Build a gingerbread-style Halloween house. Credit: JiaYing Grygiel
If you're staying in
If going out or organizing something among your neighbors is not your jam again this year, that's cool too. Try one or more of these at-home ideas.
Leave the porch light off and stay in for pizza and a scary movie with just your kids — easy and safe. You’re not obligated to open the door to random people knocking. Having the light off is your signal.
Set up different rooms or spaces of your house for indoor trick-or-treating. Have an adult in costume (or a dressed-up stuffie!) wait behind closed doors or cupboards with treats and let the kids go room to room, knocking on doors.
Build a haunted gingerbread Halloween house. You can buy a kit from Trader Joe’s or Costco, or make your own with a box of graham crackers, store-bought frosting, candy corn and other sweet things. Structural integrity is always the hardest part, but the good news here is if your house is crooked or wobbly, it’ll just look that much spookier!
Do a haunted candy hunt! (Think Easter egg hunt.) Hide candy around the yard or around the house, wait 'til dark, turn off all the lights and get your kids hunting by flashlight. Decorate with lots of faux spider webs to make it extra creepy.
One take on the coronavirus piñata
A piñata with your pod is a fun way to distribute candy. You can buy a ready-made piñata at a party store, Target or online, but it’s more fun to make your own. All you need is a balloon, newspaper torn into strips, flour and water. The scariest piñata? A coronavirus piñata, of course.
Play costume charades with your family. The first person has three minutes to raid the closet or dress-up box to come up with a unique costume. The person who guesses what the costume is gets to go next.
Hold a candy scavenger hunt in your house with a Willy Wonka-style golden ticket to find. Hide candy around the house, including one golden bar with the winning ticket. What’s the golden ticket good for? Maybe the winner gets to decide what’s for dinner for a week? (Winner must choose something other than candy!) Or designate a prize that works for you. Hide a winning ticket for each of your kids to ward off a battle.
If candy is all your kids want, buy a big variety bag and dump it out on the living room floor. That’s the whole point of Halloween for kids, isn’t it? We promise no one will complain.
Caroline JiaYing Grygiel is an award-winning photographer and writer in Seattle. She crisscrossed the country as a journalism nomad, from The Philadelphia Inquirer to The San Jose Mercury News to MSN.com. She fell in love with the Pacific Northwest for its beautiful mountains and excellent eats, and her favorite thing to do is explore the city with her children.
Grygiel won a silver award from the Parenting Media Association for a ParentMap story about a family trip to New York City inspired by classic children's books. She was a lead contributor to ParentMap's “52 Seattle Adventures with Kids: A Four-Season Guide.” She has appeared on King 5’s “New Day Northwest” and KUOW’s “The Conversation” to talk about fun things to do with kids in Seattle.
Grygiel graduated summa cum laude from Syracuse University with a Bachelor of Science in magazine journalism and a Master of Science in photography. She is a native Mandarin speaker and an Eddie Adams Workshop alumnus. Find her on Instagram @photoj.seattle and at photoj.net.
