Halloween decoration ideas at half term

6 ways to decorate your home for Halloween

1. Grab some jack o’lanterns and get carving. Putting a pumpkin out is one of the easiest ways to decorate your house for Halloween, and carving the designs is a great family-friendly activity. You can incorporate pumpkins in your decor inside and out - why not use some small pumpkins for a Halloween tablescape?
2. Make a garland – Ghosts, pumpkins and witches’ hats all make great adornments for garlands and are simple shapes for children to practice cutting skills. Use coloured card or felt and ‘vamp’ it up with some ‘fangtastic’ eco-friendly alternatives to glitter. Once cut out, decorate your shapes, punch a small hole and thread them onto wool, thick cotton or string.
3. Spin a spider’s web – a nature-inspired easy home Halloween decoration. Collect three similar-length thin sticks and lay them across each other as if they were spokes in a wheel. Tie in the middle and then weave around a piece of wool from the centre out, looping around each stick until you have lots of circles to create a web. Use black wool to create a pom pom spider by winding your wool around a cardboard disk. Then add pipe cleaner legs and cardboard googly eyes to finish.
4. Coloured lights – create an eerie atmosphere for your Halloween party at home with purple and green lights. Fairy lights with pumpkins, ghosts or bats could also add a spooky ambience.
5. Fake cobwebs – use quilting batting or cotton wool to transform your new home into a spooky old mansion. Simply pull and stretch the fibres in different directions, leaving a few holes and wispy ends for an authentic look.
6. Hang an old costume or dress in an upstairs window, backlit so people passing can see. Scarily simple.

Halloween games to play at home

If you’re wondering what to do on Halloween at home, there are plenty of games that are scarily good fun for all ages.

1. Duck or bob apple – fill a bowl or basin with water, add apples which will float on the water’s surface. Each player in turn then has their hands behind their back and has to retrieve an apple from the water with their mouth. An alternative to this is to tie apples onto string, hang from a doorway, and again attempt to bite the apple. Increase the difficulty level by spinning the string.
2. Pin the nose on the witch or the tie on the skeleton – both variations on the classic pin the tail on the donkey. There are free printables available online to help play this game at your Halloween party. Put the witch or skeleton poster on the wall, blindfold each participant in turn, before they try to pin the nose on the witch or the bow on the skeleton. The person who sticks it closest to the target is the winner.
3. Spooky slime lucky dip – fill a cauldron with slime or jelly and hide prizes inside for players to have to stick their hand in to find.

Tips for trick or treating in your neighbourhood

‘Trick or treating’ is thought to date back to All Souls Day parades when people in need would beg for food. In return, families gave them pastries known as ‘soul cakes’. Over time, the practice of ‘going a souling’ was adopted by children, who would visit neighbours and sing – collecting food or money as a reward. Today, trick or treaters go from house to house in their neighbourhood, usually in Halloween costumes, and are rewarded with sweets. Our Redrow developments are created to be communities and better places for families to live, making our streets ideal for trick or treating.

1. Homes decorated for Halloween help trick or treaters know who’s entering into the spirit of the occasion. Stick to houses with Halloween decorations or a pumpkin outside.
2. If you don’t want trick or treaters to knock, consider a “do not disturb” sign or leave a bowl of treats for them to help themselves.
3. Orange buckets are commonly used by trick or treaters to collect their goodies, but new meanings have developed over time behind some of the other colours. Did you know a teal bucket is used to signal allergies? Either the child trick or treater has allergies or the household has allergy-friendly treats or non-edible gifts. A blue bucket indicates that the trick or treater has autism. This helps to convey that they may have sensory issues that prevent them wearing elaborate costumes or that they’re non-verbal and won’t say “trick or treat” or thank you for their treats.

Discover what makes Redrow homes so special at a development near you - all treats, no tricks.