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!
Love carving pumpkins of course and thinking about foods and ways to display them/serve them that are creepy or scary.
I had the best halloween parties growing up- bobbing for apples was definitely my personal fav!
Our favorite Halloween tradition is enjoying a cozy meal of chili (Grandma’s recipe) and cornbread before heading out into the cool night air.
Thanks for offering such fun giveaway!
We love Halloween at the Haller home. I make most of the costumes and planning starts before school does.
A most excellent giveaway indeed! I love Martha! Our Halloween tradition is busting out the decorations on Oct. 1st! Also, taking endless pics out on a pumpkin patch. Something I want to do this year which I hope will turn out to be a yearly traditional Halloween event is “dinner-in-a-pumpkin”! Can’t wait!
Making up my own costume
Sounds great!
no traditions as of yet, but my baby just turned 1 so hoping to start some this year!
We throw a halloween dance party every year for the kids in our family and their friends. They love it because they get to stay up late and feel so grown-up but still act like kids getting all dressed up in their costumes. This book would definitely help us out with our party decorations.
My dad always painted a spooky or funny faces on pumpkins. They lasted longer, and the neighbours always made a point of stopping by to see the newest face ;)
Oh how I love Martha crafts! Even more, I love doing them with my children, especially at Halloween. By far though, my favourite tradition is carving their pumpkins into the faces they have drawn. They love seeing their creations in pumpkin form!
we make little salt dough ghosts every year – a craft from family fun, i think
my husband and i were married on october 30.. not because we love the holiday, but because the church was available!
to commemorate our anniversary each year, we carve a pumpkin with our monogram for each year that we’ve been married. last year’s 7 pumpkins about did us in, but i’m hoping we keep the tradition alive now that we are growing our family and can have help from the kiddos!
My favorite halloween tradition is to make “worms & eyeballs” (spaghetti & meatballs) and to glitter up some pumpkins :)
I love to decorate my place using eyeball lights!
I love Halloween. We’re trying to decide if we’re going to do anything for Halloween this year since we’re living in Brazil and Brazilians don’t celebrate Halloween. I might make some treats and take it to my son’s class. They may not know what Halloween is but they’ll like the candy none the less.
We make a ‘george’ every year. A fun scarecrow that sits on the front porch every year.
Our son is just 2 1/2 so we’ll start some new traditions this year that we haven’t done before – pumpkin carving, decorating, visiting as many pumpkin patches as we can! We’re looking forward to enjoying Denver in the fall!
I love me some Martha! My favorite tradition came from the Martha Stewart magazine a couple years ago–polka dot carved pumpkins with white christmas lights balled up inside. Love it!
My daughter is having her first Halloween party this year and is super excited. As for traditions, nothing beats trick or treating in my opinion, especially in neighborhoods with big old houses that elicit rumors among the kids of being haunted.
My favorite tradition is pre-trick-or-treating neighborhood spaghetti potluck and traipsing through our little ‘hood with a big bunch of kiddos and parents.
We love to carve pumpkins, roast the seeds and drink hot apple cider. Last year we made chili to eat before we went out trick-or-treating and might need to keep that up as a new tradition!
Every Halloween, I make homemade spudnuts to give out to trick-or-treating chaperones. The kids get candy, the grownups get deep-fried and glazed yeasty potatoey goodness!
anything pumpkin is what I like!! carving, eating, roasting the seeds, freezing the pumpkin for making more bread later….
Wow! Awesome turn of events! I love the simple act of carving pumpkins. There has never been a year in my life where I haven’t carved a pumpkin. And getting to share that with my littles is wonderful!
OH I absolutely loved halloween as a kid and making our own costumes and homemade suckers to pass out to the trick-or-treaters. Mom would never buy costumes for us but instead we would dig into the costume closet (yes we had an entire closet designated for the activity) and pick out something that we could wear. Than she would help us turn this old shirt and that old pair of knickers into a pirate costume. Or someone’s old white dress into a nurse get-up. Or better still an old brown jumpsuit into a kangaroo outfit with a baby kangaroo pouch. She was a genius. I still rummage through the closet from time to time and it always brings up super fond memories.
