Halloween is one of the most exciting times of the year for children. Who doesn’t love candy, games, dressing up, pretending, and staying up late at night!
From costumes to candy, the day is packed with fun and all of those lovely emotional swings that all of that sugar and excitement can bring. However, when you’re preparing for Halloween with younger children, particularly infants and toddlers, it takes a little extra thought and planning.
As an educational daycare provider, we’re here to offer advice on how to make Halloween both fun and safe for your little ones. This guide will help you prepare, offering tips on costumes, party activities, candy alternatives, and age-appropriate safety.
Halloween with Infants (1-18 months)
When choosing costumes for infants, comfort is your top priority.
Look for soft, breathable fabrics like cotton to keep your baby cozy throughout the day. Since infants can easily become overwhelmed, simple, one-piece costumes like a pumpkin or an animal are ideal—they can even double as sleepwear! Your infant can even dress as one of our cherished mascot, Bubbles the Elephant, who makes our little learners happy to learn, play, and grow!
Helpful tip: Avoid anything with accessories that might irritate your baby, such as itchy fabric or overcomplicated shoes.
For Halloween gatherings, keep the event short and low-key. Babies can easily get overstimulated by loud noises or bright lights, so choose cheerful, non-spooky decorations. A few small touches, like Halloween-themed blankets or plush toys, can create a festive atmosphere without overwhelming your little one.
While infants won’t engage in traditional games, sensory activities are a wonderful alternative. Play with soft textures, like plush toys, or introduce gentle, Halloween-themed lights to stimulate their senses.
Instead of candy, you can give your baby a special treat like a teething biscuit or yogurt drops. For other infants, small toys like rattles or soft blocks make great alternatives to sweets. If you want to include your baby in trick-or-treating, a short stroll in the stroller to see decorations is often enough excitement for them.
Fun Game and Play Ideas:
Create Apple Filling Sensory Bags: Grab a can of apple pie filling from your local store, then place it in a sandwich bag. Use painter's tape to secure the sandwich bag to the ground. Then, invite your child to explore and move the apple pie filling around!
Halloween Sensory Spaghetti Bags: Fill a gallon Ziploc bag with orange and green colored cooked spaghetti, plastic pumpkins, and plastic spiders. Allow the children to interact and engage by squishing the bag. Make sure the bag is sealed and double taped at the seal for safe exploration.
The Terrific Toddlers! (18 months - 3 years)
At this age, toddlers start to appreciate dressing up and recognizing characters, animals, or superheroes. It’s best to choose costumes that are easy to get on and off, especially for quick bathroom or diaper changes. Character-themed one-piece outfits are a hit at this stage and keep things simple while allowing your toddler to move around freely, plus they can choose from some of their favorite characters.
When hosting a Halloween party, keep it short and sweet to match your toddler’s attention span.
Helpful tip: 30 to 45 minutes should do it with this age group, keep the activities simple and remember that they all want to hit the streets as soon as possible!
Decorations should be simple, fun, and not too spooky. Our creative friend Pablo Pigasso recommends setting up a craft table where toddlers can decorate mini pumpkins or play with Halloween-themed stickers! These activities are fun and keep things mess-free.
Toddlers might start to enjoy candy, but it’s best to limit their intake. Offer healthier options like fruit, crackers, or pretzels. For party favors, small toys such as bouncy balls, bubbles, or stickers are excellent alternatives to candy. When trick-or-treating, try going out earlier in the evening to avoid large crowds and keep overstimulation to a minimum.
Fun Game and Play Ideas:
Halloween Fill-Up Craft For Toddlers: Toddlers can practice sorting with this fun, no-mess idea. Either use a more circular jar and a permanent marker to draw jack-o'-lantern faces or use empty plastic water bottles and draw ghost faces. Place white, orange, and green pom-poms in a divided tray, and let your tot fill each ghost and jack-o'-lantern bottle with the correct color. Finish each jack-o'-lantern bottle with green pom-poms for a stem.
Halloween storytelling: You can use puppets to ignite your child’s imagination! Gather some popsicle sticks and creative materials to make your own monster puppets! Once you have the popsicle cast, tell your own stories by the flashlight!
Holiday Decoration Exploration: For a traditional favorite - why not go grocery shopping and pick a variety of different squashes and pumpkins to decorate your front porch!? You have a great opportunity to explore the different types of seasonal vegetables, their sizes, weights, and colors! Then, make some funny faces!
Pumpkin Painting: Offer the child orange paint and half of a small pumpkin. Allow the child to stamp the pumpkin, with hand over hand support when needed, onto white construction paper.
Fun Activities to Download:
Pumpkin Carving and Face Masks
Preparing Preschoolers (3-5 years)
Get ready for a fun and wild night, this age group loves the trick or treating experience and you will need to put on your walking shoes.
