In our house, costumes are still being decided and Halloween is much anticipated. I have three kiddos who aren’t considering fall without Halloween. I, having had to deliver so many disappointments over the last six months am dragging my feet on the discussion of what Halloween may look like this year. Information changes daily and it’s so hard to . . .

plan ahead. One thing is for sure my kids will definitely get to dress up and trick or treat, even if it is just at our house. I’m going to share various ideas I’ve found about COVID friendly Halloween:

1. If you want to avoid trick-or-treating you could set up a candy finding treasure hunt in your house. You could have clues and hide candy all over your home. The kids could still dress up, find candy and then you could gather to have some treats and watch a Halloween movie together. I’ve also heard about hiding stuffies in the back yard. Each stuffy once found, would have a special treat to get, they could collect a good haul.
2. There is a drive-in movie happening in Campbell’s Bay on Halloween night. They will be passing out candy at the event, keeping social distance in mind.
3. The Bryson RA is hosting a pumpkin carving contest Oct. 30. What a fun event to take part in.
4. Try Halloween Bingo. Prizes – candy.
5. Keep to the people you know. Allow your kids to trick-or-treat at homes of the people in your bubble: kids from school, family members or other people that are already in your bubble. If there are a couple of homes you will visit, you could set up outdoor stations at these homes with various treats to make it more exciting.
6. If your children are going to be trick-or-treating insist on costumes with masks (or wearing a mask), and a plus is gloves. Usually it’s a bit chilly on Halloween so gloves are usually a given anyways.
7. A super cool idea I found online is a pumpkin shape made out of chocolate. Inside the chocolate shell (picture a giant kinder surprise in the shape of a pumpkin) is tons of Halloween treats. If you can find one of these or make them, your child gets to break through the pumpkin and retrieve all their Halloween treats. The same result could be had using a piñata. So instead of trick-or-treating they get their treats by hitting the piñata or chocolate pumpkin.
8. For friends or family you’re missing seeing, have a Zoom Halloween party with costumes and Halloween music in the background.
9. Decorate extra excitingly this year. Let the kids join in on the decorating by making Halloween crafts to add to the decor.
10. Have a Halloween movie marathon.

    For those of us wanting to give candy to all the trick or treaters here are some COVID friendly ideas and strategies for us to consider:

Scare or ghost little ones. Sneakily leave Halloween treats on a doorstep and disappear. This is a great contact free way to celebrate. This usually works best by sneaking up to your scaring subjects’ home after dark, ringing the doorbell, leaving the treats on their doorstep and running.

Set up a trick or treat driveway table. Instead of kids coming up to your door, have the treats set up on a decorative table in the driveway to be able to allow children to choose a goodie bag without crowding the front door. This helps keep contact to a minimum.

I’ve seen the absolute coolest PVC pipes attached to railings that shoot candy into a trick-or-treaters’ bag. What a marvelous idea. You simply tape the pipe to your railing and shoot the treats out as the trick-or-treaters arrive. I would definitely do this if we had a railing. It is so fun.

You can make the candy loot bags and leave them spaced out on your deck so that, as children arrive, they take one bag on their own. Some people have talked about using tongs to pass out candy and having hand sanitizer available.

I have heard talk about leaving an orange balloon out to indicate that you are handing out candy. So that’s an idea so families know which houses to knock at.

I’m really not sure what our beautiful community will look like in two weeks. My hope is that we continue to stay in this orange zone and are able to make this decision for ourselves. In any case, I hope some of the alternatives found online or in this article bring your children some happiness. Wishing you health and safety.