Tips & Tricks for the Kiddo's First Halloween
Costumes, trick-or-treating, spooky fun with friends and neighbors — it’s no wonder we all love Halloween! And it’s extra fun introducing your child not only to the holiday, but all the seasonal activities that come with it, like pumpkin patches and apple picking.
Here are a few tips for making your child’s first Halloween a magical adventure.
Talk to your kiddo about Halloween
Just like all new things, telling your kids what to expect on Halloween night will help set them up for a fun and not-too-frightening time. Most importantly, they may need help understanding that all the costumes and decorations are make believe — just like they’re having fun dressing up as a dinosaur, other kids like dressing up like ghosts.
While your child is little, you may also want to avoid the truly scary Halloween events, like haunted houses. On Halloween night, it’s a good idea to stroll right past the more ghoulish houses in your neighborhood.
Create your own Halloween traditions
A big part of Halloween is all the anticipation leading up to it. For example, there are all kinds of sweet and spooky Halloween movies to watch with the kids — movies that can become a yearly family tradition.
It’s also super fun to decorate the house for Halloween, but you can keep it simple: think construction paper cats, spiders, and bats. If your kiddo is too little for scissors, you can let them decorate the cutouts with crayons and stickers. And don’t forget pumpkin carving: even the littlest family members can help pull the seeds out of the pumpkin and delight in seeing its toothy grin lit up with a candle.
Plan your trick-or-treating
As we all know, some neighborhoods celebrate Halloween more than others. It’s a good idea to talk to your friends and neighbors with older kids about fun, well-lit places to trick-or-treat. You can also put together a kit to take out with you:
- Warm outer layers and an umbrella
- A flashlight to help navigate dark sidewalks
- Bandaids, just in case someone does fall
- A stroller, so your little one doesn’t have to walk the whole time
- Healthy snacks and water, so you can keep everybunny content — without digging into the candy
Hand out treats you’d feed your own kids
Halloween is all about the bag of goodies, right?! Annie’s snacks are a solid trick-or-treat win — kids absolutely adore them, and you can feel great about handing them out. Plus, they’re individually packaged, which is reassuring for you and other parents. If you want to be the most popular house on the block, try a mixed bowl of snacks:
