Trick-or-treating may be the first thing that comes to mind when you picture Halloween, but it’s not the only fun activity that makes this time of year so exciting for kids. Throughout October, there are plenty of opportunities for children to get creative, use their imaginations, play outside, and enjoy quality time with family and friends—all while soaking up the Halloween spirit!
If you’re looking for Halloween activities for kids that keep the fun going all month long, we’ve put together 25 ideas to help your family make the most of the season.
Discover fun Halloween activities for kids that bring extra magic, creativity, and laughter to October.
1. Paint Pumpkins & Gourds
Painting pumpkins and gourds is a great alternative to carving pumpkins for younger children. Pull out markers, stickers, googly eyes, paint, glitter, and other decorations to create silly, spooky, or downright gourd-geous masterpieces!
2. Design a Homemade Costume
It’s easy to pick out a Halloween costume from the store and wear it once, but children often enjoy helping to create their own. The act of designing and creating their costume is more likely to stay with them as a cherished memory than shopping for one—plus, it encourages creativity and thriftiness.
Cardboard boxes, old clothes, and craft supplies can become knights, dragons, robots, pirates, and just about anything else they can imagine. Once they have an idea of what they want to make, search the internet for some additional inspiration or how-to guides.
3. Create Halloween Masks
Halloween masks can turn an ordinary October day into a spooky, spirited afternoon. Set up a station with paper plates, markers, pipe cleaners, feathers, and elastic string. Children can design monsters, superheroes, ghosts, animals, or their favorite Halloween characters.
And once the masks are finished, the real fun begins as children bring their creations to life through play, storytelling, and imagination!
4. Mold Clay Pumpkins & Monsters
Clay pumpkins and monsters are an easy, engaging sensory activity for kids, perfect for the Halloween season. To get started, all you need is clay (Play-Doh works too). Younger children might also enjoy adding pipe cleaners and googly eyes.
Let the children mold pumpkins and jack-o’-lanterns, ghosts, ghouls, goblins, or their favorite Halloween monsters.
Looking for more Halloween craft ideas for kids? Read our blog post on the subject: Halloween Crafts for Kids Inspired by Cultures Around the World.
5. Throw a Halloween Party
A Halloween party gives children a chance to celebrate the season with friends before the big night arrives. While hosting a children’s party can be intimidating for some parents, it doesn’t have to be a grand event.
Organizing a few fun Halloween activities or games for kids, along with some seasonal decorations and snacks, is usually enough. To learn more, read our blog post: How to Throw a Kid-Friendly Halloween Party at Home.
6. Have a Halloween Movie Night
Blankets, costumes, and a cozy evening of Halloween-themed entertainment—who could ask for more? Family-friendly Halloween movies and TV specials can help children get into the seasonal spirit without requiring anything too scary. You might also mix old classics with newer ones, so children can get a taste of the shows and movies you grew up with.
For an added touch of fun, dim the lights, decorate the room with homemade decorations or candles, and serve festive snacks while everyone watches together.
7. Read Halloween Stories Together
Halloween stories are a wonderful way to spark children’s imaginations while helping them learn more about the season. Visit the library and choose books about friendly ghosts, witches, pumpkins, monsters, or classic Halloween adventures.
Older children may enjoy reading classic scary stories like Grimm’s Fairy Tales and The Legend of Sleepy Hollow or just about anything from H.P. Lovecraft and Edgar Allan Poe. Sometimes, all it takes is one great story to usher in a ravenous interest in literature!
For families hosting an au pair, stories offer an excellent opportunity for cultural exchange. Ask your au pair to pick out a spooky or festive story from their home country that’s related to the fall season to kick off even more learning, connection, and cultural discovery.
8. Organize a Costume Parade
After spending so much time choosing or creating their costumes, it’s only natural for children to want to show them off before the big day. Fortunately, there’s no rule that says Halloween is the only day for dress-up!
