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’m actually the most excited about starting new Halloween traditions. We have a 3 year old and a 9 month old and we’ll be going to a local farm for pumpkin picking, hay rides and corn mazes. At home it’s all about handmade costumes, roasting pumpkin seeds, decorating the house for the season.
I don’t have the time (or want to spend the money) to do everything big all at once so we’ve decided to buy/make one new decoration for each holiday every year. This year our Halloween decorations may look a little sparse (we bought our first home just 2 years ago) but in a few more years we’ll be totally decked out!
My kids are still too little to carve pumpkins so we paint them instead and have so much fun!
Our traditions?
Make homemade cookies and bars for the trick-or-treaters we personally know and give away storebought candy to those we don’t (I’d love to bake exclusively but that whole 1980’s era scare means that people just can’t trust unsealed treats from strangers. Such a bummer!). We also get extended family involved in costuming. This means less stuff to buy and unique one-of-a-kind costumes with pieces being mailed all across the country. It makes the process feel more like a gift exchange for the kids.
We will eat butternut squash soup with fennel and lamb sausages and home-made biscuits on Halloween night. You need something with protein to combat all the excess sugar!
I love decorating the house with my two boys while listening to spooky Halloween music. It’s so much fun to see them get excited!
I actually hated halloween growing up. One year our family lived in England, and my siblings and I just sat around our apartment in costumes eating pizza and feeling gloomy and homesick.
I actually really like halloween now that I have a child who loves it. I love to paint pumpkins with glue and then dump clear glitter all over. Probably the simplest craft out there, but I loved the frosted look of the pumpkins. So fun!
We love carving a pumpkin and roasting the seeds! Yum!
My favorite Halloween tradition: Our neighbors take turns hosting a party with all the parents and kiddos. We hang out and eat chili, trick or treat, then go back for more food and fun, and sometimes a bonfire.
Sweet. My favorite Halloween tradition is watching The Nightmare Before Christmas. It’s the perfect bridge between holidays.
our neighborhood opens up for all the little ones to go trick or treating and my son has dressed up as a monkey every year since he was born, he never wants to be anything else! this time of year is all about apple cider at night and cinnamon/garlic noodles for lunch. i love the fall!
Carving pumpkins!
I love building a halloween craft each year as soon as October begins. It helps build up my collection and I usually turn it into a girls night and have my closest friends over for craft making. Last year was door hangers, and this year (Wed night to be exact) we’re making beaded pumpkins! So fun!
Fave Halloween idea – putting things in bowls, hidden behind boxes with circular cut-outs that the kids have to reach in and feel. Cooked spaghetti turns into “brains” . . . . grapes in jell-o turn into “slimy eyeballs”. The kids get such a kick out of it every year. And it’s always fun for the adults to try and come up with new ways to gross them out!
It’s a tie….baking (and eating!) all things pumpkin, and coming up with a creative costume that is original and homemade!
My 3 year old asked me to decorate his room for Halloween. I bought stick-on bats, some fake webbing and some glittery skelotons! His room looks awesome and most importantly, he loves it. I am always looking for ideas to do at home. I live in an apartment which limits my space and availability to decorate.
Carving pumpkins!
Oh, yay! I always loved painting pumpkins! :)
Our favorite Holiday tradition is to go to our Annual Boo at the Zoo. I make my daughter an animal themed costume, and we spend a wonderful Fall day at the St. Louis Zoo. She has been a Lobster, French Hen, Peacock, Tree Frog, and this year…Pink flamingo.
Oh, it would be so much fun to introduce their new friends to our idea of Halloween!
October is busy for us – both kid’s birthdays, my hubby’s birthday, our anniversary, and 3 other family birthdays, plus a few school events, AND halloween! But my favorite part of Halloween is making the costumes. My mom did it for us, and now I get to do it for my kids. We live out in the country, so I miss having the little trick-or-treaters come to our door. But it’s fun to crash a town-living friends house and all go door to door together. Brings back memories of growing up.
