It’s almost Halloween! Time for fun costumes, treats, and Halloween fun! As you celebrate with your family this year, here are six things you can do to provide a safe and fun Halloween celebration:
- Dress them warm! Especially your newborns, make sure that all of your kids are dressed warm to prevent them from getting cold while trick or treating.
- Make Sure Their Costumes Are Not a Hazard. As you help your kids search for a costume, make sure the costume is safe to wear while trick or treating by:
- Prevent costumes from becoming a tripping hazard. Make sure they aren’t too long that it prevents your child from walking safely.
- Make sure that they can see through their masks (or forfeit masks all together and use makeup instead).
- Some costumes can become a fire hazard. With candles being out in jack-o-lanterns, first responders ask parents to check that their child’s costumes aren’t a fire hazard.
- Wash their costumes before they wear them as well.
- Help Them Be Seen. As your kids go trick or treating, make sure they carry a flash light or a glow stick so that can be seen by traffic and individuals around them. Make sure they stay in well lit areas.
- Review Traffic Safety. Make sure you review traffic safety with your kids. Such as safely crossing cross walks, looking both ways for traffic, and waiting for traffic to stop before they walk onto the street.
- Prepare for the Scare. Halloween can be a little scary for your young ones, so prepare them to help them understand that these are people in costumes, that the monsters/creatures they are dressed as are make-believe, that it is okay to feel nervous, and if they don’t feel safe they do not need to approach the house or individual and can go to the next house/destination.
- Stay in Groups. Don’t have your child trick or treat alone, rather have them go with a group of friends or with an adult or two. Groups are easier to be seen and are less at risk when trick or treating.
Now if you don’t want your family to go trick or treating, here are some ideas of things you can do with your family before/on Halloween night.
- Trunk or Treat. This can be a great alternative where you are in one parking lot and are going from car to car instead of house to house. Some Trunk or Treats are held Halloween night and some held before. It’s a great alternative if you don’t want to go trick or treating, but want to keep the tradition.
- Pass out Candy To Trick or Treaters. Have them help with passing out candy. Or have them help you scare trick or treaters at your doorstep as you pass out candy. Make passing out candy fun!
- Game Night! There are a lot fun Halloween games you can do as family. Here are some fun ideas or my personal favorites:
- Werewolf/Mafia
- Clue
- Horrified! (a Board Game with the Original Universal Monsters)
- Monster Mash! (Like musical chairs)
- Hide n’ Seek
- Halloween Bingo
- Halloween Charades
- Movie Night! There are a lot of fun, family-friendly Halloween movies for you and your family to watch on Halloween night. Here are some suggestions:
- The Nightmare Before Christmas
- Any Scooby-Doo episode/movie
- Witches in Stitches
- Alvin and the Chipmunks Meets the Wolfman
- It’s the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown
- Halloween Town series
- Hotel Transylvania
- Food Fun! Have a Halloween themed dinner and make Halloween desserts together! There’s lots of fun ideas on Pinterest to take inspiration from.
The Utah Birth Places wishes you and your family a safe, fun, and spooktacular Halloween!
Reference
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