I’ve never been a huge Halloween person – I don’t love dressing up, I could live without candy, and something about the creepy, spooky nature of it just isn’t my favorite. I do, however, love traditions and I love holidays, so I have always made an effort to enjoy the spirit of the day even if I don’t like to do all of the traditional activities. We’re big on carving pumpkins, going to the pumpkin patch, and doing all of the other Halloween-themed activities leading up to the big day, but what do you do on Halloween when you couldn’t care less about heading out for some candy?
Once Jackson is a little older and has a better understanding of what Halloween means and actually has a desire to dress up, we’ll absolutely let him go trick or treating and enjoy the holiday in the traditional way. At just under two years old now he has no concept of what’s happening and doesn’t know what he’s missing out on…so there’s no way we’re putting a ton of time or effort into a costume and trick or treating! Plus, bedtime is at 6:30 and we usually don’t have any kids walk by our house until at least 7:30 or so on Halloween, so it’s just not realistic for him to join in the fun yet. However, that doesn’t mean we aren’t all about finding fun ways to enjoy the day without trick or treating! Here are five fun ideas for what you can do when you want to embrace the day but you don’t want to trick or treat.
– Find a festival! Our church has a Fall Festival every year and it’s a blast! There’s a petting zoo, tons of games, good food, and a million other ways to entertain yourself. Best of all, it starts early on Halloween afternoon, which means that we can go and spend a couple of hours playing around before bedtime. Jackson loved it last year, and I think it will only be more fun this time around! Our local fire department always has a pretty cool little festival too – there are usually a ton of great options if you know where to look!
Checking out the petting zoo at our church festival last year. He also had his first hot dog here and took his first photo booth pictures!
– Hand out candy. Growing up, I never lived in a trick or treating neighborhood so I never got to experience what it was like to have people come to my house on Halloween. Maybe that’s why it’s a total joy for me to hang out and pass candy out to the scores of kids that live in our neighborhood! Mr. Garland and I like to sit in the front yard and watch everyone come by – Jackson is in bed by the time people start coming to the house, so last year we just brought the baby monitor outside with us! Once he’s a little bigger and can stay up later, I imagine it will be just as much fun for him to hang out at the house and see everyone come by. For young kids, I think that handing candy out (and maybe stealing a piece here and there) can be just as much fun as going door-to-door.
– Stay in! Our absolute favorite Halloween tradition was suggested to me by a friend when I was in college and we still do it every year – Chinese food and a scary movie! In the past, this meant that after trick or treaters were done we would order in some delivery Chinese and start up a movie, but we have a hard time staying up too late these days (and have a baby to feed!) so the tradition now is that we order earlier in the evening and we’ll watch a movie after Jackson is in bed and the kids are done trick or treating…and last year I think we fell asleep before the movie was over, but that’s okay! We end up having a low-key evening (which we love) and still feel like we’ve enjoyed the actual holiday.
– Have a family-friendly Halloween party! Halloween is on a Saturday this year, which means if you start early enough you can have Halloween-themed food, carve some pumpkins, and even let those die-hard Halloween fans dress up if they want to, and everyone can be home and in bed long before the toddler meltdowns begin.
– Keep it simple and have some Halloween-themed fun as a family. Read some Halloween books, maybe carve (another) pumpkin, bake some fun Halloween-themed food, and watch It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown – it’s perfectly Halloween-y but not scary at all! This is perfect if your friends have older kids who will be going out, or if you just don’t end up wanting to leave the house on the day of. You can have plenty of spooky fun without turning it into a big production, and I promise your toddler won’t know the difference!
Another from last year…sometimes hanging at home with a pumpkin is fun enough!
This may be our last year to have a peaceful non-trick-or-treating evening on Halloween, so I plan to enjoy it while it lasts! Our plans have waffled back and forth, but as of now I think we’ll be hitting up our church festival in the late afternoon, popping by a friend’s house for a party for a little bit (as long as it starts early enough!) and heading home in time to get Jackson in bed, order Chinese, and hand out candy. I have no intention of getting him a costume this year – I’ll be wasting plenty of money on them in the future, so I see no reason to start now if I don’t have to!
What are your Halloween plans if you have a young toddler in the house?
honeydew / 7504 posts
We aren’t planning on trick-or-treating again this year because D is easily scared, especially by people in masks. So he’ll be “helping” us hand out candy. Last year that mostly resulted in him running screaming from the door every time someone showed up in a mask, so….yeah. My sister and BIL will probably bring their kids over, so the boys will play together while we hand out candy.
pomelo / 5621 posts
DS is 2.5 and we are taking him trick-or-treating for the first time. I don’t think he’ll make it more than a few houses. The dress up and have a little party at daycare the day before. We’ll do things like carve pumpkins and probably a Halloween craft the day of.
pomelo / 5298 posts
We are out of toddler-hood with our older, she’s now 4. Last year at 3 she really liked trick or treating. We had a few mishaps, she loves dogs and tried to get into a few houses where she heard them (oops) and she got scared a few times. People that had scary houses tended to go easy on the littles and if she was still scared we just skipped it.
She’s so excited about it this year.
kiwi / 511 posts
I really am not a trick or treat or halloween person. My DH takes the kids around the neighborhood and I hand out candy till he gets back and then hands out candy.
Of course last year my then 2 year wouldn’t even put on his costume (which was fine by me). But this year may be a whole different ball of wax as they say. They both (3 and 5 year olds) have costumes and we will see how it goes. I also need to get a few things for the Teal Pumpkin Project (http://www.foodallergy.org/teal-pumpkin-project#.Vhv15ZcUvUI), even if I have no takers I will need to have my kids swap out their candy for things from the Teal Pumpkin