Are you trying to make Halloween extra special this year? Keep scrolling to find out some spooky things to do on Halloween at home with kids that are easy and memorable.
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Halloween is coming up, and you’re not sure what to do with your kids?
Trick-or-treating on Halloween is an absolute must in every kid’s life. And it’s a ton of fun for you too because you get to dress up, and everyone gives you free candy.
What’s not to love about that?
But loading up on sugar and scaring the neighbors isn’t the only way to celebrate Halloween, especially if the weather is yucky.
We have a list of 13 spooky things to do at home on Halloween with kids! You don’t even need to leave the house for some fun.
These ideas are perfect if you’re looking for something new this year or want to stay in your backyard!
They’re all easy enough that you can get everything done before bedtime so everyone can enjoy their favorite holiday without any fuss. These ideas will make your family feel safe and festive.
Plus they’ll be able to tell their friends about it when they return to school the next day!
So keep scrolling and see how we make celebrating easier than ever before.
13 Fun Things to do at Home on Halloween with your Family
1. Build a Fort and Tell Scary Stories
Help the kids design and build their very own living room fort using pillows, bedsheets, giant stuffed toys, cardboard boxes, and comforters.
Feeling lazy? Use a tent if you have one!
You can even set one up with just a few items. Just make sure it’s big enough for everyone.
Once the fort is built, get everyone inside, download a few scary stories that are kid-friendly, and take turns reading them.
Turn off the lights and bring a flashlight to set the mood further because stories are always scarier when you tell them with a flashlight under your chin, right?
This is one of the best things to do on Halloween night, especially with younger kiddos.
2. Buy an Inflatable Haunted House for Halloween
If you really want to go all out this Halloween, buy a house for your family… an inflatable haunted house, that is!
You can buy an epic Halloween inflatable haunted house complete with skeletons, ghosts, and skull decorations on Amazon. Most models come with a built-in fan so that the house will inflate within seconds.
Walmart also has a few blow-up Halloween inflatable haunted houses that range between $99.95 and $214, but hey! You can’t put a price tag on the fun.
Kids will have a blast playing with it during the day, and it will be extra spooky at night! This is a top Halloween thing to do at home.
3. Make Creepy Slime
Slime is icky, sticky, and yucky, which is just perfect for Halloween. All you need is the following ingredients:
- 1/2 cup of white glue
- 3 cups of foam shaving cream
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- Food coloring (I suggest using Halloween-inspired colors such as green, orange, black, or red)
- 1 tbsp of saline solution
Add the ingredients to a bowl and start mixing, but make sure you knead the slime before taking it out of the bowl.
Of course, this is just one of the many slime recipes available on the web. If you’re missing an ingredient, there’s always an easy way to replace it.
Once you’ve chosen the recipe, make the slime extra creepy by adding black, green, or red dye to the mix. Then sprinkle a few assorted Halloween party favors like tiny bats, vampire fangs, spiders, or eyeballs.
4. Play Candy Jenga
Candy Jenga uses the same concept as everyone’s favorite childhood game, except that instead of using wooden blocks, you’ll be using candy.
So, consider buying enough Hershey’s or Kit Kat bars to make a tall tower. You could also keep a few chocolate bars from your kids’ Halloween candy earlier.
Once you’ve stacked your candy evenly, have everyone take turns removing a piece of candy from different parts of the tower.
The first person to knock down the tower loses. Everyone else gets to divide their candy stash evenly. This is also a fun Halloween event idea.
5. Play the Halloween Game Mystery Box
Look for food that feels like body parts and other icky Halloween items. Then grab some plastic containers and place the food items inside them.
Make sure to cover them or mask them with black tape so your kids can’t see what you’ve hidden inside.
Then label the containers based on what the food items feel like. Your kids will have to touch these items and identify what the food items actually are.
Here are some great ideas:
- Peeled grapes or olives feel like eyeballs when you touch them
- Candy corn can be a vampire’s teeth
- Wet tortillas look and feel like skin (yuck!)
- Overcooked rice can easily be mistaken for maggots
- Sliced melon feels like a tongue
- Raisins feel like earwax
- Wet spaghetti mixed with cauliflower feels like brains
6. Give a Dish a Halloween Makeover
You can turn just about any of your kids’ favorite dishes into something spooktacular with a little help from food dye and edible decorations.
I’m kind of in love with this super easy mummy pigs in a blanket option. You can use pre-made dough and wrap it around a hot dog or sausage for a spooky lunch or dinner.
Or, bake your favorite cookies, cupcakes, cereal bars, or Rice Krispies Treats and add some ghoulish eyeballs, spider webs, or ghosts to make them extra memorable.
You can even create fun cupcakes and decorate with these cute Hocus Pocus cupcake toppers!
Just going the extra mile can be one of the most memorable things to do on Halloween for kids.
7. Turn Your Home into a Haunted House
Add a couple of spider webs to the porch and hang a few bats or other cool Halloween things. You can also add some Styrofoam gravestones to the front yard.
Make sure to grab a couple of orange strings of light and string them up.
