Looking for ideas for Halloween activities?
It’s Halloween again! The leaves are falling fast and leaving a beautiful russet carpet on the pavements and in the park, perfect for kids to kick their way through! October brings misty mornings and ghostly, dew-covered cobwebs on the hedges, almost as though the spiders know it’s coming up to Halloween!
Does the half term feel like a gaping chasm to be filled? Or are you already all organised? Whichever it is, we have some great ideas for Halloween activities that will help you fill up any spare time, or fill your days if you don’t have plans!
Visit a Pumpkin Farm
There’s nothing quite like picking your own pumpkin! There are now lots of farms that have thrown open their gates to families so they can do just that! Some have other activities like scavenger hunts and obstacle courses, plus food and drink – you can make a day of it! Plus you’ll have beautiful pumpkins to take home for Halloween!
In Essex try Foxes Farm Produce where there are treasure hunts, pumpkins to choose and pick and a hay bale mountain for the kids to climb!
Also in Essex is Lathcoats Farm which has pumpkin carving and a pumpkin festival where you can see lots of different varieties of pumpkins in all shapes and sizes!
If you’re in Surrey, try Garsons Farm where you can roam the fields to select your pumpkins – and use up lots of energy trying!
If you can’t get to a farm, and you’re in London, Covent Garden has a pumpkin market between 29th and 31st October with copious amounts of squash, gourds and pumpkins to feast your eyes on! Plus you can buy some and take them home!
Most pumpkin farms also offer pumpkin carving – so you can leave them with the mess rather than chasing pumpkin seeds around your home for days after Halloween!
Go Apple Picking
Apple picking is good fun and lots of apple farms let in visitors for pick your own at this time of year, when they have harvested the apples they are selling to big companies and other shops.
Your kids will be able to pick apples from the trees, and they’ll see lots of different varieties too! It’ll also give them a new perspective – apples aren’t just things that come from the supermarket or the Ocado delivery van! It’s good for kids to see them actually growing on a working fruit farm and also to see how they are picked!
Try Lathcoats Farm in Essex which also has a fantastic farm shop full of fresh produce for you to browse and buy from – so you can go home with bags filled with fruit and vegetables to make healthy meals for the week!
Try a game of apple bobbing!
This will need adult supervision at all times!
Apple bobbing dates from Roman times when the invading Roman army brought with them an apple tree to represent the goddess of plenty, called Pomona. The had a yearly celebration which involved young couples trying to bite into apples which were either in water or hanging from a string. The first to bite into an apple would be the first to be allowed to marry!
Your kids can try this too! You’ll need a bowl of water and apples or apples hanging from string – tied to a branch in the garden. The kids have to catch an apple with their mouths only – no hands allowed!
This is a traditional game played on Halloween!
Paint some stones!
Always popular with kids, stone painting is also great for Halloween! Try painting spiders, pumpkins, cats or broomsticks! These make fantastic decorations for the porch to go alongside your lighted pumpkins!
Look at Halloween books at your local library!
The local library is a great place to find Halloween books! Halloween stories and books on the history of Halloween – there’s something for everyone at your library! The perfect place to spend a spare half hour of quiet time – many libraries have cosy kids’ reading corners where your child can read in peace. It’ll give you a break from entertaining too!
Make some squash or pumpkin soup!
This is delicious and warming on a chilly day! Also perfect warmed and served in mugs after walking miles trick or treating!
There are lots of recipes online but we love this one from BBC Good Food!
Make a Halloween treasure hunt!
Always great if you have a party of kids on Halloween! You can hide stones you’ve decorated with the child who collects the most stones getting a prize at the end! The garden is the best place for a Halloween treasure hunt – lots of space for kids to run off extra energy!
All this before you even get to trick or treating and dressing up!
We hope we’ve given you a few good ideas for Halloween activities that will keep the kids occupied and entertained through the half term week! Don’t forget that our Personalised Bottle Bands make great gifts for Halloween and they’re ideal for labelling your kids’ bottles at Halloween parties!
Happy Halloween!