I wish I had a tradition. I think we just have such a great time finding their costumes each year and then the whole getting ready process. I would love to start making some really fun/cute crafts too. We need to ramp up our decorating a bit!
Going trick or treating with my grandson and his friends. He is 10 and Knows all the good houses….so it is a fun evening and I am greatful that he includes me…he is 10 this year, so won’t be long and I will be left behind, but not forgotten!
I love this time of year! I just made a skeleton wreath for our front porch. I’m really going all out this year. A trip to the pumpkin patch is a great outing in the Fall in Colorado – we look forward to it every year.
My grandmother loved halloween, she worked hard on her costume and did not want to be recognized. Well, as she grew older, she got her dates confused and she went “trick or treating” the weekend before Halloween….imagine our neighbors surprise to see a “hobo” at her front door! Well, good neighbor, she slid a Hershey bar through the door!
My oldest daughter turns 5 in November, we make her birthday party a costume party, so everybody gets a chance to wear their Halloween costumes again.
I LOVE Martha! Pick me!
i love PAINTING pumpkins. no smells, gushy pumpkin guts, bad clean up, etc.
I love dry ice in a bowl of punch on Halloween. Spooky and fun!
Woo Hooo for Halloween & Martha Stewart! I love making Halloween themed treats for the round of Halloween parties we go to each year :)
Baking stew inside of a real pumpkin! Yum!
Shopping at the Thrift Store for clothes that can be made into home-made costumes!
We all pick out mini-pumpkins and gourds on the first weekend of October. We decorate the yard with hay, a skeleton and lots of black birds on the second weekend of October. We continue to pick up pumpkins, indian corn, and other crazy-looking gourds here and there throughout the month. And then the weekend before Halloween, we carve our jack-o-lantern and roast our seeds. I love love love Halloween!
Our favorite Halloween tradition is trick or treating in our neighborhood. It may not seem like a big deal, but our entire neighborhood flooded and everyone lost their homes. Our neighborhood is slowly making a come back, and each year more and more children can be seen on the streets trick or treating. It’s a good measure for just how far our neighborhood has come.
I love making the costumes and taking the kids trick-or-treating. We’re in a new town this year and a new neighborhood, so I’m hoping we can figure things out.
I love Martha! She can do no wrong. Right now I am making a skeleton design on a black dress I bought for ten dollars using a freezer paper stencil that I free hand drew and white fabric paint. It is turning out amazing and is one of the most fun craft projects I’ve done lately.
I love making my families costumes, growing our own pumpkins and decorating the front porch so that no trick or treater passes our house. One day I hope to be the “cool” house that passes out scones, donuts and hot cider.
Carving pumpkins and roasting the seeds!
Our favorite tradition is to visit the nearby apple orchard and pumpkin patch for a festive fall day.
My favorite Halloween tradition is going out to dinner with my husband; Halloween is the anniversary of our first date!
Going to the pumpkin patch and corn maze.
This is our first halloween in france, my daughter is 3 and ever since last year all she talks about is halloween, so with the 2 weeks off of school here in france we are going to take a trip back to the good ole midwest for some apple picking, pumpkin carving and pony rides at the pumpkin patch, I do miss Indiana this time of year.
Caramel Apples…Pumpkin Cookies…Soup in a Bread Bowl. So many fun traditions are welcomed in the fall. I decorate our banister and load it up with vintage Halloween decorations. This really makes us feel like fall is here!
i love to decorate for parties, specials occasions, holidays… it really makes the difference in making the occasion even more special. And my kids love it!
I would love this book! Martha’s books and mags are always inspiring.
a tradition our family loves it donning home-made costumes. we love them as they are always unique! we also love growing our own pumpkins in our garden.