What to Do When Your Kid Is Just Not About Halloween: 4 Tips From a Survivor

For Halloween 2015, I was Mickey Mouse. I used black eyeliner to draw whiskers on my cheeks, put bright red lipstick on, and wore big ears. I was eighteen years old, and it was my first Halloween. The reason my first Halloween was the same year as my first year of college was because I wasn’t allowed to celebrate the day of ghosts and ghouls as a child. My parents’ reasons for not dressing me and my siblings up as pumpkins, witches, Scooby-Doo characters, etc., were religious, but that’s not necessarily the case for all people who choose not to participate in Hallow’s Eve festivities. According to a 2017 survey by Statista, 29% of Americans eighteen and older didn’t plan to celebrate or participate in Halloween. For kids who grew up like I did, this percentage, which includes parents, is important. How do we keep this chunk of kids from feeling excluded? Here are my suggestions:

1. Movie Night

This one is the most obvious. My brother and I spent a chunk of our childhood Halloweens snuggled together watching The Nightmare Before Christmas and eating microwave popcorn. As other kids walked from house to house trick-or-treating, we sang along to various musicals and Disney Channel Original Films. Perhaps this is not the type of prayerful reflection our parents encouraged, but we still had fun. When I was younger, a part of movie nights that sweetened the deal were the CD-ROM games that came with special editions of older films, but since it’s 2018, there are so many more options to add an interactive quality to the motion picture viewing experience. You could add a bingo component to the movie night (for a candy prize, of course) or make a game that forces your kids to pay attention to what they’re watching. I always liked asking my brother how many other holiday themed doors Jack walks past in The Nightmare Before Christmas, especially since our favorite video game featured a Nightmare Before Chrismas level.

2. Harvest Festival

This is something my elementary school principal offered non-Halloweening kids in lieu of the school-wide costume parade. The group of us crowded into my school cafeteria with care packages. We had ziplock bags filled with Jolly Ranchers, cupcakes, bags of chips. The more unhealthy items in the list can be replaced with Trader Joe’s Scandinavian Swimmers, fall fruit like apples, and carrots to work with public school health initiatives. We were also given coloring books, glitter, card games, and played Kidz Bop-esque albums on a CD player. To update these somewhat dated alternatives, I suggest downloading smartphone compatible games like Heads Up! or investing in a karaoke app. Never get rid of the coloring books and glitter, though, and maybe even take time to personalize care packages so each kid knows that they’ve been considered.

3. Pumpkin Pie-Palooza/Spa Night

This event can really go for any pie. My favorite’s really apple, but pumpkin fits the autumn theme a bit better than the rest. The idea is to get your little ones cooking. Get their hands messy with pumpkin bits and sugar and spice. Play some festive music or episodes of their favorite TV show, and they’ll be too occupied with baking to think of trick-or-treating. You can alternatively, make this a mommy-and-me autumn spa type event, with sweet potato or apple cinnamon candles and face masks to calm everyone down as the pie bakes. Here’s one of my favorite pumpkin pie recipes, and you can substitute the rum in the whipped cream with apple cider or white grape juice.

4. Candy Rush

Half of the fun (or consolation prizes) of not participating in Halloween comes from the absolute abandon post-Halloween candy sales allowed me as a kid. Try setting up a post-Halloween trick-or-treat for your kiddos. Give them bags and a budget, and let them go wild. This way, when their bags are full, they can participate in consumer practices like you do. They’ll enjoy the privilege of choosing the candy they really want rather than hoping bounty from the neighborhood’s any good, and will learn just as many lessons from this mad dash as sitting outside selling lemonade.  

Alternatively, you can just ask your kids what they want to do. Costume party? Amazing. Chill night in? Perfect. And maybe, just maybe, one year you can take them trick-or-treating. Or don’t.