Decorating Your House on Halloween

The best houses to visit on Halloween are usually the ones that take the holiday seriously. The following are some easy craft activities for you to do with your preschoolers:

Monster Feet

Make an outline of a footprint on a large and cut it out. Pour non-toxic, washable paint in an aluminum pan and press the sponge into the paint. Now use either side of the sponge to paint footsteps on your front walkway, sidewalk, etc. Make your monster steps even more menacing by dribbling fake blood around them (use corn syrup mixed with red food colouring to make fake blood).

Pumpkin Stakes

Try carving smaller pumpkins and sitting them atop stakes in the ground lighting them with white Christmas lights instead of candles.

Spider Webs

Take cheesecloth or fake spider webs and stretch them across corners doorways, windows and porch railings. Add plastic spiders of varying sizes.

Life-Sized Ghosts

Make large ghosts using old white bed sheets. Use black marker to make eyes and a mouth and then hang the ghosts from a tree, porch, etc.

Tombstones

Cut tombstones from scrap pieces of wood, cardboard or Styrofoam, in varying sizes and shapes. Next, paint the tombstones grey. Use a permanent marker or paint to inscribe your tombstones with funny epitaphs, such as "Clive Yeast - excuse him for not rising", or "Here lies the body of my sister; she was fine 'til Dracula kissed her". 

Build small dirt mounds around the yard and push tombstones in at varying angles.

Fake Corpse

Stuff an old pair of pants using newspaper, plastic bags or fabric. Tuck the pants into a pair of boots and lay the "body" next to a large boulder or planter, or coming out from underneath the garage door or deck.

Don't forget to round out your decorating with some spooky music and lighting.

By Rochelle Strauss