Trick-or-Treat: Celebrating Halloween During COVID-19

How to make the spooky season possible this year.

This year might feel more like a trick than a treat, but there are still ways to get in plenty of treats!

October is here, and Halloween is right around the corner! Halloween is easily one of the most exciting times of the year for families with or without young children. You have an excuse to dress up, see your friends, and eat as much candy as you want.

This year, Halloween might look a little different. Social distancing is still the suggestion in many communities, and Halloween parades, costume contests, and fall events have been canceled.

However, there are still ways to celebrate this spooky season while keeping your family comfortable.

Here are some ideas:

Frightening Film Festival

Halloween celebrations can happen for the whole month of October! Schedule movie nights with Halloween movies for the weeks leading up to the big night. Make popcorn and have a movie night!

Some great movies for Halloween include:

It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown
Scooby-Doo
Casper the Friendly Ghost
Goosebumps
Coraline
Halloweentown
Hocus Pocus

Check here to see which movies are appropriate for your family.

“Dressing up is a fun activity even if you aren’t going to a Halloween Party!”

Digital Costume Contest

You may not be able to participate in your town’s annual costume contest or dress up for school, but you can still hold a costume contest online. Invite a group of friends and family to submit photos of everyone dressed up by email or in a private Facebook group.

Create awards for:

Scariest
Funniest
Cutest
Most Original
Most Obvious

Low Contact Trick-or-Treating

Your neighborhood might be figuring out how to allow kids to trick-or-treat. One way to make it easier is to implement a low contact approach!

Set up a table at the end of your driveway with a bottle of hand sanitizer or hand wipes. Then, set individually wrapped candies out for people to grab without having to touch anything else. If they touch it, they take it! This way, kids can pick out the candy they want without having to dig through any bags or bowls.

“If you’re going trick-or-treating, be sure to bring hand sanitzer!”

Jack-o’-Lantern Jaunt

Many pumpkin patches are open, so people will still be carving pumpkins. Go pick up the biggest pumpkins you can carry and take them home to carve. Once you decorate your pumpkins, go for a walk around the neighborhood and see what other pumpkin designs you can spot.

Decorate Everything

Spend a day decorating cookies, putting together Halloween crafts, and setting your house up to look like a haunted house! Decorating your home is a great way to celebrate inside and out, and people walking by will appreciate the effort.

“Decorating your home for Halloween is a great way to celebrate with just your household.”

Host a Spooky Supper

If your family won’t be trick or treating this year, there’s no reason you can’t still celebrate on Halloween. Set up a Halloween themed dinner party for your household with all your favorite Halloween treats.

Some easy Halloween dinner ideas include:

Pumpkin ravioli
Hot dog mummies (hot dogs wrapped in crescent roll dough)
Warm apple cider
Soups served in cauldrons
Deviled eggs
Mashed sweet potatoes
Spaghetti and meatballs (Call it worms and eyes?)

Reverse Trick-or-Treating

If you want to limit contact with other households this year, consider reversing trick-or-treating! To trick-or-treat in reverse, put together Halloween gift bags for your close friends and family.

To put together a gift bag, consider including some of the following:

Candy (of course!)
Halloween craft kits
Novelty Halloween items from the dollar store
Glow sticks
Fun socks
Stuffed animals (think cats, pumpkins, and witches!)

Once you’ve put together your gift bags, get dressed up, and deliver—the gift bags to your friends and family’s homes.

If you’re looking for ways to promote your business, consider passing out flyers or door hangers with candy attached!