But you’re not done yet. You’ve got a pumpkin to carve.
Gather everyone for some family bonding and watch how the hours go by.
You can also add some finishing touches to the house, like a wreath made out of Halloween candy. Just buy a wreath form, glue some candy to it, and hang it on your door.
8. Play Mummy Bowling at Home
If you own a bowling set, then you’re already halfway there! If you don’t, you can get one online or DIY one with water bottles.
Once you have the set, grab some toilet paper and wrap it around the bowling pins to make them look like mummies.
You can use a bit of fake blood or red dye and paint some googly eyes. It’s simple, fast, and fun.
9. Make Some Spooky Eyeball Punch
It wouldn’t really be an at-home Halloween party without some eyeball punch, now would it?
So, here’s how you make some:
- Drain 2 cans of lychees but save 1 1/4 cups of syrup.
- Stuff blackberries in each lychee and chill
- Stir the 1 1/4 cups of syrup along with 4 cups of tart cherry juice, and 1 cup of orange juice in a pitcher and chill.
- Add the stuffed lychees and 3 cans of chilling sparkling water to the punch and serve with ice. You can modify the recipe as you see fit.
10. Have a Halloween Scavenger Hunt at Home
Hide a couple of Halloween objects like plastic pumpkins, vampire fangs, a wand, or even a bag of Halloween candy indoors and outdoors and print out a couple of clues.
Ensure that the clues are clever and fun but not too hard so your kids can easily figure them out. You don’t want them getting frustrated or bored!
If you do it right, it can be the best thing to do with kids on Halloween.
Some great examples can be:
- It’s hot when it’s turned on and Mommy/Daddy uses it all the time. Seek out the appliance where Halloween treats are made. (Answer: the oven)
- When you watch me on Halloween, you’ll get really scared. Go to the living room where your favorite TV shows get aired. (Answer: TV)
- It’s pointy and sharp and is a real pain in the neck. Look for me in the place where you lay your weary head to rest. (Answer: vampire fangs under the kids’ pillow)
11. Have a Halloween Movie Marathon
Halloween is that time of the year when kids can load up on sugar and watch TV for hours on end, and no one can complain.
So, throw a scary movie marathon with the whole family! It’s one of the most fun things to do on Halloween!
Here’s a list of fun, family-friendly suggestions that may give your kids a few goosebumps and giggles.
- Hocus Pocus
- The Addams Family
- The Spiderwick Chronicles
- Scoob!
- A Witches’ Ball
- Nightmare Before Christmas
- Toy Story of Terror
- Monster Island
We even have a Hocus Pocus bingo game and a Nightmare Before Christmas guessing game!
12. Dress Up the Entire Day
Have everyone in the family dress up for Halloween and then throw a Halloween costume contest at night. The winner gets to pick a dessert or can skip doing chores for the whole week.
But you don’t have to go over the top.
Here are some simple costume ideas that are fun things to do for Halloween:
- Toilet Paper Mummies – Just wrap your kids and yourselves in toilet paper. It’s one of the easiest ways to spend a few hours giggling and having fun
- Ghosts – Cut some holes for the eyes and mouth and throw a white sheet over yourselves
- Tourist – Throw on a Hawaiian shirt, hat, socks, sandals, and a camera and you’re set!
13. Learn about Dia de los Muertos
There are many things to do with kids for Halloween that don’t revolve around mummies and monsters. It’s also a time to celebrate life.
Dia de los Muertos is a fun, Latin holiday that celebrates loved ones who have passed away. It’s usually on November 1st or 2nd, and it’s full of good food, parties, and awesome decorations.
Choose one of these fabulous Day of the Dead children’s books to read with your kids or learn how to make your own Sugar Skull craft.
Halloween Activities FAQs
There’s no reason why you can’t have a spooktacular Halloween on a budget. A few ideas include doing a scary movie marathon at home, attending a free community event, or tell ghost stories at home.
A few not-so-scary Halloween games include using toilet paper to make mummies, having a donut eating contest, pin the hat on the witch, doing a costume contest, play scary charades, or musical chairs to scary music or Halloween songs.
If you’re looking to surprise your kids with some spooky Halloween snacks, here are a few options: candy corn cereal mix, Halloween popcorn hands, mini donut spiders, and Halloween cookies.
For a spine-chilling experience, try hosting a horror movie marathon, exploring creepy DIY crafts, or setting up a haunted house in your living room. These creepy things to do at home are sure to make your Halloween eerily unforgettable.
Hosting a costume contest, carving pumpkins, and having a spooky movie night are just a few things to do for Halloween at home with friends. These activities offer a fun and festive way to celebrate the holiday indoors.
Halloween at Home Wrap-Up
We hope you’ve been able to find some great ideas for celebrating Halloween this year.
If you still don’t know what to do on Halloween, don’t worry! There are still more posts waiting for you on our blog.
Don’t forget that we have tons of other content about holidays and family-friendly events in general too.
So be sure to check out the rest of our site before heading back into the world of Halloween night!