What Do You Do For Halloween?

[Josiegirl]

Do you have a party? Big? Little? Just a cupcake type thing? Do you hand out goodie bags? if so, what do you give them?
I go through this before every holiday....what am I gonna do, what am I gonna do, what am I donna do.
I usually give them goodies but am trying to stay away from candy. I have one whose mom is kind of on the stricter side of 'feed healthy stuff only' and another child who is diabetic.
Any ideas?
Thanks!!

[Sunshine74]

We have the kids wear their costumes, and because we are a center, we trick-or-treat at each room. And we let anyone who wants to bring a treat, so we have a little party at snack time.

In your case, as far as sending goodies, they have little boxes of stickers, or you could do rings or something else like that, depending on the ages of your DCK's. Or maybe those plastic vampire teeth, our preschoolers love those.

[Sugar Magnolia]

Nothing. We do have a "fall party" close to October 31, featuring cider, pumpkin seeds, fall theme cookies, etc. We decorate for "fall" since autumn is foreign concept down here. But I do zero for Halloween. It is my least favorite holiday, and 90 percent of it seems NOT age appropriate for 5 and under. I let parents handle this "holiday" the way they see fit. Yep....bah humbug on celebrating the undead, ghosts, witches and commercialized costumes.

[JoseyJo]

We do a week of festivities - decorating pumpkins, making Halloween cookies, etc. On Halloween (or Fri if on a weekend) we have a trick or treat parade, everyone dresses up in costumes, kids bring halloween-ish healthy treats for a party @ lunch or pm snack. We have had the parents come in the past, depending on the group dynamics and if they can handle parents being there w/o meltdown!

[Play Care]

I LOVE Halloween! We decorate, have a party with games, and end watching one age appropriate Halloween video. Oh and the kids get a treat on their way out

[LK5kids]

I just have a special treat and one or two simple games. No dressing up or goody bags sent home. This goes for all holiday festivities. I have done a Christmas gift exchange.

[MamaBearCanada]

I LOVE Halloween! We decorate, have a party with games, and end watching one age appropriate Halloween video. Oh and the kids get a treat on their way out

What video do you use? I wouldn't mind one that wasn't scary if such a thing exists!

[BumbleBee]

I don't know what I'm going to do yet. Halloween is HUGE down here. The schools don't do anything so I may take their lead. Not sure though.

[AcornMama]

Nothing. We do have a "fall party" close to October 31, featuring cider, pumpkin seeds, fall theme cookies, etc. We decorate for "fall" since autumn is foreign concept down here. But I do zero for Halloween. It is my least favorite holiday, and 90 percent of it seems NOT age appropriate for 5 and under. I let parents handle this "holiday" the way they see fit. Yep....bah humbug on celebrating the undead, ghosts, witches and commercialized costumes.

I'm with Sugar Magnolia. We'll do a fall or pumpkin party, but not Halloween.

[blandino]

I love fall & Halloween !

We decorate for both. I use a lot of pumpkins so that they can be used throughout fall. For Halloween we have this tradition where we make a "halloween cake", which is decorated with all sorts of gummy worms and candy bugs - I have no idea how/why we started but we have been doing it for over 5 years.

We dont do costumes because I was always a wreck worrying about stains and rips before they actually had to wear them.

The day of Halloween we will decorate the cake, and eat it at snack. We will also paint the pumpkins that I put out on the front porch (each child has their name on one), and send those home.

The week of Halloween we read books and do crafts with a Halloween theme, and we have a Halloween sensory bin (spiders, pumpkins, etc). And I do break out the "It's the great pumpkin Charlie Brown" DVD.

[MotherNature]

We decorate for fall, Halloween. Christmas, and Easter. Right now, I have pumpkins and mums on the front porch, and some leaves inside and a folk art crow. I need more autumn decor. This weekend, I'll put up the Halloween stuff. It and Christmas are my favourites, so I have several totes full of stuff. I'll keep the scarier stuff away from daycare kids though..

[Blackcat31]

What do I do for Halloween? I get older ::

What do I do with daycare kids on Halloween? NOTHING! I actually HATE the holiday and usually close.

I know, probably a party pooper...but this is a holiday the kids can enjoy with their families.

[Play Care]

What video do you use? I wouldn't mind one that wasn't scary if such a thing exists!

I typically do a Halloween episode of a show I know everyone will enjoy - so Dora Halloween or a Scooby Doo (the old show, not the new one!) last year I had older kids so we did the Phineas and Ferb Halloween video. Someone gave me the Charlie Brown Halloween video a few years ago (the great pumpkin) but I despise that one.

Does anyone else notice that Halloween is the only holiday the kids get pick up early for?

[Unregistered]

I am big on Halloween so I do it right up
big crafts for a month
decorating mostly out side for safety issues
and huge decorations out side and yard lights up
webs, ghoasts coffins ex...I do try to keep kid friendly and decorate with them so they see
and then the weekend before a huge family affair
from 5 to 8 I do games and pinota ( sp ) and food and after 8 for other friends and so on
I call it the Haunted Hall of Horrors and have done it for years

[littlemissmuffet]

I LOVE Halloween - so much that hubs and I married on Halloween. I used to throw parties for the dcks but now that we have our own little we have designated Halloween as a family day and are closed I will never work on my anniversary again!