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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Unfortunately i'm not very creative so we usually get a store bought costume and go trick or treating. My daughter loves it :) We usually get some halloween themed snacks from the local stores to give out to other kids

My mum has a Halloween party as we don't tend to get trick or treaters so we take the kids round (this will be DD's first year) and curl up on my mum's sofa to watch a Halloween themed movie - this year it's Hocus Pocus.

Mum does all the decorating so I just have to get our costumes sorted and remember to bring desert!

We don't 'do' Halloween but I have to confess to making sure we have a bag of satsumas in just in case!

We don't do much at all. We buy a couple of bags of sweets, put on a nice Halloween movie (like Nightmare Before Christmas) and enjoy an evening together.

We always have a family Halloween party and love spending the weekend before decorating the house. Lots of food colouring in the buffet and Halloween themed charades.

Nothing - i might make a small concession and have pumpkin soup but other than that it's not something we will be particularly marking

We love carving pumpkins with the kids, cotton wool for spiders webs, we stock up on sweets, the kids dress up, we turn the lights off ( but leave a lit pumpkin outside to show the trick or treaters can knock) the jump out when they knock. The kids love it

we usually decorate the front door and porch area as thats where the little ones knock on for sweets. We dont go over the top as our youngest is only 4 and finds it a bit scarey

We love making spider's webs with fleecy sewing fabric (I think it's called solufleece) we pinch from my sewing-mad mother. It's great for webs and we buy the cheap plastic spiders to put on them.

I always [re-bake the cakes I make and freeze them, and then ice them the day before, saves time

I always buy a few bits in the sale after Halloween and put it away for the year after!

my boys have been busy all summer growing their pumpkins for halloween carving! they can't wait to show them off to the trick or treaters

I quite like the games that we played at Guides etc like apple bobbing but not so keen on the dressing up obsession

An idea that I've seen but don't think I'd have the heart to carry out is to make chocolate covered sprouts for the trick or treaters

I always make sure I have a mixture of sweets and chocolate to make sure I cater for any intolerances etc. I always buy some small/cheap toys for the children whose parents want to limit sweets.

Anything with lights seem to be a big hit in our house. Luckily, with the ever growing developments with LEDs, some of the things you can do with lights and costumes now are mind boggling!

whatever the kiddies will be happy with works.

my daughher is a nautre fan and decided ashe wanted to be a bee! it wa easy enough to make using black and yellow striped clothes! the wings we made together from black netting from one of her old skirts

Definitely carving pumpkins, always a great activity during October half-term and gets the kids in the Halloween mood. I try to put together costumes from things we already have rather than buy new each year. We go trick or treating with friends as it's more fun with more people and we all have a spooky dinner before we go e.g. worm pasta with meatball eyes!

My daughter wants to be a cat and son wants to be a bat.. we usually help my Grandad to decorate his house for all the grandkids to enjoy.. Halloween has always been celebrated in his house as it was my Grandma's birthday, unfortunately no longer with us but we carry on the tradition! We'll be going to a party over the weekend and then like to decorate our house up too although we aren't always in for the trick or treaters!!

We have a couple of pumpkin baskets of sweets ready for trick or treaters and my son plans to dress up as Steve from Minecraft, not exactly scary but easy to make so I'm happy with that!

Sainsburys do some great kids costumes so have always bought the kids stuff from there. Our estate gets really into it so it's very exciting.

Love Hallowe'en. DP takes the kids out trick or treating - it's massively popular in our large village. I put my cloak on, stick in some fangs and greet the trick or treaters.

We carve a pumpkin each every year and I bake cupcakes - melted and stretched marshmallows make brilliant web decorations for the tops.

I am not that keen on Halloween and I certainly don't spend that much, I don't let kids go door to door but i do let them go to a family party. I make costumes out of weeding Webb ( the stuff you lay under stones in gardens to stop the the weeds coming up its black and comes on a long roll and is very cheep,) We crave a pumpkin that my dad grows on his allotment and I make pumpkin pie or soup which my kids love. I let the kids bake and make some treats.

make creepy snacks and hide the sweets in jelly for the trick or treaters!