Trick-or-Treating for Halloween Party

by Bridgett
(Ipswich, U.K)

When my son – then four – attended a Halloween party last year, I was pleasantly surprised that there were enough age-appropriate activities to make the party more than just a chaos of kids running around.

To begin with, since most kids were there because their parents felt it was more appropriate for them than staying up late into the night trick-or-treating, and yet most kids are socially trained to believe Halloween fun relies on just that activity, there was something similar built into the party.

Around the perimeter of the community center gym where the party was held were different trick-or-treating stations, each manned by an adult in costume, and each with a different kind of candy.

This kept the activity controlled, “fair” and safe, while giving the kids their fix. Much of the center of the gym floor was pocketed by different activity stations.

At one, kids decorated small plastic pumpkins (think Oriental Trading Co.) with assorted-color sharpies, to make their own Jack-o-Lanterns. At another, pre-cut pieces of fun foam sheeting were assembled to make their own monster masks.

At a third, there was a game of stick (via Velcro) the black cat on the witch’s broom. A fourth was actually a small enclosure filled with clean, dry leaves, that one child at a time could jump into.

Kids decorated their own Halloween cupcakes to eat with orange frosting, black gel frosting, gummy worms, seasonal sprinkles, and that sort of thing.

They mixed their own “magic potions” at a wizard’s table, to make drinks that were really seltzer water with different colors of food coloring.