Fun Family Halloween Activities At Home

Family Halloween Activities

What better way to spend Halloween than to do some fun family Halloween activities at home? It’s one of my family’s favorite holidays. We love the decorations, spooky stories, and of course all the treats. Usually, we go trick or treating, but since that might not be an option this year we are going to try some other fun family Halloween activities.

Family Halloween Movie Night

One thing that we love to do is have a movie night. We make popcorn, turn down the lights, and watch some of our favorite family Halloween movies. Since there are so many to choose from this usually lasts for the whole week leading up to Halloween. Some of our favorites are Hocus Pocus (1993), It’s The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown, and The Addams Family (1991). Not only are these movies that I loved as a kid, but my kids love them too! Other movies that you can watch if your kids are a little older are

Goosebumps (2015)

Casper (1995)

Ghostbusters (1988)

Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark (2019)

Beetlejuice (1988)

Of course there are a ton of other movies to watch so you really could spend the whole month of October watching scary movies.

Family Halloween Party

Why not have a family Halloween party? Throw some spooky songs on in the background and bake up some Halloween cookies. Find some cool or creepy party games like a feel box, freeze dance, or a pumpkin hunt. Many of the decorations that you would want can be found at Dollar Tree which makes it super affordable to decorate for a family Halloween party.

Family Costume Contest

Have your kids come up with and create their own costumes to show you. After they get dressed up have them come out and you try to guess who they are supposed to be. This is better for older kids, but little ones can get in on the fun too. Some ideas that you could give them to try are:

Favorite Book Character

Superhero

Favorite Princess

Historical Figure

If you don’t have what they need around the house you can always hit up your local thrift store. That is always a good cheap option for costumes that won’t brake the bank. We normally get most of the items we need for our family costumes there too.

Candy Hunt

So this would work much like an easter egg hunt. You can go to your local party shop or order these fun pumpkin eggs. Put little bits of candy, small toys, or money in the eggs and scatter them around the yard or house for the kids to find. That way they still get a good bit of candy for Halloween without going trick-or-treating. You can have them dress in their costumes while they search for them.

Look for Decorated houses

We have so much fun looking at decorated houses at Christmas. But did you know that there are a lot of people that decorate for Halloween too? We have such a fun time driving around and looking for the coolest houses that we can find. Later we do a family vote on which one was our favorite. It’s such a fun way to spend time together and get out of the house for a bit.

Quick Tip: Scout for houses BEFORE you go that way you know exactly where to look!

Decorating a Candy House

We have all done a gingerbread house for Christmas. But did you know that you can do the same for Halloween? You can pick up a kit just about anywhere. And just decorate it with your favorite candy. This is a fun way to get creative with the kids and have fun!

Haunted House

Okay, this might be a little much but it is a good alternative to going to a haunted house. You can pick a few rooms to set up some spooky decorations or even use your yard if it is big enough.

If you can use your yard, separate sections with old sheets that you don’t use so each area is by itself. Set up a haunted graveyard with foam tombstones. Or you can make them out of cardboard if you’re more on the crafty side. Another thing you can do is take some old clothes and stuff them to look like people.

You can also usually get a good price on decorations at Michaels well before Halloween. They have a TON of great decorations at good prices so the sky is the limit for your decorating.

Scary Stories

Scary or spooky stories are a great way to get together with the kids and spend some time. You can either turn off the lights and tell stories by candlelight or you can head outside and have a small campfire. If you head outside you can make it even more fun by making smores, hotdogs, or just plain marshmallows over the fire. If your kids are smaller, I would suggest doing this farther away from bedtime, so they aren’t too scared afterward to sleep through the night. Some good places to find scary stories are KOA and Red Tricycle.

Pumpkin Carving

This of course is one of the traditional Halloween activities for families so it is definitely on the list. We let each kid decide what they want on their pumpkin and get to carving. If you are stuck for ideas you can check out this to find the best ideas and tips on how to carve them.

Halloween Tree

Want a reason to break out the Christmas tree early? Try decorating a Halloween tree. Or you can even do just a fall tree and switch out the decorations after Thanksgiving. This is a fun little way to get started on the holiday season without overlooking the ones that come early in the fall. If you don’t want to spend a bunch on new decorations for the tree then hit up Dollar Tree for cheap good ornaments to put on the tree. If you have a bigger budget then check out Michaels for even more Halloween tree decorations.

Final Thoughts on Family Halloween Activities

Since Halloween, my be a little different this year we thought we might try some Halloween activities for us to do at home. Whether it’s a movie night, family party, or an egg hunt the kids will love doing these fun Halloween activities together.

What are you planning on doing for Halloween this year? Let me know in the comments!