Top 10 Ideas for a Memorable Halloween Season

October is one of my favorite months of the year. I can start to feel the excitement building for the upcoming holiday season and this gets me so excited. I love making the holidays extra special for my kiddos and here is a round-up of our top 10 ideas for a memorable Halloween season.

1. Decorate the House Inside & Out

First, to create a memorable Halloween season, we decorate the house inside & out. As a kid, our family didn’t celebrate Halloween so it wasn’t a holiday I ever really got into…that is until I had kids. Now, it’s one of my absolute favorite times of the year. Last year was the first time we put up Halloween decorations inside our home and I had so much fun with it. I’m slowly adding a few new decor pieces each year. I lean towards the “spooky cute” vibe. Here’s a link to my post on our Not-so-Spooky Halloween Decor.

2. Halloween Book & Pajamas

On the first of October (sometimes earlier because I can’t wait that long) I give the kids new Halloween pajamas and a new Halloween book. We love reading cute Halloween stories before bed each night and over the years we’ve built up a great collection. We added Bonaparte Falls Apart and a Super Scary Narwhalloween to our collection this year. Here is the link to my post on our Favorite Halloween Books for Kids.

3. Costumes

Each year the kids pick out a new costume for trick-or-treating. It’s so fun hearing all of the different ideas they come up with. They always end up with something totally different than their original idea. This year while we were shopping at COSTCO they both found their costumes. I was pleasantly surprised at the quality. We’ve got a pirate and a special forces agent this year.

4. “BOO the Neighbors”

One of the kid’s favorite things to do is to “BOO” the neighbors. We pick 2 families and create a “BOO” bag filled with little Halloween trinkets and some candy. We include a note explaining they’ve been “booed” and what to do so they can keep it going throughout the neighborhood. When we’re ready the kids take them over to the neighbor’s house and place it right by their front door. They ring the doorbell and quickly run away so it’s a surprise. It’s not so much of a surprise these days with all the doorbell cameras, but they don’t really know that, ha!

5. Halloween Movie Night

Our family’s favorite Halloween movie is Hocus Pocus. We were so excited with the new release of Hocus Pocus 2 last year that we decided to make fun spooky snacks to enjoy while we watched the movie. We had so much fun with this last year that it has become a new tradition. This year we watched both movies back to back and made fun snacks, treats and a witches’ brew drink. The best part is that my daughter helped with all of it. She helped plan out the snacks and chose what we would eat for dinner. She even made invitations that she snuck into the mailbox inviting her dad and brother to the movie night. Here’s a link to my post Hocus Pocus Movie Night with Spooky Snacks with all the details.

6. Spooky Foods

One of my favorite things to do during the Halloween season is make spooky foods & treats. I’m not sure why I enjoy this so much…maybe because adding candy eyeballs to everything makes it look so cute! One of our favorite simple spooky foods to make is mummy hot dogs. These are so easy to make. Just wrap hot dogs with strips of uncooked crescent rolls (I use a pizza cutter to cut strips) and bake for 12-15 minutes. After they are cooked I attach candy eyeballs by using a little dab of white cake writing gel.

Mummy Garlic Bread

Mummy garlic bread is another simple spooky food we like. I used Texas toast and tore pieces of string cheese and placed it on top. I added black olive slices for the eyes and baked them in the oven at 350 degrees for about 12 minutes.

I served the mummy garlic bread with spaghetti and meatballs and just added some black olive slices on top of the meatballs for the “eye ball” look.

Monster Sandwich

Another super simple idea is a monster sandwich. First, I used a round 3″ cookie cutter to cut the bread. Next, I cut out little pieces of the cheese slice to look like “teeth”. Finally, I added 2 pimento stuffed olives on top and that’s it!

Spooky Treats

Our favorite spooky treat to make is decorated wafer cookies. To make these I melt white chocolate chips, spread them over the tip of the cookie, and add some festive sprinkles. The kids love to decorate these. Another simple spooky treat we like to make is Halloween bark. To make this I once again melt chocolate chips and then add whatever toppings you like on top of the melted chocolate. We added m & m’s, candy eyeballs, candy corn and sprinkles. Place in the freezer to set and afterward break into chunks. To make the witch brooms we used Reese’s miniature cups and added a pretzel stick in the middle. To make the monster ice cream sandwiches we used Sweet Loren’s Pumpkin Spice Cookie Dough and 2 small scoops of vanilla bean ice cream in the middle.

7. Festive Drinks

We tried something new with our hot cocoa this year, adding a little pumpkin spice syrup. Have you guys tried this? It’s delicious! I used some of the pumpkin spice syrup I add to my morning latte. We topped it with some pumpkin-spiced whipped cream, a little dusting of cinnamon and a few colored sprinkles. I served it in the kid’s favorite Halloween mugs. They absolutely loved it!

Another fun drink we tried this year is adding brew glitter to some sparkling water. I found the brew glitter on Amazon and you just add a little sprinkle to your sparkling water. It not only adds glitter, but changes the color too. So fun!

8. Visit a Local Pumpkin Patch

One of my absolute favorite days of the year is the day we go to our local farm, Schnepf Farms, for their Pumpkin & Chili Party. In addition to the pumpkin patch, there are so many other fun things to do at the farm. They have a corn maze, rides, a sunflower field, a ropes course, mini golf, a petting zoo, live music, pig races, Stuntmaster’s dog show and more. Each year they add new attractions . There is so much to do we couldn’t fit it all in.

9. Making Memories with a Hay Ride to Look at Decorations

One of the best things about this time of year is that my husband sets up a hay ride with our ATV and trailer and drives us around to look at all the Halloween decorations throughout our neighborhood. I created a playlist with our favorite Halloween songs and we listen to music along the way. I think it’s safe to say this is our favorite way to create a memorable Halloween season with our kids.

10. Carve Pumpkins

One of the last things we do is carve pumpkins. Since we live in Arizona we have to wait just a day or two before Halloween to carve our pumpkins. If we carve them too soon they will rot before Halloween even gets here.

This time of year always goes so fast and before you know it October 31st is already here. We look forward to trick-or-treating with friends and neighbors on Halloween night. Let me know your favorite way to create a memorable Halloween season with your family in the comments below.