloween family tradition is go head to our local farm and take a yearly photo of the kids among all the pumpkins. We started with our youngest when I was still pregnant with her – delivered her just days after taking the pumpkin patch photo!
Our favorite Halloween tradition is to let the kids binge on their loot and watch The Legend of Sleepy Hollow on Halloween night … so fun!
I love making my kids homemade costumes. This year I will have a shark and a duck!
I want one! I don’t have a favorite craft yet, but want to start making Halloween more festive at my house now that I have a 1 year old. This book would sure help.
My son’s birthday is actually Halloween, so I love anything party related! This year we’re planning on making Martha’s little goody bags out of orange tissue paper…they look like little pumpkins! So adorable.
Although I haven’t done it since I was a kid – bobbing for apples was always fun!
Without little ones around now Halloween is more about finding perfect pumpkins (I love different colors and shapes) and decorating the front porch. Pumpkins cookies are up there too.
Here in Ireland we have a tradition of eating a Barm braic (basically a fruit loaf) with different objects in it. If you get a ring in your slice will get married, a piece cloth means you will be poor, a stick (to beat your wife!! not very pc) means you will have an unhappy marriage and a coin means you will be rich. We also eat Colcannon which is a mixture of mashed potato mixed with Kale which also has money in it, plenty of oppurtunites to break your teeth here before you go out trick or treating. Did you say once your kids had Irish classmates? they will definetly have had a barm braic.
Pumpkin carving, of course! I also enjoy making all of the fun Halloween treats from childhood like popcorn balls and caramel apples!
I’ve always loved Halloween. Now that I have kids (2 1/2 and 6mo), I can’t wait to start our own traditions. This year is my first attempt at sewing costumes! My daughter wants to be a pirate.
My tradicion is to do Jack lanterns and caramel apples but I like to learn more.
We like the usual stuff, preparing the costumes, decorating the house, carving pumpkins, etc. But what we like the most is everything related to candy corns! Miam! Crafts projects, deserts, anything! Goodies!
laughing at this post. I just stacked all my ms books on the shelf last night.
I’m not a big halloween fan, but I love dressing my children up. I try to do homemade costumes. This year we’ll have Mary and her little lamb!
Every year we start collecting milk jugs from friends and family in early September. By the time October 1 rolls around, we have enough for one or two “Mr. Bottle Bones” skeletons made with nothing but empty recycled milk jugs [about 9 each] and a glue gun. We’ve been doing this since my daughter was 2 and she’ll be 18 this year. Her two younger brothers fell right in step with this tradition! I can’t imagine Halloween without it!
I have such fond memories of browsing the pattern books in the fabric store and selecting the costume for Mom to make that year.
love Martha!
I’ve never been one to get into Halloween, but my kids are 4.5- and 2.5-years-old now, so I think that may be changing soon. So far my favorite Halloween traditions were buying costumes and candy on clearance the following day. But I would love to decorate the pathway to our house on Halloween night.
I love decorating pumpkins for Halloween. It reminds me of when I was a kid.
yikes- hit enter too soon. I love decorating my holiday tree with all my Halloween ornaments and whatnot.
My favorite Halloween tradition has been carving pumpkins. Last year, I made “gross” food for Halloween (like eyeball soup), and it was such a hit that I think that will be a new favorite.
I love the pumpkin patch. Just took my 15 month old for the first time…wonderful!
Pumpkin carving. Always brings back so many great memories.
I love helping my neices & nephews pick out halloween costumes! Oh, and the candy, of course!
I love putting together family style costumes. This year, I’m thinking PeeWee’s Big Adventure theme…I’d better get moving.
My mom has started a great tradition of throwing an all-out Halloween party for my kids and their cousins. She and my dad dress up, deck out the house in trash-bag streamers and over-sized spiders, and fill the table with a huge assortment of scary treats. The kids love it.
My favorite Halloween tradition is the usual, dressing up in the costume (usually my mom made it). We would also make caramel apples and oatmeal caramel and everything cookie bars. Such a fun time of year!
I love carving pumpkins, but I think I love toasting the seeds even more!
I love the tissue paper hearts on the cover. Very pretty!
We are visiting a great pumpkin patch next weekend and decorate with our finds!
I love making popcorn balls. yum!
My favorite thing about Halloween is carving pumpkins and decorating the house for the trick-or-treaters. Love this holiday!
I have little ones and am looking to start our own family traditions. This would be great to do that with!
How wonderful! I would love this book.
we ♥ halloween at our house! we already started decorating this past weekend. and the girls have been checking out halloween books at the library at every visit lately! awesome giveaway – martha always has the best holiday decore inspiration! would love to snag a copy of her book! smiles, m-
I love picking out a pumpkin when we go out to the countryside to pick apples.
Tell the kids to keep believing. We lived in Britain for many years growing up (where Halloween is not celebrated) within a couple years of our living there, the rest of the neighborhood kids starting dressing up and trick or treating too! Candy is a universal language!
My favorite tradition is walking my kids around our neighborhood and “inspecting” the candy (taste testing it!).
carving pumpkins & roasting seeds. I have 4 kids, 3 in high school and 1 in college. They all still carve a pumpkin and wait for the seeds. Nutter butter ghosts were always a must have as a classroom snack. Thanks for the giveaway! My daughter has already been trying to think of ideas for christmas presents to make, this would be a great help!
Favorite tradition: carving pumpkins!
My favorite Halloween tradition was always drinking a warm mug of spiced cider after coming home from trick-or-treating. I can’t wait to start the tradition with my own children (the first of whom is due today, although I suspect he/she has other plans : ) ).
One of my favorite ideas actually came from Martha’s website. It’s carving pumpkins and inserting mini string lights.
Each year after my children have decided what they would like to be Halloween, I love creating and making their costumes. It has become such a fun part of Halloween for me as a mother. And, also for the past few years I have made and packaged small containers of pumpkin spice playdough and my children have given them to their preschool classmates. I attach a small rolling pin and a Halloween cutter too and it’s the perfect treat for preschool age kids!
Growing up I rarely wore a store-bought costume on Halloween; my mom usually made them, and without fail my siblings and I always had the best getups amongst our friends. It’s a tradition I plan to pass on!
The kids love the decorations and like being able to go door-to-door in our neighborhood. It is also a time for pumpkin/chocolate chips muffins.
It is a tie between making creative (inexpensive) costumes and popcorn balls.
Now that my daughter is five, she loves, loves, loves Halloween and everything along with it! Decorating, picking the pumpkin, choosing her costume for the 1,000 time…and her birthday is really close too. We like it all!