Halloween Activities with Grandkids

Here are a few fun ideas for Halloween activities with grandkids.

1. Halloween-Decorated House Hunting

For a few years now, people have been decorating the exterior of their houses as elaborately for Halloween as they have for Christmas.

It can be a lot of fun to drive throughout several neighborhoods in your area, searching for these Halloween houses.

But how can you find such houses? Check out these specific cities and states:

• Northeast Ohio
• Omaha
• New Jersey

Or do a quick internet search for a list of decorated houses in your specific city.

2. Nighttime Halloween-Egg Hunt

If you or your kids (the parents of your grandkids!) have a large front or back lawn, or a large basement – you can hold a nighttime Halloween egg hunt. Purchase glow-in-the-dark eggs (or learn how to make them) from a retailer such as Glow in the Dark Party Ideas,  Growing a Jeweled Rose, and many more.

3. Halloween Party

For more Halloween activities with grandkids? Throw a whole party!

There are plenty of ideas for Halloween parties on the web, but here are some of our favorite suggestions:

• Have a costume show, with each grandchild entering the room in their Halloween outfit. Work with them (depending on their ages) to announce what their costume is and why they like it.
• If your grandkids are musically or theatrically inclined, offer them to stage a mini play or musical performance consistent with their costumes.
• Begin the party by helping your grandkids carve their own pumpkin. It doesn’t even have to be a large pumpkin! Depending on the age of the grandchildren, have them use magic markers to draw faces on small gourds or even eggs.
• Play one or two Halloween-related games. Card games with Halloween decorations on them can be fun, or there are specific Halloween games such as the Haunted Mansion board game or a ring toss game featuring inflatable witch hats.
• Then have a Halloween egg hunt – either in the yard or in a suitably decorated basement.

Finally, a Halloween-themed dinner! This could consist of serving macaroni and cheese in orange bell peppers carved to look like jack-o-lanterns, Halloween deviled eggs, and hotdogs wrapped in phylo dough to look like mummies.

As for desserts, how about pull-apart graveyard cupcakes, or red velvet vampire cupcakes?

If any of your grandkids likes to cook, have them help you create your masterpieces!

4. Traditional Halloween Movie Marathon

Just as White Christmas and Holiday Inn form essential viewing on Christmas Day, so there are plenty of Halloween-themed movies that can be made a tradition to watch on Halloween.

The movies themselves must be tailored to the age range of the grandkids. For the younger kids, the Hotel Transylvania series is age appropriate. There’s a classic from the 1950s – The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad, starring Basil Rathbone.

Monsters Inc. isn’t exactly Halloween themed, but it’s a great story for kids who may not recognize all the traditional Halloween characters (Dracula, Frankenstein, the Mummy).

And then, of course, there’s Wallace and Gromit’s The Curse of the Were-rabbit.

Introduce slightly older kids to the Universal horror classics – Dracula with Bela Lugosi, The Mummy with Boris Karloff, Frankenstein with Boris Karloff, and The Werewolf with Lon Chaney Jr. There is no blood guts and gore in these movies ­– and they are simply classics!

Or if your grandkids are into science fiction – Them! (the original, not the remake!), It Came from Outer Space, The Thing (From Another World) (again, the original, not the remake!), or Creature from the Black Lagoon.

For more movie ideas, check out Rotten Tomatoes’ 36 Essential Kids Halloween Movies.

However you choose to enjoy your Halloween activities with grandkids, make sure it’s a memorable one. Create traditions you can follow for years to come!