The month of October is a firm-favorite in many households with festive vibes in the air and Fall in full swing. October and it’s much-anticipated Halloween, offer families great opportunities to create special memories and long-lasting family traditions that strengthen family bonds! This month we look at all the fun Halloween traditions to celebrate as a family and some other fun days in October.
1. Decorate the house for Halloween
Depending on how Halloween-mad your family is, you may choose to start decorating the house for Halloween at the beginning of October. I mean, the longer you can show off those spooky decorations the better, right? Halloween decorations don’t have to be expensive, you can make use of affordable, simple decorations that pack a punch. Hey, you could even use FREE Halloween decorations…that’s right, we’ve got a free printable Halloween decoration that is super popular year after year.
Our Halloween book covers give off major Harry Potter vibes and make a huge impact when placed on the mantelpiece or the front porch. Print out and wrap around old books for a delightfully spooky effect!
If you’re after more cute than spook, you may prefer these sweet Halloween pennant flags! They feature cute and friendly ghosts and happy-looking bats for a kid-approved Halloween decoration. All you need to do is print them out on cardstock, cut them out and glue them to skewer sticks.
2. Pick family Halloween costumes
You know what’s more fun than regular old Halloween costumes? Family Halloween costumes! Put your heads together as a family and pick out a fun theme for your costumes this year so you all somewhat match. Then set out to find or make your costumes together in preparation for the big day! Some cool ideas for family Halloween costumes are:
- Wizard of Oz
- Harry Potter
- Power Rangers
- Ninja Turtles
- Toy Story
- Finding Nemo
- Frozen
3. Visit the pumpkin patch
A classic October family tradition is most definitely a visit to the local pumpkin patch. Most of the pumpkin patches have corn mazes, haystacks, train rides, face painting and many more fun activities for the kids to enjoy aside from the pumpkin picking itself. After a fun day out, enjoy a pumpkin pie together as a family and start carving your pumpkins to use as Halloween decorations.
4. Make DIY Halloween decorations
Most of us are watching our budgets, especially when it comes to things like Halloween decorations. Instead of splurging on expensive Halloween decorations, you can get the kids involved in helping you create some DIY Halloween decorations for the house. A quick Pinterest search will give you plenty of inspiration to make some spooktacular decorations for the home. Our favorite ideas are:
- DIY Halloween wreath
- Bunting
- Carved pumpkins
- Hay bales
- DIY scarecrows
We also have some affordable Halloween decorations like these Halloween Haunted House signs and editable Halloween bunting featuring bats and cobwebs.
5. Visit an apple orchard
October is also a great month to visit an apple orchard with your kids. This fun October family tradition is a firm-favorite amongst little ones, giving them an opportunity to harvest their own apples and get in on the exciting apple cider-making process! Mom and dad, you’re welcome to buy some of the hard cider to enjoy when the kids go to bed. Make some applesauce, apple pie, apple butter or apple crisps with your kids when you’re home from the apple orchard.
6. Celebrate National Cookie Month
Would you believe amongst the ghosts and ghouls of Halloween, October is also National Cookie Month! Sign us up to celebrate that one, thank you very much! We have such fond memories of baking with our moms as kids, so setting aside a day to bake cookies with your kids will live on in their hearts forever.
If you’re not big on baking, that’s ok! You don’t need to be Martha Stewart to whip up a delicious batch of cookies with the kids! Lou has shared her recipe on the blog for the best chocolate chip cookies ever – and no kidding, they really are the best! Lou makes these cookies all the time with her boys. Check out the easy to follow recipe here.
7. Family Pizza Night
Another fun surprise, October is also National Pizza Month. October is fast becoming our favorite month of the year! While we wish we could eat pizza every day for the whole month of October, it’s probably best to make family pizza night an occasion once a week or once a month. We just love the idea of a build your own pizza style dinner where everyone in the family can add their own mix of toppings to their pizza.
If you’re in the Halloween spirit, Lou once made these mummy pizzas for her son’s birthday party which uses olives for eyes and the cheese has been fashioned to resemble bandages. The kids will go wild for these!
8. Get your head in the game
NFL season and Major League Baseball is in full swing in October, making it the perfect time to start the tradition of watching the games as a family. Take bets on who is going to win, get everyone’s favorite game day snacks set out and watch the game together. If you can watch a game at your local stadium, even better! Grab a foam finger and order some hotdogs. It’s such fun for the kids!
If you can’t get the kids to watch with you, head outside and play a game of flag football or baseball in the backyard as a family.