And there must be something in the air – I’ve been in the glitter mood lately too! And I’m typically so not a glitter gal. : )
My husband’s birthday is on Halloween, so we always enjoy ourselves by eating cake and then getting dressed up to go trick or treating with the kids. An eyeball cake is in the works for this Halloween!
We too always eat chili for dinner on halloween. And now I’m craving apple cider too!
My favorite tradition is carving pumpkins, especially fun designs like owls.
Trick- or-treating!
Mine is definitely making pumpkin muffins in the morning, painting pumpkins, and watching the very non-spooky Cary Grant movie Arsenic and Old Lace.
One of my favorite Halloween traditions is attending a pumpkin carving festival at a beautiful victorian home in our town. Then at night, everyone returns to see “their creation” displayed with everyone else’s. The owners of the home (and coordinators of the festival) set the pumpkin lights to music and it is really quite a site to see! It’s a true community arts project!!!
What a great book to have on hand!
Decorating and just the excitement leading up to Halloween has got to be my favourite. We are in Macedonia this year though so we’ll see what happens. Like France, Halloween isn’t really celebrated here. We’ll be decorating our house and maybe doing something small for our kids.
Decorating the pumpkin and roasting the seeds! Love it!
I live for fresh pie pumpkins to make cookies and muffins. Martha’s pumpkin cupcakes and brown butter icing
Going to the pumpkin patch and picking out the pumpkins then the carving. That is the best part for us. We have done contests with friends before too which is always a hoot.
I love the old hand floating in a bowl of punch gag. Being in the medical business I have plenty of latex gloves around, just fill one up with water and freeze it and then put it in the punch bowl, it functions as a giant ice cube and as loads of fun at any halloween party!
Love Halloween! I’m excited to make some scary mirrors this year, but my all-time favorite Halloween craft is Martha’s finger invitation!
My favorite has always been carving pumpkins. I love scraping out the guts!
My favorite Halloween tradition was started by my dad. After the last trick-or-treater leaves, he would open up the door and blast the Christmas music.
I’m not at all crafty, but one of my favorite halloweeney treats is something I like to call rice crispies on crack. First you make a batch of rice crispie treats, and then you top it with your favorite chopped up candy bars that you have either stolen, or nicely asked for from your favorite kiddos halloween stash. Spread the candy bars over the top of the rice crispies, and then throw into the oven on broil until the chocolate starts to melt. They are heaven!
Favorite Halloween Tradition: playing “It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown” with a projector onto our garage door. We lay blankets on the driveway so the neighborhood children can sit and watch!
Halloween is my favorite holiday! We throw a party every year and I am always on the lookout for new ways to decorate. I would love that book!
I love planning family theme costumes. I know one day my daughter won’t think it’s so cool but until then…So far we’ve been Scooby and the gang (I even cut my hair just like Velma that year), zombies, butterflies and flowers, and this year we are going to be 1950s greasers (well, my daughter wants a poodle skirt but the hubby is rocking sideburns and a pompadour!)
oh oh oh!! always tomato soup and grill cheese!!!! my favorite halloween tradition!
My favorite is just dressing up. I’ve been Snow WHite a couple of times and ended up being the most popular mom at school with the kids. The girls loved it! I love halloween
We love coming up with new designs for carving our pumpkins!
we don’t celebrate halloween, but we are going to a pumpkin carving with lots of other families. each brings a pumpkin and treats to share…and we get prizes for the best!! would love the book by martha!
making fun costumes for our halloween party
We make a ghost tree centerpiece out of a branch from the backyard and tootsie-pops covered in tissue! Boo!
My almost-5 year-old boy is having a halloween birthday party and we are psyched! We are doing the classic mummy wrap-up-a-friend-in-a-roll-of-toilet-paper relay race. Should be exciting!
My favorite part of Halloween is hot cider, cool weather, and (of course) candy!
My parents made a big deal of carving pumpkins for Halloween when my siblings and I were young. Now, I love doing it with my daughter!
I love going thru all my old october martha stewart livings, to prep for the holiday.
My favorite Halloween activity is passing out candy!
It’s hard to beat a classic…my two little boys love making caramel apples!
My favorite part of Halloween was always decorating the house! My mom would go all out and I did the same for my toddler this year!