Trick or treating might be off the table this year for Halloween, but we thought why should that stop us from celebrating the spookiest time of the year? To get loads of ideas for a half-term themed Halloween activities we spoke to some of our favourite mummy bloggers and bakers to help!
Pumpkin Printing & Carving
You can’t have Halloween without pumpkins, this year @oaktreehome picked out some white ones. They seemed too pretty to turn into a scary Halloween face, so they made fairy houses instead!
The pumpkin activities didn’t stop there though, with their neighbours having lots of apples this time of year they decided to use them to do some pumpkin printing. Adding decorations, googly eyes and cut black paper to put the details on the face.
Halloween Krispy Treats
If you’re looking for a cute and easy treat for the toddlers, @oaktreehome has just the thing with these mini pumpkin treats. Her one bit of advice – don’t let the marshmallows get too hot, or they might burn!
See recipe >
Autumn Activities
Making autumn spice play dough is a wonderful activity to develop the muscles in your little one’s hands! @oaktreehome shared with us how to make it, while also using what they found on one of their autumn walks!
Other creative thing they could do are our Halloween-themed colouring sheets, created by our in-house design team!
Download here >
Download here >
Visit a Pumpkin Patch
Something that you can always make a fun trip out of is a visit to a local Pumpkin Patch. With loads of things to explore amongst the hay (and of course pumpkins), it is a nice day out for the whole family.
Make Them Candy Apples
How beautiful (and yummy) do these look? Classic toffee apples are a great snack for the little ones, but @little.miss.tiggy warns it does get quite hot so better to make on your own and treat the kids to when you’re done! Find the recipe for these via her blog.
We spoke to @lefranks about what activities they are up to for Halloween and she had some extremely cute suggestions, including making a Pumpkin Sun Catcher and Lantern. See what you need and how-to below!
Pumpkin Suncatcher
Tissue paper cut into squares
Cut the pumpkin shape out of the orange card including the middle bit. Cut out the same shape out of the plastic sheet. (I used a laminating sheet) then stick it onto a pumpkin cut out.
With a paintbrush, apply a thin layer of PVA glue onto the plastic sheet and once you cover it all, you can start sticking tissue paper squares. Once all the surface is covered you can decorate your pumpkin sun catcher with a leaf made out of green tissue paper and add eyes and fangs made out of black card.
Pumpkin Lantern
You need:
Glass jar
Tissue paper
PVA glue
Paintbrush
How to:
Using the paintbrush, apply a thin layer of PVA glue onto the outside of your glass jar. Once all of the surfaces are covered, you can start sticking the paper tissue squares onto it. When it’s all covered, apply another thin layer of PVA glue to avoid any bits sticking out.
To decorate it, roll a piece of green tissue paper and wrap it around the top of your jar and you can also add black eyes and fangs.
Halloween Cookies
They also made cookies! An easy recipe to make, that will make up for the lack of trick or treating this year – see how below.
You need:
200 g unsalted butter, softened
200 g white caster sugar
1 medium egg, lightly beaten
400 g plain flour, plus extra for dusting
How to:
In a large mixing bowl, use an electric whisk to cream the butter with the sugar until well mixed and just creamy in texture. Do not overwork, or the biscuits will spread during baking.
Beat in the egg until well combined. Add the flour and mix on a low speed until a dough forms. Gather the dough into a ball, wrap in cling film and chill for at least 1 hour.
Preheat the oven to 190°C, fan 170°C, gas 5. Put the dough on a lightly floured surface and knead briefly, then roll out to 3mm thick. Cut, by hand or with cookie cutters, to your desired shape. Using a palette knife, transfer the biscuits to a baking tray lined with baking parchment.
Bake for 12-14 minutes, depending on the size of your biscuits, until golden brown at the edges. Remove from the oven and transfer to a wire rack to cool.
Bake Cupcakes
Our favourite baker is back on the blog! @mykitchendrawer has sent us a recipe to her Halloween Bat Chocolate Cupcakes – how amazingly cute are these? Find out how to make yours via her blog.