Invite family members, neighbors, or friends to cheer from the sidelines while children parade through the yard, driveway, or neighborhood. Not only is it fun, but it makes the perfect photo opportunity, too!
9. Brew Witches’ Stew
This is an engaging sensory activity that’s perfect for young children.
Boil some spaghetti and add a few drops of food coloring to create the base. Then drain the pasta, let it cool, and add other ingredients like candy corn, gooey eyeballs, and plastic spiders to your witch’s cauldron (a large pot or bowl works fine). Let the kids mix it all together and feel the squishy concoction with their hands while they play witch or wizard and recite magic spells. This is a sensory activity rather than an edible recipe, so remind children that the mixture is for playing, not eating.
For the big finale, add a bit of baking soda and vinegar to watch your brew really come to life! (Bonus points to whoever has the most maniacal witch’s cackle!)
10. Tell Spooky Stories
For children who enjoy a bit of a fright, telling scary stories is the perfect Halloween activity. On a cool October evening, gather around a fireplace, bonfire, or lantern and take turns telling spooky, silly, or mysterious stories as a family.
Younger children may enjoy making up their own stories about friendly monsters, while older children often love adding unexpected twists that keep everyone guessing.
11. Go on a Halloween Scavenger Hunt
A Halloween-themed scavenger hunt adds excitement to an ordinary walk or afternoon outdoors. Create a list of seasonal sights such as pumpkins, skeleton decorations, black cats, spiderwebs, scarecrows, bats, zombies, and ghosts. You can also challenge kids to find the best-decorated house in your neighborhood (or second best if you think it’s yours!).
During afternoon or evening walks, you can even turn the scavenger hunt into a game of Halloween “I Spy” for a bit of extra fun.
12. Visit a Corn Maze
Many local farms offer corn mazes throughout October, making them a perfect fall family activity. Younger children may prefer smaller, family-friendly mazes, while older kids may enjoy a larger challenge.
Getting a little lost is part of the fun, especially when everyone works together to find the exit.
13. Play Halloween-Themed Games
Games are a great way to get into the spirit of the holiday. These Halloween-themed games can be played during playdates, parties, or as a family:
- Mummy wrap: Get a few rolls of toilet paper or paper wrap and divide kids into teams. The first team to wrap one player from head-to-toe wins!
- Donuts on a string: Hang apple cider donuts from a string between two trees or posts and challenge children to eat them without using their hands. It’s a fun fall activity that’s sure to lead to lots of giggles and silliness!
- Zombie tag: This spooky take on a classic requires the person who’s “it” to move like a zombie.
- Frightening freeze dance: Put on some spooky music and have kids freeze like a monster or skeleton when the music stops.
14. Make Halloween Treats Together
Halloween offers plenty of opportunities to get creative in the kitchen. Decorate cookies, make caramel apples, create monster cupcakes, or invent your own spooky snacks with fun designs or food coloring.
Cooking together gives children a chance to practice new skills while adding another festive tradition to the season.
For more delicious ideas, check out Halloween Treats and Autumn Sweets from Around the World.
15. Do the Monster Mash
When it comes to Halloween songs, few are as recognizable as Monster Mash. Turn it on and encourage children to act out their best monster dance moves while the song plays.
Challenge them to dance like vampires, zombies, skeletons, ghosts, werewolves, or creatures of their own invention. Once the song is done, feel free to play other Halloween songs to keep the dance party going!
16. Visit a Pumpkin Patch
Pumpkin patches are one of the defining experiences of the Halloween season. Children can search for the perfect pumpkin while enjoying hayrides, corn mazes, farm animals, and other seasonal activities.
Plus, choosing a pumpkin together often becomes an annual fall family tradition that children eagerly anticipate each year.
17. Decorate the House
Part of the fun of Halloween is transforming your home into a seasonal wonderland. Store-bought spiderwebs, pumpkins, ghosts, bats, witches, and skeletons all make great Halloween decorations, and hanging them up together can become a fun fall family tradition.
