How To Host Halloween At Home For Your Kids If Trick Or Treating Isn't Your Thing | HuffPost Life

From pumpkin painting to a ghostly jelly baby mountain 🎃

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Lots of families celebrate Halloween, but not all parents want their kids to go trick or treating. Whatever your reasons for deciding not to go door knocking, it doesn’t mean your child can’t have a spooktacular evening in.

A ChannelMum.com study found while 84% of UK families celebrate Halloween, 15% prefer to do it at home. Have no fear, your kids can have just as much fun inside getting creative and playing games.

Whether you’re looking to throw a ghostly party or have a chilled-out evening of crafts and comfort, we’ve sourced tips and advice from parenting experts at Mumsnet, Netmums and ChannelMum to make it a night to remember.

[Read More: Homemade Halloween Costumes For Kids: 10 Easy Ideas]

ArtMarie via Getty Images

Try Pumpkin Painting, Not Carving

Carving a pumpkin can be hard enough for adults, let alone when you’ve got kids involved. Avoid the hassle by trying pumpkin painting instead this is ideal if you have younger kids. “Get the glitter out and sprinkle it on the paint for some sparkly fun,” says Cathy Ranson, editor of ChannelMum.

Have Some Halloween Chill-Out Time

If you’re not running a party, have some spooky fun by theming the films your kids watch, advises Mumsnet. Films could include Casper, Hocus Pocus, The Addams Family and Room on the Broom. Or, give story time a Halloween makeover by choosing different books – Mumsnet has some great creepy book recommendations here.

Get Crafty

If you want to do something low-key, organise a crafternoon on the weekend of Halloween. Debbie Denyer, who blogs at Squidgydoodle, did pumpkin stamping with her two daughters, aged five and seven, last year. Cut the apple in half, dip in orange paint and then stamp onto plain paper. Cut foam sponge into pieces to print with eyes, mouth and noses.

[Read More: How To Make Toilet Roll Flying Bats For Halloween]

Squidgydoodle

Make A Spooky Treasure Hunt

Netmums advises running a treasure hunt around the house for some sweet treats to eat after dinner. And if you want to go all out, decorate the rooms you’re hiding the treats in with some suitably scary decor. With each sweet, write a clue for kids to find the next one in another room, with a spooky twist (“I’m hiding under the stairs waiting for you, tick tock”). Can they complete the hunt in under an hour?

tatyana_tomsickova via Getty Images

Play The Loo Roll Mummy Game

This is a fun game to play if you’ve got a group of you at home. Ranson advises you to get everyone in pairs and nominate one person in each pair to be the “mummy”. That person must stand still and the other person has to wrap their mummy in loo roll. The best looking mummy after five minutes wins. Take pictures for future memories, they’ll make you chuckle when you look back.

Make Tasty Treats

Fancy a baking session at home with your little ones? If they like to help out in the kitchen, prepare a feast to have for dinner. Try these chocolate witch hats, or opt for a healthier option with these boo-nanas and mini pumpkins.

Denise, who blogs at The Life Of Dee, made some amazing monster eyeballs that could be a great addition to your feast. You can find the method on how to make on her blog – “I’d say try to make a lot as they are very more-ish and a couple are just not enough!” she says.

LifeOfDee

Create A Ghostly Jelly Baby Mountain

This is an easy game to pull off and doesn’t require much organisation. Pack flour into a bowl then tip it out onto a surface to create a mini “mountain”. Put a jelly baby on the peak. Each person has to take it in turns to remove a spoonful of the flour without making the jelly baby fall. “The person that makes the jelly baby fall has to eat it without using their hands to find it,” explains Ranson. Fun, but messy.

[Read More: How To Make Milk Bottle Ghosts]

Play Sleeping Monsters

If you have little ones who get hyped up after an afternoon or evening of Halloween activities, end the night on a game of “sleeping monsters”. Yep, you guessed it, it’s a simple twist on sleeping lions. Get them to start off by showing their “monster sound”, then get going with the game. Ahhh, peace and quiet.

How have you celebrated Halloween in the past? Let us know by commenting below or emailing ukparents@huffpost.com.

Before You Go

13 Creepy Abandoned Places You'll Want To Avoid At Halloween

St Joseph's Orphanage and Hospital, Preston(01 of13)

St Joseph’s Orphanage was opened in 1872 and St Joseph’s Hospital for the Sick Poor opened five years later.

The buildings have seen a number of uses, caring for orphans, tending to soldiers injured in both World Wars, acting a maternity unit and finally being used as a care home.

It has now been empty for more than a decade, although Preston City Council is said to be drawing up residential conversion proposals for the site with the owner.

Fears have been raised over the crumbling gothic building though and the Victorian Society featured it on their endangered buildings list. (credit:Chris Hills/Flickr)

Leybourne Grange Mental Asylum, Kent(02 of13)

The hospital was built in 1936, incorporating the older manor house, for up to 1,200 patients with mental illness and severe learning difficulties.

