If you don't trick or treat, what do you do?

[FreshStartAgain23]

My DD is 3, almost 4, but I won't be trick or treating with her until she specifically asks. We don't live near family nor have 'friends' locally of similar age, so no parties etc.
In a similar situation to mine, how do you 'celebrate' halloween? We will of course do pumpkins, dress up and so on, but how can I make it fun for her? Preferably from home as we don't get chance on weekdays to get out as I work full time. We were at Butlins last Halloween so they took care of it that year!

We have for this year a magic paint pen book that is Halloween theme, a new Skeleton book and pumpkin carving to do. We don't get any trick or treaters near us so won't have that to worry about but I still buy some sweets for DS x

We don't do Halloween at all, just a normal night here!

If you have trick or treaters in your area, put a pumpkin out to indicate that you're celebrating, let DD dress up and answer the door and give the sweets out.

Watch a 'scary' movie. Monsters inc. or Hotel Transylvania are probably fine, though do check first!

Halloween craft to decorate.

You could do her a Halloween treasure hunt and hide some chocolate coins in the house/garden/park for her to find.

A walk around you local area after dark to see all the pumpkins/decorations etc.

Learn some Halloween songs, YouTube is great for this.

Have a cup of tea then try to hide from people knocking on the door.

You could do a few little games at home.

Boil up some spaghetti, allow it to cool and hide some jelly worms in there. Get her to pick the worms out blind folded.
Play musical mummies (statues) with music like monster mash, ghostbusters etc
Use a loo roll to wrap her up like a mummy
Pin the leg on the skeleton

Decorate pizzas like pumpkins or wrap sausages in puff pastry with eyes for dinner. Cupcakes iced with Halloween sweets and sprinkles.

Never did Halloween either apart from maybe carving a pumpkin. Just didn’t make it a thing in our household.

I never did Halloween when my kids were little. Just a normal day thats it.

Just a normal day, normally carve a pumpkin.

Tbh my DD is 5 and it's only really last year when she was 4 that we did anything, took her trick or treating briefly locally. She asked to go. But then wouldn't actually speak to anyone so it was a short lived waste of time tbh.

This year she will be in holiday club which will basically be like a whole day Halloween party which she'll enjoy. I will take her trick or treating after if she asks but I don't think she will. 2yo will be in nursery and we won't do anything extra with him.

Apple bobbing

eating a donut from a piece of string…no hands

oreo cookie on her forehead then she has to get it in her mouth with out touching it

rolling monkey nuts across the floor with her nose

we do a few other things but they are more family specific

We never did Halloween as a child, neither did DH but DD's best friend's family is massively into it. My DC get a t-shirt (rather than a costume) every couple of years although DC can dress up from the box if they want to. Some years carve a pumpkin. I have sweets in case anyone comes round and we eat pumpkin soup and then watch a film together.

We've never celebrated it in our house either.

We carve pumpkins & decorate the outside of the house, & give sweets to any trick or treaters who come by.
DH usually does take DC out trick or treating, but in years when we haven't, we've hidden sweets around the house.
This year there will be a Halloween party at school so they'll get to do lots of fun stuff during the day & at the party like the Mummy Game; plus DD has a Halloween themed birthday party to go to after.

Thanks for all of the suggestions - like a lot of posters, we never really celebrated at kids. This was late 90's early 00's so a very different era, when I was 8+ I'd go trick or treating with a friend but that's was about it!

Timing is a big problem. We get home for 5 and she's ready to go up to bed for 6:30! Which also means we might miss any trick or treaters that knock so she can't hand sweets out.

She has a costume, I love the idea of a little Halloween hunt in the house so I may print off some 'spooky' clues and hide some Halloween type treats with a 'special' treat at the end - all small bits. I don't want to go all out as I don't see it as a proper holiday as such, but I know she would love to do a little something. She is 4 next month so is more understanding of things like Halloween now.

Thanks everyone!

Never did trick or treating. Carved a pumpkin. When a bit older, used to spend a day with friends making crazy costumes (think bat and spider costumes out of tights and painted cardboard) and baking themed biscuits or cakes and would then have a picky supper together.

We don't do anything, thank heavens. Its blackmail. And can be an excuse for threatening and malicious behaviour.

Buy a packet of cheap glow sticks and use sticky tape to stick a mini bag of haribo/lolly or similar to each one. Once it’s gone dark, snap the glow sticks and hide them all in the garden. Kids can take their buckets outside and find all the sweets - it’s fun because the garden is all glowy because of the glowsticks. If it’s raining just hide them inside and turn all the lights off! My kids love doing this.

Between five and six is prime tinies trick or treating time. Just take her to one or two decorated houses? Or Halloween games, like apple bobbing, or taking it in turns to slice away from a mound of flour with a grape balanced on top — whoever dislodges the grape gets their face dunked.

Turn all the lights on the front of the house off, put sprinklers on.

Just ignore it and save the money for something you want to do.

My children are mid twenties and early thirties. My grandparents when my children were young were absolutely terrified at Halloween so I never took my children trick or treating. Instead we had a Halloween party at home, dressed up and named all of the food with spooky names and told ghost stories around the table. I was of course a Mummy 😂 Our little tradition has continued with the grandchildren and we are having our Halloween party complete with witches soup, wizards fingers and ice cream spiders. We will have pumpkins and other Halloween decorations indoors but I do not open the door to trick or treaters.

I think this it's a pity this overblown Halloween thing has become such a tat-fest with loads of grabby entitled kids and teens( and parents clearly incapable of teaching manners). It wasn't really a thing when I was growing up. I do remember carving turnip lanterns which we'd put in the garden, but far more important to us was getting ready for Bonfire Night. Won't be answering the door on the 31st.

Unplug the doorbell, pull all the curtains and pray that it rains is my usual MO

I've put a note on the door just now because I can't face the doorbell going off. Have had a miserable day and just want to chill.

The note says 'No Halloween'.