Halloween

[Josiegirl]

I know there have already been posts about Christmas. I haven't even thought about Halloween yet. Well except buying a bag of candy corn and eating it all myself.

Do most of you have a party and hand out treats to your dcks? What kinds of treats? I have 1 diabetic dcg and more toddler ages this year, plus 1 dcg whose mom is extremely health conscious. Any suggestions there?? (I'm thinking about getting them each a book instead of a lot of treats, etc. Good? Bad?
What activities, crafts, games, (HELP!!!) do you offer?

Thanks for any suggestions!! Please inspire me.

[Josiegirl]

Hahaha I just lost 2 hours of my day on Pinterest. Can I count that in at tax time!!
Now I have a whole buncha ideas. I LOVE PINTEREST

[Thriftylady]

I don't even give candy to all trick or treaters. I have candy in the bowl but I also have halloween pencils, and other little halloween things I buy mark down the year before. The pencils always run out first.

[Controlled Chaos]

I make a lot of pumpkin muffins, pumpkin chocolate chip bread, and sugar cookies in the shapes of bats or pumpkins throughout the month of October. I give candy on halloween. I send home a little bag and give them one piece with snack.

[Josiegirl]

Ooh pumpkin chocolate chip bread sounds divine
Would you care to share the recipe or do you have a link to it?

I ended up ordering some Halloween books for the dcks off Amazon using Swagbucks so it didn't cost me, well it did but it didn't. Plus to get the total over 35 for free shipping I ordered some Gerald and Piggie books as Christmas gifts. My dcks are always begging me to read all the ones we have. They're a hit.
I love the idea of sending home muffins or breads too.

[sugar buzz]

Here's my tradition: every year, I have the kids go trick-or-treating through my house. I went to the Dollar store and bought cardboard cut-outs of a ghost, witch, pumpkin, spider, etc. (Prior to that, I used clip-art and printed them off of the computer.) I tape a different character to all my room, closet, and entry doors and place a small bowl of cheap treats behind each door. (Pencils, erasers, stickers, some candy, fruit, funny notes, etc.) They each get a treat bag, and then we go to "Witch's house," and "Mummy's house" and all of the "houses" to see what each character is giving away. They end up with a treat bag to take home and maybe 1-2 pieces of candy. I drag it out, with dramatic knocks on doors and talking to the characters, but it's so silly and fun! Even my own older children will sheepishly ask if I will wait for them to get home from school to do it.:: (One year, I had a separate ingredient for an autumn snack mix behind each door. They combined them to make their afternoon snack. I loved this idea, but they were like, "Ehh....")

[preschoolteacher]

Here's my tradition: every year, I have the kids go trick-or-treating through my house. I went to the Dollar store and bought cardboard cut-outs of a ghost, witch, pumpkin, spider, etc. (Prior to that, I used clip-art and printed them off of the computer.) I tape a different character to all my room, closet, and entry doors and place a small bowl of cheap treats behind each door. (Pencils, erasers, stickers, some candy, fruit, funny notes, etc.) They each get a treat bag, and then we go to "Witch's house," and "Mummy's house" and all of the "houses" to see what each character is giving away. They end up with a treat bag to take home and maybe 1-2 pieces of candy. I drag it out, with dramatic knocks on doors and talking to the characters, but it's so silly and fun! Even my own older children will sheepishly ask if I will wait for them to get home from school to do it.:: (One year, I had a separate ingredient for an autumn snack mix behind each door. They combined them to make their afternoon snack. I loved this idea, but they were like, "Ehh....")

This is SUCH a great idea!!!! I'm stealing it!

[CraftyMom]

Here's my tradition: every year, I have the kids go trick-or-treating through my house. I went to the Dollar store and bought cardboard cut-outs of a ghost, witch, pumpkin, spider, etc. (Prior to that, I used clip-art and printed them off of the computer.) I tape a different character to all my room, closet, and entry doors and place a small bowl of cheap treats behind each door. (Pencils, erasers, stickers, some candy, fruit, funny notes, etc.) They each get a treat bag, and then we go to "Witch's house," and "Mummy's house" and all of the "houses" to see what each character is giving away. They end up with a treat bag to take home and maybe 1-2 pieces of candy. I drag it out, with dramatic knocks on doors and talking to the characters, but it's so silly and fun! Even my own older children will sheepishly ask if I will wait for them to get home from school to do it.:: (One year, I had a separate ingredient for an autumn snack mix behind each door. They combined them to make their afternoon snack. I loved this idea, but they were like, "Ehh....")

Hmmmm ideas are flowing...

[laloolee]

Awesome idea, Sugar Buzz! I wanted to do a mini-version of a haunted house for the kids in our dramatic play area and I love how you had your kids "visit" different spooky characters for their treats. I pinned this image not too long ago: http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Lsjrp5uorC...0/103_3556.JPG and might put this idea in action along with some version of what is pictured there in the link. We had a monsters theme for the week before Halloween last year and was hoping to do something a little different this time. Thanks OP for starting this thread. October is creeping up on us!

[Josiegirl]

SugarBuzz, that is such a cool idea! I think I'm going to steal it too! Thanks

[sugar buzz]

SugarBuzz, that is such a cool idea! I think I'm going to steal it too! Thanks

Definitely, steal away!!!!--it's really fun and easy.

[Blackcat31]

Other threads about Halloween

https://www.daycare.com/forum/tags.php?tag=Halloween

[Play Care]

I have done a Halloween party each year. This year I've changed things up and am saying NO costumes. Every year I'd have a child lose a part, etc
Still having the party but we will decorate masks, have a special treat, play a couple of games and then it will be time to leave...I'm closing at 4:00 on Halloween