The site included a main hall, hospital wing, hairdressers and in later years a swimming pool. The church yard near the old hospital contains the grave of John Down, a doctor who became well known for his description of the condition known as Down’s Syndrome.

It finally closed in 1996 and parts of the site were converted into housing. (credit:PaulFlickr)

Hellfire Caves, Buckinghamshire(03 of13)

These creepy caves were dug by hand in the 1700s, although a chalk mine of ancient origin is said to have existed above West Wycombe for centuries.

The caves were used as a meeting place for the notorious Hellfire Club. These meetings were rumoured to involve a number of extremely high-profile figures taking place in strange rituals and sexual debauchery.

The caves were abandoned from the 1780s until the 1940s and although they are now open to the public to explore, there are several fenced-off areas. To be honest, we wouldn’t go there on Halloween for all the money in the world. (credit:johnantoniFlickr)

High Royds Hospital, West Yorkshire(04 of13)

The hospital was opened in 1888 as the West Riding Pauper Lunatic Asylum and included facilities including a library, surgery, dispensary, butchery, dairies, bakery, shop, upholster's and cobbler's workshops. It even had its own small railway which connected to the Wharfedale railway line.

The hospital eventually closed in 2003.

A particularly sinister connection is that reports into the abuse carried out by Jimmy Savile noted he had assaulted someone at the hospital during its 100th anniversary celebrations. (credit:LulaTaHulaFlickr)

Loudoun Castle, Ayrshire(05 of13)

This abandoned site is doubly spooky. The castle itself dates back to the 12th century - but its crumbling ruins also featured as part of a theme park.

The Loudon Castle park closed in 2010 after just 13 years in operation, despite millions being poured into its upkeep.

A number of attractions from the derelict park have been relocated elsewhere but many of the original features, such as now-rusted rollercoaster track, still stand to this day. (credit:Gary McNair/Flickr)

Aldwych Underground Station, London(06 of13)

Aldwych used to be a terminus stop on the Piccadilly line but was never a popular station.

One of its tunnels served as a safe place for items from the British Museum, including the Elgin Marbles during the Second World War.

Its opening was reduced to just weekday peak hours in 1962 and it finally closed in 1994 when the cost of replacing the original 1907 lifts was judged too high to justify.

The London Transport Museum runs a limited number of tours of the station but being alone in here on Halloween sounds downright terrifying. (credit:diamond geezer/Flickr)

Imber, Wiltshire(07 of13)

The entire population of Imber was evicted from their village in 1943 so American troops preparing for the invasion of Europe could carry out training exercises there.

The Ministry of Defence still controls the site and visitors may only enter the village on designated open days.

Many former villagers have pushed to be allowed back to Imber over the years but their requests were denied. As a compromise, the church is still maintained and opened for worship once a year. (credit:Ben Birchall/PA Wire)

Camelot Theme Park, Lancashire(08 of13)

There’s something especially creepy about abandoned theme parks.

Camelot opened in 1983 and lasted until 2012 when its rides, including five rollercoasters and a ghost train, ground to a halt for the last time.

You wouldn’t catch us dead in there on Halloween. (credit:Lee Russell/Flickr)

Maunsell Sea Forts, Thames Estuary(09 of13)

These armed towers appeared in the Thames and Mersey estuaries during WW2.

They were decommissioned in the late 1950s and some used for other activities including pirate radio broadcasting.

An unrecognised micro nation, the Principality of Sealand, claimed one of the forts and was occupied by family and associates of Paddy Roy Bates.

They still look like a War Of The World-style nightmare to us. (credit:Richard Brown via Getty Images)

Severalls Hospital, Essex(10 of13)

The hospital opened in 1910, with capacity for 2,000 psychiatric patients.

Medics at the hospital were apparently given free reign to try out experimental treatments on patients, including EXT and lobotomies.

The hospital finally closed in 1997, although it ceased to function as a psychiatric hospital in the early 1990s. (credit:Rob Walker/Flickr)

Hallsands, Devon(11 of13)

This small fishing village used to be protected from the sea by and sand and shingle beach but this was lost following a major dredging operation nearby in 1897.

The tides and easterly winds began inflicting more and more damage upon the properties of Hallsands over the following decades, until the villagers ultimately abandoned their home.

A few boarded-up buildings remain among the shells of other buildings. (credit:Robin Byles/Flickr)

North Wales Hospital, Denbighshire(12 of13)

The hospital was completed in 1848 but by the early 1900s it had been expanded to house around 1,500 patients and staff.

It finally closed completely in 1995.

Paranormal television show Most Haunted has had a field day with the site, presenting a week of live broadcasts from the hospital in 2008. (credit:Robin Hickmott/Flickr)

Tyneham, Dorset(13 of13)

Tyneham was left frozen in time when its 225 residents were ordered to leave in 1943.

The village was taken over by the armed forces as a tank firing range ahead of D-Day.

Visitors still have the chance to wander among the abandoned buildings of the village on official open days. (credit:MDB 1/Flickr)

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