I can’t believe Halloween is here in less than a week! Soon it will be time for Christmas!! YEA!! Sorry. I know. I’m totally one of those annoying people who bypass Thanksgiving and leap to Christmas the second November 1st arrives. I know some people get annoyed when stores start putting Christmas stuff up in August but I’m not one of them! I say BRING. IT. ON. I can’t help it! December is too much fun! But even though I’m ready to deck the halls and trim the tree, my kids are pretty pumped for Halloween. We are having fun around here doing a few things that have become October traditions in our house so I thought I’d share them with you!
First up – our spooky spiders. My girls and I love blow pop suckers so this is a fun little treat we like to make. Very simple. You just need suckers, googly eyes, and pipe cleaners. You can find the full directions here.
Our neighborhood has such a fun tradition of doing the “BOO GHOST” each October. We just got “boo’d” last week. When you get “boo’d” you receive Halloween treats and a picture of a ghost along with a note on your doorstep. Here is what the note says in case any of you want to start this in your neighborhood (probably next year since I didn’t have my act together soon enough to share this before the last week of October).
by Lorna Balian. Cutest story ever. We read it over and over every year. Another fun Halloween book my girls love is called Room on the Broom
by Julia Donaldson. We must have a thing for witch literature. 
I started a little tradition of buying my girls a fun Halloween Activity Book from Barnes and Noble each year. I didn’t mean for it to be a tradition. I bought them Halloween Activity books a few years ago and they loved them so much that now I do it each year. Just a fun little Halloween book to color when they are waiting for daddy to get home or taking a break from homework. This year I bought them each a Halloween My Little Pony workbook.
They came with stickers and have been a huge hit! We have pictures like this one all over the house. Some may prefer skulls and werewolves. We prefer pumpkins and ponies. :)
I made this fun little treat for my girls one year and now they beg for it every October. I just tossed some of their favorite snacks together – popcorn, pretzels, fishy crackers, m&m’s and of course candy corns! I mixed it all up in our favorite pumpkin bowl and wa-la! A Halloween treat that is perfect to munch on while watching your favorite spooky shows. And since I’m sharing our favorite Halloween books, I’ll also tell you our favorite Halloween movie. It’s called The Teacher from the Black Lagoon… and More Slightly Scary Stories (Scholastic Video Collection)
Great post! I love the idea of having a basket of holiday books out for the kids. & the ghost pancakes? Adorable!!!
I might just have to steal your movie night idea with the snack! Very cute!
Such a fun post! We just got “Boo’d” in our new neighborhood-So fun! I definitely need to get that scary movie. A “scary movie” is on my little guy’s Christmas list! And I’m going to have to whip up a batch of that Halloween snack…it’s got all our favorites in there! Thanks for the great ideas!!!
This entire post is AWESOME! Can’t wait to “borrow” (smile) some of these ideas for when my 14-month-old baby girl gets a bit bigger! Looks like you guys have so much fun!
I love your idea of a seasonal book basket. Just wondering where you store your seasonal books after the holiday is over for the year? Do they go back on your girls’ book shelves or do you keep them put away until the next year?
I love all of your ideas and adore family traditions!
Love the ghost pancake idea. Gonna borrow :)
While I love traditions I have not done many with my kids. We do always watch The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown…we have a movie night planned for Friday. I will have to look for that Black Lagoon movie because my daughter loves those books. Looks like you all have a blast each year! I love the idea of having themed books out. Have fun counting down to December…I adore the holiday season too :)
Thank you so much for sharing these ideas and the web sites. I do story time at the library and am always looking for cute crafts like these.
Hi Erin. I LOVE your fall and Halloween ideas! My Pinterest boards are smiling with all of the great ideas your blog added to them. Since you love Christmas so much…I have to ask….Do you go Black Friday shopping?
Thanks everyone! :)
Sherry – I don’t put my seasonal books on the girls’ bookshelves. I store them in my hutch and in trunks with all of our seasonal decor. (Halloween books with Halloween decorations, Christmas books with Christmas decorations, etc.) That way I pull them out each year when it’s time to decorate and they feel special and fun!
Candy’s clothes closet – Black Friday? It’s such a circus! If I’m with my mom and sister for the holiday we will hit a few stores sometimes, but most years I stay home, eat leftover turkey and decorate and then hit the malls the next week! :)
Pumkins and ponies…awesome! Such cute stickers.
Great Halloween traditions too! :)
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I LOVE all your Halloween traditions! I think it’s so cute how your kids really get into the holiday and you have traditions! Our tradition is using power tools to cut the lid of our pumpkins .. thats about it haha! Not nearly as much fun as yours! I also love that you have a holiday book basket .. My mom used to do that for us :) As always – thanks for sharing!
What great traditions. I love the idea of the book basket with seasonal books. Ours are just all mixed together, but that is so much more fun. And I was happy to see your daughter sitting on the table. My kids always get on the table when they are working on stuff and I am glad we are not the only ones! :)
What great traditions. I love the idea of the book basket with seasonal books. Ours are just all mixed together, but that is so much more fun. And I was happy to see your daughter sitting on the table. My kids always get on the table when they are working on stuff and I am glad we are not the only ones! :)
This is the best post ever! I totally just pinned it and plan to copy many of these traditions for our family. As always, thanks for the inspiration!
Love all of those ideas!
Love the ideas too, especially the ghost pancakes. Why haven’t I thought of that? I just picked up that dvd from the school library – looking forward to watching! Something else we do is take neighborhood walks looking at all the spooky decorations.
Love these traditions! We were all about my little pony and innocent Halloween happenings and then Eli turned 3 and was into the “scary side” of Halloween. Every boy loves the gore and spookiness. Eli made me get some tombstones for the front lawn this year as he thought our house was not scary enough. He wanted a scary skeleton and some creepy dude, but I put the kibosh on that.
I am stealing your ghost pancake idea. Those look easy and fun! I went out and bought some Halloween pancake molds a couple of years back, and they are the biggest pain!
thanks for sharing these. several good ideas i can steal!
we always do a basket of christmas books but never any other holidays (duh). (i have that exact basket in red).
we also do shamrock pancakes for SPD but i never thought of ghosts.
love that snack mix – easy but fun!