9. Swap ghost stories
Ghost stories are a must at Halloween time and are best told gathered together in the dark. In fact, grandma and grandpa are probably the best people to be in charge of the storytelling. Set up in the living room or around a campfire and set the spooky scene with dim lights. Feel free to allow the ghost storyteller to dress up or use props to really drive the story home!
10. Make DIY Halloween Gifts
If you need a cool party favor for your Halloween bash, want to hand out candy in sealed containers or plan to send your kids class some Halloween treats, these DIY Halloween candy boxes are so unique! Fashioned in the shape of a haunted house, they feature boarded up windows, cobwebs, bats and witches hats for spooky treat boxes ready to be filled to the brim with candy!
11. Trunk or treat party
A new Halloween trend has emerged over the past few years and that is a trunk or treat party. It’s popular at schools, for charity events and in neighbourhoods alike. The idea is to decorate the trunk of your car with Halloween decorations and park in a designated location such as the local park or school parking lot. Kids then go trick or treating from car to car. It is a safe alternative to traditional trick-or-treating door-to-door by allowing parents to be present and keep an eye on the kids. It also takes a lot of pressure off of decorating the house and narrowing the focus down to the very manageable trunk of your car!
We have created a trunk or treat party flyer that is fully editable and extra festive, featuring trick-or-treating kids and the decked out trunk of a car.
12. Trick or Treating
Traditional trick-or-treating is still a popular Halloween night tradition. Many families enjoy doing this Halloween activity together and showing off their costumes to the rest of the neighborhood…especially if you did a great job coordinating your outfits!
Use this printable “Out of Candy” sign to let the neighborhood kids know the candy reserves have dried up to avoid being bothered for the rest of the night.
13. Halloween party
Aside from trick-or-treating, Halloween parties are up there in terms of annual Halloween traditions. If you want to become known as the family who throws the best Halloween parties every year, now is your chance! We have SO many Halloween party invitations and decorations in our shop to inspire your direction for the evening. From a haunted house to a Halloween costume party or Halloween movie night, we have something for everyone.
Wow your guests with these ghoulishly good Halloween cupcakes. Rich and chocolatey cupcakes with a delicious buttercream frosting, kids and adults will wolf these down faster than you can say “boo”! If your kids went trick or treating before the party, you may want to swipe off some of the frosting to avoid a sugar rush!
Fun days to celebrate in October
We’re a big fan of celebrating the small moments in life which is why we love looking into all the fun, wacky theme days every month because some of those could just become that family tradition your kids take into their own families when they’re grown!
1 October: Willy Wonka Day – a fun and delicious day! Decorate cookies with frosting and candy, then munch your snacks together while watching Charlie and the Chocolate Factory or reading the famous book.
3 October: Play Outside Day
4 October: World Animal Day – visit your local animal shelter with your kids and donate money, food, toys or your time by spending time with the animals or helping where needed.
5 October: World Teachers Day – send a special note, cookies or flowers to class for your kids’ teachers to let them know how amazing they are!
6 October: Mad Hatter Day – have a Mad Hatter’s tea party with your kids complete with crazy hats and fancy tea sets!
9 October: World Post Day – keep the lost art of letter writing alive. Have your kids write a letter to someone special and go together to the post office to send it off in the mail. Adding stamps and sealing off that envelope is actually quite fun, especially for kids!
10 October: World Homeless Day – volunteer at your local shelter or soup kitchen or drop sandwiches off with the homeless folk in your neighborhood. This will teach your kids empathy and gratitude for all they have.
11 October: Father Daughter Day
13 October: Silly Sayings Day – pop a silly saying or riddle in your kids lunchboxes and wait for their reaction when they get home from school!
14 October: Fossil Day
16 October: World Food Day – try another country’s food for dinner such as Asian, Korean, Middle Eastern or African takeaways to teach your kids about the flavors of the world.
17 October: Pasta Day
18 October: Chocolate Cupcake Day
22 October: Make a Dog’s Day Day – it’s not hard to make a dog’s day! A cuddle, a treat or a walk will often be enough to make a dog’s day! If you don’t have a dog, offer to take a neighbor’s dog for a walk or spend time playing with rescue dogs at the local shelter.
24 October: Make a Difference Day – use our Random Acts of Kindness cards to guide you in making a small difference in someone else’s life!
28 October: Chocolate Day
Ah, October. So many great traditions to enjoy together as a family. From Halloween to a whole month dedicated to cookies and pizza, there’s so much to love about October! Do you have Halloween traditions we didn’t mention in our blog? We’d love to hear about them in the comments!
