Easy Halloween Crafts For Everyone

Halloween is quickly approaching and parents are once again scrambling to adapt this favorite children’s holiday to our new pandemic normal. Whether or not you’re planning to do trick-or-treating or other Halloween activities as usual (or in some adapted form to follow new rules and regulations), I think we can all agree that Halloween crafts are a safe and fun way to enjoy the holidays with our kids.

Here’s my problem: For some reason, even though I am a creative in other ways, the idea of doing kid’s crafts often fills me with dread…which I guess means they are a perfect Halloween activity? But seriously, in case you also get quickly overwhelmed on Pinterest and anxious around construction paper and glitter, I have narrowed down the options to a manageable list of Halloween crafts that actually seem like they would be a lot of fun (and mostly pretty easy!) to try with kids of all ages and abilities.

Pumpkin Decorating and Carving

There are lots of options for this popular Halloween activity. You can always go with the classic Jack-o’-Lantern face carving, but you should not feel limited by this traditional approach to pumpkin carving. The pumpkin could have any face your child wants – from spooky to friendly to silly or anything in between. Also, why does it have to be a face at all? Carve buildings, pets, abstract designs, unicorns, stars, flowers, super heroes…whatever you want! 

Need inspiration? You can find tons of great ideas on Pinterest (of course) and there are many carving stencils out there like this Daniel Tiger stencil from PBS or more traditional Jack-O-Lantern stencils.  I also like the idea of pounding cookie cutters into the pumpkin (with a mallet or hammer) to make fun shapes more easily. This is a great way for younger kids to participate in the carving tradition without wielding a knife. I am also eager to try this idea of decorating pumpkins with push pins and yarn. 

If you are afraid of giving your young child anything sharp (totally understandable!) or dealing with the mess, painting or decorating pumpkins in other ways is totally acceptable. Paint or draw spooky faces or just decorate however you want with any materials you have. My son came home from preschool a couple of years ago with a pumpkin just covered with pink glitter. Get creative!

DIY Halloween Decorations

My son loves Halloween decorations, but I am shocked at how much I can spend to make his spooky decorating dreams into a reality. If you’re looking to save a little money while also creating some unique decorations, get crafty and make some of your own decorations with kids. 

Here are a few crafty decoration ideas to get you started…

• Halloween Garlands – There are many stencils you can download to make Halloween-themed shapes or just go free-form, cut them out, attach them to a string (with clothes pins, tape, etc.) – and hang around your home! If you’re looking for more detailed instructions, here is one option. You can also make a version where you skip the string and just cut the entire garland out of paper like this one.
• Spiders and Spider Webs – There are so many spider crafts but I like this super easy one made of pipe cleaners and beads. There are also lots of ways to make spider webs. You can make them with popsicle sticks and yarn, coffee filters, paper plates and yarn…or even glue and salt!  Decorate your home with them or just make them into a fun Halloween activity to keep your kids busy and entertained…especially if you are skipping the trick-or-treating and staying home this year.
• Goodie Bags – You may want to create individual candy goodie bags to pass out to children (maybe spread them out on a table/steps/driveway in front of your home), instead of letting them grab candy from a bowl this year. While it’s more work, it can also be a fun craft for your kid to work on leading up to Halloween. This pumpkin goodie bag is super cute and I also like these (very simple) witch’s brooms. 
• Halloween Rock Painting – I like this idea because it requires very few materials (rocks and paint) and even the littlest kids can do it. Just find a rock and paint it with any kind of spooky face or other Halloween-themed images. Of course, if you need ideas, you can find plenty online like these. These could be used as decorations – for inside or outside – or you can just make them as a fun Halloween activity.

• Tissue Box Monsters – This is another fun one that doesn’t require too many materials: empty tissue boxes, googly eyes, pom poms, card stock for teeth. You can also paint them and decorate them with other materials. Here is one cute example but you can also just do your own thing. (While you’re at it, you can create paper bag bats, spirit jugs, toilet paper roll mummies and other Halloween creatures from any kind of paper rolls or other recycled home goods.)
• Popsicle Stick Haunted House – This craft could be as detailed and complicated or as simple as you like, depending on the age of the kids and what materials you have available. The basic idea is to make a house out of popsicle sticks and decorate it with ghosts and other ghouls. You can find inspiration here and here. You can even try to make this 3D version if you’re feeling ambitious! 

More Halloween Crafts

Looking for more ideas? Here are some favorite ideas for Halloween keepsakes or gifts or even candy and treats to include in goodie bags.

Pumpkin Stress Balls – This is a fun and easy craft that could make a great gift or even fidget for kids like mine who struggle through hours of zoom school every morning. Just use an orange balloon (or white if they prefer to make a ghost or skeleton) and fill it with rice or flour…check out this example for a neat trick using a paper funnel and empty water bottle to fill them with flour. Last step: use a marker to draw faces and tie pieces of green yarn around the end if you’d like to add a pumpkin stem. Who doesn’t need cute (or spooky) ways to manage stress these days?

Paper Bag Monster Puppets – Of course you can make puppets out of almost anything. My son went through a phase where he would cut out any drawing and tape it to a stick or pencil to make it into a stick puppet. You could easily make monster stick puppets for Halloween, but if you’d like to step it up a notch (slightly), you could also use paper bags and decorate them. You could make cute monsters like these or other classic Halloween characters like these. Then have your kids entertain you with a Halloween puppet show!

Handprint Halloween Keepsake with Clay – This craft requires a little more patience than I usually have these days, but I like the idea of using clay and incorporating a hand print into a Halloween craft. If you hang a string from it, it could also become a decoration to hang somewhere in your house. (It also reminds me of a Christmas tree ornament… I am sure you could make a similar version of this craft for other holidays.) 

Monster Lollipops & Halloween Treats – I know that everything needs to be packaged for trick-or-treating, but I like the idea of making our own candy to eat on Halloween. You could even use the Switch Witch (or something similar) to swap out your kid’s processed candy for home-made treats and other kinds of non-edible prizes. I’m sure there are more involved (and healthy) recipes, but if you don’t have a lot of time, this is an easy option that just involves melting down Jolly Ranchers and then adding candy eyes and lollipop sticks. Even easy enough for me! For (slightly) more involved treats, I also like these Boo-Nana Ghost Pops and the White Chocolate Strawberry Ghosts. (Who needs candy?!)

Spooky Science Experiments – Do you like fun Halloween crafts that also teach valuable science lessons? You’re in luck…there are plenty to choose from! I have seen this creepy Leaky Pumpkin craft making the rounds and KiwiCo also has lots of other great ideas like Count Popula and Spider Launcher. (Just be aware that these probably require adult supervision!)

 

If you make some of these crafts and like how they turn out, I’d love to see them! Please send me a pic at margel@achildgrows.com. Either way, I hope these ideas inspire you to overcome any crafting anxieties (there really are crafts for everyone) and start making wonderful new holiday traditions with your kids. 

Happy Halloween!

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Margel Nusbaumer is a writer and mom. Thoughts? Reach out to margel@achildgrows.com.