Share your Halloween preparation tips with Cadbury - £300 voucher to be won NOW CLOSED

[JustineBMumsnet]

Preparing for any celebration (Halloween no exception!) can be easier when you have the knowledge of others to help you out. With this in mind, Cadbury would like to hear about the ways you prepare for Halloween - whether you have creative costume ideas, crafty Halloween decorating skills - really any way you get trick-or-treat ready come the 31st October.

Do you have any great costume ideas? Maybe you have tips for creating a fabulous spooky look indoors or for when trick or treaters come up to your door? What are your ways of ensuring everyone has fun when going out trick or treating on Halloween? Whatever your tips and tricks for preparing for Halloween, please share them below to be entered into a prize draw where one lucky MNer will win a £300 Love2Shop voucher.

Thread closing 20th October.

Thanks and good luck!

MNHQ

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We love carving our pumpkins 🎃 the kids draw the face and I’ll cut it out, we also decorate the living room window and fireplace with a mixture of bought decorations and Halloween crafts made over half term. We go ‘Happy Halloweening’ in our local village, usually with a half priced costume bought after last years Halloween.

This year we have two parties. An earlier one with open door trick or treating for the little ones. Their theme is baddies from Harry Potter. Voldemort etc. The adults are having an evening party with a Game of Thrones theme. I'm going as a Whitewalker :)

I made a Sally dress for my 11 year old daughter out of a black dress with fabric scraps sewn onto it, she looked amazing even though it wasn't perfect it added to the authenticity of the look and she did her own make up. I prefer home made outfits to shop bought ones where possible although we don't always have the time.

We don't celebrate Halloween, but I always buy the kids a big bucket of candy and some chocolate so they don't feel left out. I am uncomfortable with trick or treating for many reasons and our local Police force advises against it too, because apart from being risky knocking on the doors of total strangers, the elderly and vulnerable can find it frightening and intimidating.

Whether you're time rich or poor there is always a great idea for Halloween! We love to dress up like our pumpkins in this house - be it a Ninja turtle or a spooky ghost, we carve the pumpkin to fit the costume!

With little ones it's really easy to do something really fun for their first Halloween. We did a flat lay grave yard scene and placed my newborn asleep in a skeleton babygrow in the centre of the picture. It's a great photo for his baby book (see image) It didn't take long you just need a creative flair.

My six year old loves Halloween as much as me and we love experimenting! We usually buy a supermarket costume for trick or treating as home made ones never seem to live up to expectation when you're charging about the streets high on life! We usually find that he loses an arm or half of his face as soon as the wind blows and Asda have always come out on top for both quality and style so far!

It doesn't have to cost the earth to come up with a great costume, sometimes the best things are already right under your nose!

My girls love getting the face paints out for Halloween as it really sets their costumes off - we get out the tablet and search through some face paint images of their choice and they love picking their designs!

We do not do Halloween either and we tend to have other plans on the night. We do not get many trick or treaters where we are.

I always go all-out for Halloween, decorating the outside of the house, carving lots of pumpkins and making trick or treaters fish for their chocolate in a big cauldron of water beads. This year is my DS's first Halloween and I can't wait to dress him up as a wee pumpkin!

Making sure we have enough chocolate supplies, it's a great place locally to go trick and treating and whne home we get lots of calles

We make lots of halloween games. We make jelly and hide toy spiders in it then get it out with our feet. Halloween decorations. Pumpkin carving.

Only knock on the doors of the houses that are all decorated!

I buy loads of cheap decorations after halloween in preparation for the next year. Lots of bargains to be had.

I love to search the internet for ideas to make spooky treats- something the kids love to get involved with 😋

We have a deal going with certain neighbours that we each visit each other so we're not disturbing people who don't want to participate and all the children get their fair share of sweets.

I'm a huge fan of Halloween so I love dressing up as much as my children!

we love halloween! we love looking for new food ideas online, get the kids in the kitchen making bits and pieces for our halloween party!

Shrunken heads - Peel apples and coat with mixture of lemon juice and salt. With a potato peeler or small knife carve out eye sockets, a nose, mouth and ears.
Use whole cloves for eyes and raw rice grains for teeth.
Dry in an oven set at the lowest temperature.
Insert a stick into the bottom of each head.
Perfect Halloween decoration for the front garden.

My little girl wants to be a zombie this year (I don't like zombies) but we will make one from scratch at home.

Getting the kids creative on the rainy days is perfect prep!

I went as a scarecrow last year....very budget costume.....checked shirt, ripped jeans tucked into boots, straw hat which i frayed, straw tucked into boot tops and sleeves of shirt and patch work makeup done with blusher, lipstick and black eye pencil!

We decorating front of hour house and picking then carving our pumpkins :)

We prearrange some places to Trick or Treat with some built in who are happy to receive the trick - just a scare with a big rubber spider or similar! All in good fun and makes everyone laugh!

Buy your pumpkins early before the supermarkets sell out and you're left with tomato sized ones. I've been there!

I have got lots of inspiration this year from online bloogers and their craft ideas. Save lots of old glass jars, print off some spooky labels and fill your jars with eyeballs etc. for a cheap but very spooky display.

We enjoy learning about other cultures, the Day of the dead for example. Last year I dressed up as poison oak..poison ivys mum lol. To esure everyone has fun, we go around a friends house, she love making a fuss of everyone , We help tidy up and have a cuppa afterwards everyones happy!

We always match my daughters costumes with our dogs. One year she was Dorothy with toto. They have also been matching ghosts. We carve a pumpkin to put outside and let other children know we have swwets and always watch hocus pocus and eat lots of sweeties xx