Helpful tip: Preschoolers love to help make decisions, especially when it comes to picking their Halloween costume. Whether they want to dress as their favorite TV character or a superhero, letting them choose will boost their excitement. Make sure the costume allows for easy movement, as preschoolers are active and will want to run around. Avoid anything with small parts that could cause tripping, and choose lightweight costumes that won’t hinder their play.
When it comes to Halloween parties, preschoolers enjoy more interactive decorations like glowing pumpkins or friendly moving figures, but nothing too spooky. Set up a few craft stations where they can make their own masks or decorate pumpkins. Preschoolers love showing off their creations, and these activities give them a sense of accomplishment.
Preschoolers are also starting to understand candy, so this is a great time to teach them about moderation. Flexi Flamingo loves sharing her passion for a healthy lifestyle with our little learners! She would recommend also offering healthier alternatives at parties, such as veggie chips or fruit leather. During trick-or-treating, remind them of basic manners, like saying “thank you,” and make sure they stay close to an adult for safety.
Let the games begin! Here are some fun activities for this age group:
Backyard Obstacle Course: Children can have fun getting physical and exploring prepositional language —going over, under, and through — using everyday, simple household items. They can crawl underneath some chairs covered in blankets, step through bowls of homemade Jello slime, and then finish balancing across stepping stones made of placemats! Great to fire the imagination and make sure they are burning off all that sugar!
Fall Leaf Painting: First, go on a nature walk with your child to collect leaves. Then, use acrylic paint pens to draw silly faces, names, and more on the fall leaves.
Ghostly Pancake Face Treats: Fancy making some ghoulish treats?! Gather some suitable candy or foods to make facial features and see who can make the funniest face on a pancake against a one-minute timer! Be prepared for ghoulish giggles and fun!
The Professionals - Kindergarteners (5-6 years)
By the time your child is in kindergarten, Halloween is a revered holiday in their minds and one they look forward to all year.
Kindergarteners often have specific ideas for their costumes, and they might even want to create their own. Help them bring their ideas to life with a DIY costume project, making sure the costume allows them to move freely for games or walking around the neighborhood. Minimize accessories so they aren’t slowed down by cumbersome pieces.
For parties, kindergarteners enjoy more structured, themed events. Our interactive and fun Bubbles and Friends songs are the perfect music choice for a Halloween celebration for littles. Interactive activities like scavenger hunts or obstacle courses are ideal for this age group. Kindergarteners love working together and showing off their problem-solving skills.
For group games, try:
Halloween Guessing Game: Guess how many eyeballs are in a jar! Fill a plastic jar full of candy eyeballs! Ask each little one: ‘How many do you think are in the jar?’ The closest guess wins the candy!
Spooky Tic-Tac-Toe: Set up tic-tac-toe and use plastic insects as the game pieces!
Witch Hat Ring Toss: Place witch hats at a distance from you and your little one and take turns tossing rings onto the hats!
Design your own costume: First, invite your child to plan out their Halloween costume using paper and drawing tools. Once they are finished with the design, go to the store to pick out child-friendly materials to bring the costume to life!
When it comes to trick-or-treating, kindergarteners might feel ready for more independence, but it’s important to establish ground rules. Make sure they stick to well-lit areas, avoid running ahead, and always stay with an adult. A whistle or glow stick can make them easy to spot in a crowd, and for added fun, pack small prize bags with glow sticks, crayons, or temporary tattoos instead of candy.
Halloween Safety Tips for Kids of All Ages
Safety is a top priority for Halloween, no matter the age of your child. To ensure a fun and worry-free experience, consider these general safety tips:
- Costume Fit: Make sure costumes fit properly to prevent tripping. Reflective tape or glow sticks can help your child be seen in the dark.
- Inspect Candy: Always check your child’s candy before they eat it. Discard anything that isn’t commercially wrapped.
- Supervision: Keep a close eye on younger children at all times. Make sure older kids know to stay with the group and follow safety rules.
Specific Age Groups:
Infants: Avoid small parts or strings that could be choking hazards, and stick to quiet, well-lit areas if taking them out in a stroller.
Toddlers: Costumes should allow free movement, and early trick-or-treating helps avoid overstimulation. Be sure to watch for tripping hazards.
Preschoolers: Teach basic road safety like holding hands and crossing streets carefully. Use glow sticks and make sure their masks don’t obstruct their vision.
Kindergarteners: Discuss road safety and stranger awareness. If they are trick-or-treating more independently, set clear boundaries about staying close and not running ahead.
If you are new to The Learning Experience, we would like to formally invite you to Happyville! Our award-winning video series provides fun and educational content to young children. Each episode allows children to explore language and literacy, critical thinking, mathematical concepts, and social emotional wellness through the power of story and music.
The best part? We have an entire Halloween playlist of fun and entertaining videos:
Bubbles and Friends Halloween Playlist
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