Trick or treating alternatives for 2020 Halloween

This Halloween might be difficult if you have kids who want to go trick-or-treating. Turn things on their head, and take the opportunity to make this Halloween different from all the others! Instead of being disappointing, the Halloween of 2020 and other pandemic Halloweens can really stand out as a special childhood memories.

This pandemic year has certainly had its challenges! This spring, our family had two kids graduating, one from college and one from high school. This fall, we have two kids attending modified college classes. My 99 year-old grandmother passed away, just as the pandemic started. Like many of you, we are another family that has had traditions that give us comfort, like funerals, and celebrations, special birthdays and two family weddings, turned upside down and delayed.

And now the CDC even has guidelines for Halloween activities. <sigh> Thankfully, I’m not having to deal with the disappointment of not trick-or-treating this year. But many of you are.

Take this opportunity to make this Halloween different from all the others! It will give your kids some extra-special memories.

We did some fun things with our kids when we were young. But I always felt like I never did enough. I didn’t make special snacks, decorations, crafts, and activities enough. And as they grew up, I started to get sad about that. (The youngest child going off to college gives you some time to reflect on things like that.) In my perfectionist-Martha Stewart-mind, I just didn’t make the grade.

But you know what? As teens and young adults, do you know what my kids remember? They remember the times that I DID make those special snacks or organize those activities. So take heart, even if you do just ONE thing, or make just ONE special Halloween treat, it will be special to them. And THAT’S what they’ll remember.

It can be fun to make surprises for your kids, but all of these ideas can be made with your kids too.

You don’t have to do everything. For example, make the Halloween Cake, but buy the decorations. Or order your kids’ favorite take-out food, and make a craft you can use as a decoration for years. (We still have our Tissue Box Haunted House over a decade later! That’s a craft that I even managed to get published in Family Fun Magazine, a great magazine that Disney used to publish.)

A bonus? When you keep parties small, or even just your family, you only have to make a few Jack-o-Lantern Quesadillas, not 20!

Here are some special Halloween treats, recipes, and crafts that I did either for or with my kids, that we had fun with.