You can also encourage children to make some of their own decorations using paper, cardboard, paint, and other supplies—it’s a great way to get creative while getting into the Halloween spirit!
18. Visit a Haunted Attraction
For older children and teens who enjoy a good scare, a haunted house, haunted hayride, or ghost tour can make for an exciting Halloween outing.
Just be sure to choose an experience that matches your child’s age and comfort level. Some haunted attractions are much more intense than others.
19. Carve Jack-o’-Lanterns
Carving pumpkins remains one of the most beloved Halloween traditions for families. You can usually find pumpkin carving kits without sharp edges at the store so school-aged children can take part, or younger children can draw the faces while older children or parents handle the carving.
Once night falls and the candles are lit, there’s something special about seeing everyone’s creations glowing on the porch.
20. Roast Pumpkin Seeds
After carving pumpkins, don’t throw away the seeds!
Clean them, toss them with oil and salt, and roast them in the oven. Children can help measure ingredients, experiment with seasonings, and enjoy a seasonal snack they helped create.
21. Host a Halloween Treasure Hunt
Perfect for a party or just a fall day spent at home, a Halloween treasure hunt encourages movement and thinking. Create clues that lead children around the house or yard in search of hidden Halloween treasures such as toy spiders, mini pumpkins, chocolate coins, or other small prizes.
Adding riddles, costumes, or story elements can turn a simple hunt into an unforgettable adventure.
22. Create a “What Am I Feeling?” Mystery Box
This Halloween favorite is guaranteed to produce plenty of squeals and laughter.
Fill covered boxes with items like peeled grapes (“eyeballs”), cooked spaghetti (“brains”), peeled bananas sliced lengthwise (“witches’ tongues”), and pipe cleaners (“spider legs”). Children then reach inside and try to guess what they’re touching without looking.
For more ideas, read our blog post, Halloween Sensory Activities for Toddlers and Preschoolers.
23. Conduct Spooky Science Experiments
Are there any mad scientists in the family? If so, they’ll likely enjoy conducting experiments that combine science with Halloween fun. Bubbling cauldrons, pumpkin volcanoes, slime-making, and fizzy chemical reactions can all feel like magic while teaching basic scientific concepts.
Children often have so much fun watching things bubble, fizz, and change color that they forget they’re learning too!
24. Put on a Puppet Show
Encourage children to create Halloween-themed puppets using construction paper, socks, paper bags, or craft sticks. Once the characters are ready, let them invent their own spooky stories and adventures.
You may be surprised by how creative the plots become when ghosts, pumpkins, monsters, and witches take center stage.
25. Learn How Other Cultures Celebrate the Season
October is a great time to learn more about Halloween’s history and its connection to the ancient Celtic tradition of Samhain, when people believed the boundary between the living and spirit worlds grew thin. Traditions like wearing costumes to ward off spirits and carving frightening faces into turnips helped inspire the Halloween customs we know today, including dressing up and jack-o’-lanterns. The history is quite fascinating and may inspire even more cultural learning.
Children can then take time to discover how other cultures around the world celebrate this season, including harvest festivals, autumn traditions, and seasonal customs.
Families hosting an au pair have a unique opportunity to bring their learning to life. As your children learn about their au pair’s culture and fall customs, they can also share your family’s Halloween traditions, ensuring that Halloween isn’t just a season of fun, but also a time for connection and cultural discovery.
Ready for even more spellbinding Halloween fun? Host an au pair with Au Pair in America® and make room for new traditions, perspectives, and memorable seasonal experiences!
Almost like a ghostly apparition, October can vanish just as quickly as it arrives. Before long, the costumes are packed away, the candy bowls are empty, and Halloween becomes another cherished childhood memory.
For families balancing busy school schedules, after-school commitments, and the excitement of the Halloween season, hosting an au pair can make it easier to find time for memorable Halloween activities. Along with flexible childcare support, au pairs bring new traditions, fresh perspectives, and opportunities for cultural exchange that help make every season a little more magical.
