Pick a pumpkin

We are lucky enough to have a pick your own pumpkin place near us which provides a fair amount of outside entertainment. We get our wellies and gloves on and tramp over the fields for ages trying to find the ‘best’ one.

If you don’t have this option though, panic not. You can do pretty much exactly the same thing around the local shops.

Then work out how to carve it…

Are you going scary or funny or cute? Big or small? Traditional orange or one of the more unusual varieties?

When B was smaller she’d draw on what she wanted and I’d cut it for her. Now she’s all about the cutting and pretty good at it too.

If you’re really organised you can extract the innards to make pumpkin soup, or pumpkin pie or something yummier.

Hunt for wands in the woods

If anyone’s dressing up as a witch, wizard or Harry Potter character for Halloween get down to the local woods or park and see who can find the best wand.

I’d go for something gnarly, but straight ones can work well too. If you don’t like the natural look you can decorate it when you get home.

Then use the spare sticks to make a broomstick…

Really easy to do, you just need one big straight stick and lots of little ones. You can tie them on with string or tape or tie an elastic hair bobble round the stick and wedge them in.

This is the full grown version but we make little tiny ones too for decoration. They’re easier and less prickly but harder to ride.

Go hunting for stuff to put in a potion…

Get a basket and head out to somewhere a bit wild and see what you can find to make a potion with. You can go creepy with spiders webs; moss; mouldy blackberries, fluffy stuff, dead bugs and bits of twig or pretty by looking for the last of the flowers, pretty leaves and things that smell nice.

Then make it into a potion:

Food colouring, a bit of cotton wool and glitter will make everything look good but nothing’s going to beat the textures from what you’ve found outside. Add bath salts to make it fizz and glass bottles to show it off in.

Alternatively, if you want to go bigger, can you find something to be a cauldron? Add water, decaying pumpkin insides and all the stuff you’ve collected. Find a big stick to stir it with and remember a witchy cackle as you do it.

Go on a bat walk

Check our your local area to see if anyone is running bat walks or talks. You may well find a brilliant local bat expert who has machines which beep at frequency when they start flying about.

Alternatively keep your eyes peeled in tree lined areas at twilight. If they’re about they’ve got a really distinctive flight pattern.

Bob for apples

Put apples in a bucket or big bowl with lots of water in. Then challenge kids to get one out only using their teeth.

A towel might be useful on the floor if inside. It will get messy!

Lighting candles

One for bigger kids this. Anyone else had that moment when you realise you can get candles back in the house again now?

I reckon it came when B was about 8 or 9. Then she wanted to play with lighting them. I reckon it’s a skill you need to learn so we do a lot of real candles now at Halloween. All well supervised.