I’m talking family-friendly fun ideas for Halloween in July? Why? Because the decorations are all in the stores already! It amazes me how quickly the stores put out their decor for the holidays. When you think of family-friendly holidays, what comes to mind? For many, it’s Christmas or Thanksgiving. For others? The 4th of July or Labor Day are all perfect opportunities to get together with family for a BBQ and some fun in the sun.
What about Halloween?
While it doesn’t have the most family-friendly reputation, Halloween is an excellent opportunity to have fun as a family and make memories together. Regardless of how old or young your children are, or how big or small your family may be, you can easily find ways to make Halloween a fun holiday (even when you can’t trick or treat) to celebrate together while creating memories to last a lifetime. You can even consider creating your own Halloween traditions.
If you’re looking for ways to have fun with your family this Halloween, here are a few of my favorites:
Take a Trip Down Memory Lane
Halloween edition! Looking through old photo albums and memories with family can be a great way to make holidays meaningful. Halloween photos from earlier years can be a sentimental – and sometimes hilarious – throwback to the past. Dig up some of your favorite old Halloween photos to look through with your family, and if you’re feeling really ambitious, choose one or two to recreate!
Plan a Family Costume
What better group to coordinate a group costume with than your family? You could take the obvious route and choose a famous family to dress up as – the Simpsons, the Addams Family, or the family from the Incredibles are all classic options. Alternately, you could pick a theme and come up with costumes to fit within it, like characters from the same show, animals from the zoo, or fruit in a basket! Just make sure you plan ahead – if you wait until the day of Halloween to figure out your costume, you probably won’t have much luck.
Find Your Way Through A Corn Maze
Some of the best things about Halloween are visiting pumpkin patches with the kids, petting zoos, and corn mazes that pop up for the fall. While it’s typically better to visit the pumpkin patch earlier in the month so you can carve your Jack-O-Lantern a few weeks before Halloween, a corn maze can be the perfect Halloween activity for families looking to for some fun. Some will even stay open once the sun sets, leaving you to navigate by the light of your flashlight. A quick search on Google or Facebook is the best way to find options in your area.
Play a Halloween Game
You don’t have to go out and buy a brand new board game – instead, all you need is a little creativity to make your favorites Halloween-appropriate! Come up with some Halloween-inspired prompts for a family game of Charades, create a scary scavenger hunt, or put a spooky spin on Pin the Tail on the Donkey.
Halloween isn’t all about trick or treating, witches and ghosts, and scary movies. It can just as easily be about family-friendly fun and making beautiful memories together you’ll cherish for years to come. These are just a few ways you can make Halloween memorable, fun, and exciting for your family.
