Talk to Hobbycraft about the Halloween activities you and your DCs will be doing this year – 3 MNers will win a £100 Hobbycraft voucher NOW CLOSED

[MichelleMumsnet]

The team at Hobbycraft would like to hear about the Halloween arts and crafts activities you’ll be doing with your DCs this year.

Hobbycraft say “As parents ourselves we know what a challenge it can be to keep the kids entertained during the holidays and on a budget. So, for the sake of parents everywhere who are in need of inspiration, we’d love to know you’ll be making with the kids for Halloween”.

So, what crafty spooky Halloween projects will you be doing this year? Do your DCs dress up? And if they do, do you make their costumes? Maybe you paint their faces? Perhaps you bake Halloween treats together?
Whatever you and your DCs will be making this Halloween, Hobbycraft would love to hear about it.

Everyone who posts on this thread will be entered into a prize draw, where three Mumsnetters will each receive a £100 Hobbycraft voucher.
Please note your comments may be included on Hobbycraft's social media channels, and possibly elsewhere, so please only post if you're comfortable with this.

Thanks and good luck,

MNHQ

I am not really a big fan of Halloween and like to think of it more as Autumn crafts but so far the plan is for pumpkin carvings as they really enjoyed this last year. Some food based crafts probably involving pumpkin like pumpkin muffins and then decorating them. Finally I keep seeing leaves that people have collected and then painted as bugs and I thought my two boys would really enjoy having a go and them.

We love Halloween and always have decorations and crafty stuff. The pumpkin is DH's domain and last year excelled himself with an excellent witch.

We will have pumpkin muffins and a coffin cake - the moulds were reduced in Aldi last year and cost me less that 50p each !!

I am also planning to use ktichen roll tubes with eye shapes cut out, you put a glow stick inside (if I can find any as I'm having trouble getting a basic tube of glow sticks this year) and when you turn off the light the eyes glow :)

Last year (and will use again) we had a big witches face stuck on the fridge and used magnetic darts to see who could get closest to the nose (blindfolded in a of pin the tail on the donkey kind of way).

I will be away for Halloween at a holiday park as I have for the past two years. we usually do crafts of colouring in, making necklaces or purses, and also carving pumpkins.

If I was home, we would only carve a pumpkin. we don't decorate the house as we are away and if I was home then I still wouldn't be decorating it.

I only get involved in Halloween because I am away, if I was at home, we wouldn't bother

Spider (strawberry bootlace legs) cupcakes, meringue ghosts and a carved lantern went down well last year. I love the face paints, dressing up and general silliness.
Apple dunking with quartered apples worked well for little kids.

For my youngest it will be making orange blobs on paper and calling them pumpkins (he's one) or white blobs on black paper and calling them ghosts!

For the older one, he's 3, he'll help carve the pump (punch holes through the stencil, which he'll love) and washing the pumpkin seeds so we can toast them.

We always carve pumpkins - we usually buy a cheap kit to carve with.

Dds will be making witches costumes this year - probably capes out of black bin liners and some other bits nicked from Pinterest yet to be decided.

There is a local organised event with prizes for best fancy dress so we will go there.

Friends over for a party - lots of decoration such as plastic spiders in jars lit with LED candles, apple bobbing and fave painting. Lots of themed food

Making biscuits, satsuma lanterns, pumpkin carving, bat sillou.hetes

Dressing up - definitely, whenever they can. They are counting down to actual Halloween.
Face painting - ditto. Skull faces a particular favourite
Crafting - stickers, pictures, tissue paper decorations - bring it on.

DS and I are going to do a Halloween yarn bomb this year - creeping out at night (well, after dark) on the 30th to put up some spooky ghosts/pumpkins etc ready for the next day!

The children dress up in shop-bought outfits - I'm not creative enough to make them myself. I wouldn't shell out for them just for Halloween itself because they're expensive and I have 5 DC but they need them for Halloween parties that they'll attend at school, Beavers, Guides etc. Sometimes I make DH take them out trick-or-treating and we 'dook' for apples too. This year though, I am having a much needed break with friends that weekend so I plan to bake them lots of yummy Halloween goodies to appease my guilt!

We made a jack o lantern picture with orange paint, black funky foam, a paper plate and a green pipecleaner!

Then we made a spider with a paper plate (I had them handy!!) black paint, boogly eyes, some black shredded paper, and pipecleaners. My DH thought it was very scary!

We'll probably carve a pumpkin too. My dd (3) is very excited about Halloween.

This is the first year my daughters understood what we are doing. We have bought Halloween cookie cutters to make biscuits, we will probably go trick or treating, we will make pumpkin faces with paper plates, paint and cut out paper shapes. If she gets into it I will think of some more ideas!

We carve a pumpkin a couple of days before (it also signals to dc1 that it will be his birthday soon). We sometimes bake something with the pumpkin flesh, but DH isn't keen on it :)

This is our first year in a house instead of a flat so I have bought some sweets for trick or treaters and we may take dc1 (nearly 4) out with the other children on our street this year.

Oh we also carve a pumpkin. This is the part that I identify with from my own childhood, although my Dad used to carve a turnip (WTF?). He has arthritis in his hands - it must have killed!

DC has a special outfit to wear and we will carve a pumpkin as usual. :)

My 6 year old loves halloween, we will be carving a pumpkin. Decorating a bit (for my younger ones)
We all dress up and go to a local little party.
I'll make coffin biscuits and maybe finger hotdogs.
Craft wise, we do halloween hands, draw around your hand, cut, draw/stick a gruesome face, zig zag the fingers for hair, or put them in the window to scare people :)
Skeletons out of white paint and cotton wool buds for the bones.
White footprints on black paper to make ghosts (add eyes!)
This list is pretty much endless, I home ed so masses of crafts done here.

I've namechanged because I've showed these photos before. This is what we made last year. The eyeball cupcakes are using mini Oreos as the pupil, plus writing icing. The spider biscuits are using strawberry laces.

DD is wearing a bought costume (she's saved up her pocket money) but DS wants to go as Calcifer from howls moving castle so I'll be sewing scraps of red/orange material onto a tshirt with eyes and a mouth so he looks like fire

And this is the most popular thing we did last year - Body Bit Soup. DCs have been talking about it all year and it will be done every Halloween from now on I think! It's basically a thick smoothie but then I arranged the sweets on top.

DD is going out to a party on Halloween but we will definitely be fitting this in somehow! Last year we delivered cakes to neighbours but I think there is more likely to be TOTing this year as more children around.

We are making barm breac cake, worm jelly and meringue ghosts. Do has made lots of bats and witches to hang up. Also carve a pumpkin or maybe a swede.

We carve pumpkins in the shape of elf houses with doors and windows. And make spider jelly

We carve a pumpkin (the 'scary orange') and make witch hats.

We always do the obligatory pumpkin carving and it is getting more creative as the DCs get older. We also make green jelly and decorate homemade biscuits with icing - the DCs like making skeleton faces and spiders on them.

They also go treat or treating to a select few houses with DH and we all have a helping of pumpkin pie for dessert.

I'm getting some great ideas from this thread.

We will be going to a friends as usual to carve pumpkins which usually ends with the kids off playing somewhere and us competitive adults doing the carvings.

JamNan I love your pumpkins!

We jusy do pumpkin carving and the DC open the door with me to see the trick-or-treaters. I don't usually get them dressed up but now DS has started school it might be something he wants to do.