11 Ways to Have a Safe & Spooky Halloween at Home!

During this unprecedented time, we’ve had to reinvent the way we celebrate things! From birthdays to holidays, things have changed! Same goes for Halloween.

Instead of trick-or-treating, why not create some fun at home by creating your own decorations, a pumpkin decorating competition, a costume comp, a cooking contest or setting up a fun cubby house and watching a fun family-friendly Halloween movie together?

If trick or treating is still happening in your neighborhood:

• Avoid direct contact with trick or treaters
• Avoid travelling in large groups or standing close to groups of people as you travel about from door to door.
• If you hand out treats, consider leaving individually packed treat bags and leave them at your door with some sanitizer spray.
• Although isn’t entirely known how COVID19 can spread from object to object, you may wish to consider spraying or disinfecting your child’s wrappers or leaving them a few days before touching.
• Always wash hands before handling treats
• Take care with decorating masks as the markets and materials used could be toxic or harmful

Here are some ideas on how to celebrate Halloween  this year at home.

Spooky, slimy popcorn

This oozy, green popcorn with goggly eyes is fun to make and fun to eat! Gobble it up while watching your favorite spooky movie. We love Spooky Stories on Netflix where Shrek dares his friends to spook with ghost stories told in a haunted castle.

Ingredients

• packet of popping corn
• 100g white chocolate
• 1 tsp green food colouring
• 35g white chocolate button
• 1 tube black or dark chocolate writing icing

Method

• Pop the corn in the microwave according to the packet instructions
• Put the white chocolate in a heatproof bowl with the green food colouring. Set the bowl over a pan of simmering water and stir occasionally until the chocolate has melted and has turned an even green colour.
• Pour the melted chocolate over the popcorn in the pan and toss well to coat. Tip the slime-covered popcorn out onto the lined baking tray and spread out in an even layer. Leave for 45 mins ­– 1 hr for the chocolate to set.
• Meanwhile, to make the eyes, lay the chocolate buttons flat on a plate or tray and add a dot of writing icing on top of each one. Leave to set until ready to serve.
• To serve, transfer the set popcorn to serving bowls and top with the chocolate eyes.

Dress Up Your Door

Although kids won’t be knocking on doors on 31st October, you can still add that Halloween touch to the front of your home! Add a mix of glow-in-the-dark eyes, cobwebs, plastic spiders and orange and black streamers to your front door. Or get the kids to paint a scary face on an old piece of cardboard to fix to the door. A few plastic pumpkins and maybe even a witches broom propped up  against a wall will give that final fiendish flourish.

A Halloween Treasure Hunt

All kids love a treasure hunt for treats! If you have some old eggs from easter egg hunts, re-purpose for halloween and draw a pumpkin face or creepy crawlies on the front and pop some treats inside. Hide around your home and send them out to hunt!

For older kids, add some funny clues…

Paint Zombie Rocks

Collect a few smooth rocks and encourage your kids to paint zombie faces on them…or for the little ones, spooky and silly faces!

Fluffy Pumpkin Slime

by Jackie Cravener

Always a crowd-pleaser, this is a simple recipe for the best fluffy slime. Add a few drops of orange food coloring, put in a clear jar with a smile and eyes cut out of black paper, and you have a pumpkin-themed slime (with or without the pumpkin scented oil). Or instead of orange slime, add a few drops of green food coloring and hide some plastic spiders inside the slime.

Find the full recipe by clicking here!

Make Spooky Paper Plate Spiders

Get the kids involved in this Halloween craft that you can also use to decorate the house. A quick and simple one that you can get kids of all ages involved. Watch the video above to find out how to make your own spooky paper plate spiders!

Have Spine-Chilling Skeleton Fun this Halloween

Let your kids get artsy this Halloween with this friendly skeleton craft activity. Using cotton earbuds to make fake bones- follow our video to see how to! It’s fun, easy and a quick craft activity to celebrate the season!

Treat Ideas:

Chocolate Witch Hats

With only 3-ingredients, you can make so easy and delicious no bake Halloween treat! Put melted chocolate or icing on the bottom of Hershey Kiss then press it down on top of Oreo cookie and let it set.

Find out more here!

Chocolate Bats

Get into the spooky spirit with this fun, easy and yummy Halloween treat! Here’s a no-bake recipe with only 5 ingredients (Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, Oreo Cookies, White Chocolate, Candy Balls/Mints and Mini Choc-Chip Cookies). You can buy all of these supplies in Carrefour!

Watch the video for the steps!

White Chocolate Strawberry Ghosts

Turn some fresh strawberries into Halloween-ish ghosts and get in the festive spirit! Dip some fresh strawberries into melted white chocolate then attach mini chocolate chips to make the ghost eyes and mouth, refrigerate them and enjoy your not so scary ghost.

See more here!

Peach Pumpkin Pots

Create a healthy spooky treat and table decoration with a sharpie marker and a fruit cup! Pick up a set of 4 of these fruit packs from the Baby section in Carrefour and get drawing! Great for kids under 2 or as a healthy Halloween snack. A good idea to take to school too!

Find more fun kids activities in Dubai this Halloween on the QiDZ mobile app!

You might also like: 17 Halloween Movies & Shows to Enjoy With the Family!