This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of Safeway. All opinions are 100% mine.
The spookiest time of year is almost here again! While getting dressed up and heading out to collect candy is fun, it doesn’t always get to happen. Maybe your little one isn’t feeling well. The weather might not be cooperating. Perhaps you are trying to do your absolute best to keep your family safe at home during a global pandemic. We all have our reasons for wanting to halloween at home without trick or treating, so here are thirteen ideas for fun activities to do instead.
Thank you Safeway for sponsoring today’s post. To learn more, check out their website at Safeway.com.
Halloween at Home with Safeway
When it comes to creating the ultimate halloween at home experience I couldn’t pull it off without the help of my local Safeway. Like any good celebration at home, this one must start with food.
Stop by the deli for a tray of fruit and cheese or pre-made sandwiches. Grab your favorite tortilla chips and some made in-store guacamole and salsa. Swing by the bakery for Halloween themed cupcakes. Then head over to the Halloween section to stock up on your favorite candy and find supplies for all the fun activities below!
1. Play Hide & Seek in costume
Just because you aren’t trick or treating doesn’t mean you can’t dress up anyway! Put on your costume, designate one person to be “it” and have everyone else hide. Hide and seek with witches, skeletons, and pumpkins is always more fun than with your siblings!
2. Have a halloween treasure hunt
Pick a treasure based on who is playing and whether you are playing in teams or solo. Good choices could be a box filled with candy, a 12 pack of beer, or a $50 Safeway gift card. Create a “treasure map” with clues then hide your treasure without anyone watching.
With little kids you can have them work together to find one joint treasure. If you’ve got teenagers that can’t agree on anything, give them two different maps that lead to the same treasure. Let them follow the clues to find treasure trove! To the victor goes the spoils.
3. Tell ghost stories in the dark
Ghost stories can be scary, but ghost stories in the dark on halloween are so much better! Grab flashlights for everyone then turn off the lights. Take turns telling your favorite classics or make up a new one as you go.
4. Decorate halloween cookies
For the creative types, hands on activities are the best! You’ll need sugar cookies, colorful frosting in piping bags, and sprinkles or other halloween themed decorations. Depending on your kid’s attention span and the level of clean up your willing to do, this activity can be homemade, semi-homemade, or purchased from the bakery.
The homemade route includes making the dough and frosting from scratch. Bake the cookies and tint the frosting with food coloring. Bag the frosting and clean up the mess while the cookies cool.
Semi-homemade includes picking up premade dough from the refrigerator section and getting frosting from the baking aisle. You still get to shape and bake the dough, but with a lot less mess. The frosting can be bought pre-tinted or you can grab white frosting and color it yourself. (Hint: use your stand mixer to incorporate the dye – it’s worth the clean up.)
Want the option requiring the least amount of time and effort? Go to your Safeway bakery and pick up a cookie decorating kit. Mine came with a dozen cookies in pumpkin, bat, and ghost shapes, and bags of purple and orange frosting. Just snip off the end of the bag and start to decorate!
5. Dress up for a photo shoot
Got teenagers who love to take selfies?? This is the activity for them! Put on your costumes and set a scene that makes them feel like they are on the set of a movie.
6. Eat halloween candy
Not trick or treating doesn’t mean you can’t have the candy anyway. There is only one rule here: only buy the stuff you like! Grab a cute themed bucket or bowl, fill it up with your favorites, and give yourself permission to enjoy it.
7. Make Spider Web Chocolate Bark
Spider web chocolate bark is a simple two ingredient treat that looks like it took a lot more effort than it did. You can get most of the supplies in the baking aisle and I’ve found the plastic spiders in the halloween section. It’s cute, it’s yummy, and just spooky enough to be fun.
8. Have a halloween scavenger hunt
Create a list of all things halloween that can be easily found around your home or yard, and give a copy of the list to each person or team. Set a timer and let them find as many of the items as they can.
Some ideas to get you started: a jack-o-lantern, fallen leaves, a piece of halloween candy, something that looks like skeleton. The only limit is your imagination! If you are doing it in costume, add each person’s costume to the list. You can play as a team, multiple teams, or individuals. Prizes are optional.
9. Make spooky cocktails
This one is for the adults! Whether it’s a blackberry bourbon smash that you’ve renamed Bubbling Witches Blood, an apple martini that you’re calling a Frankentini, or a white russian with a hint of pumpkin spice. The options for BOOzy themed cocktails are endless. Pick up the mixers in the drink aisle and start getting creative.
10. Carve pumpkins
Did you know that Safeway carries pumpkins? Not just the ones in the produce department for eating, but the big ones you can carve into jack-o-lanterns! My store has them outside between the entrances.
While you are there, don’t forget the carving kit. A carving kit is a bit safer than using a huge kitchen knife and it lets the kids get involved too. You can carve classic jack-o-lantern faces or try to make the shape of a witches hat or cat!
11. Paint your faces
You can make scary faces with dripping blood and scary gashes. Full makeup to match the unicorn costume. For the little ones you can paint halloween scenes like pumpkins, skeletons, or witches hats.
Black eyeliner, blue eyeshadow, and red lipstick are all helpful, but you should be able to find a halloween kit complete with fake blood in the halloween section too. Google for video tutorials and have some fun with it!
12. Have a halloween candy hunt
This one is great for little ones!! You can keep it simple and hide pieces of candy, or you can make it a little more fun by decorating your plastic Easter eggs with halloween stickers and filling them with candy to hide instead.
If your kids really had their heart set on collecting candy, this is a great way to get their feet moving and letting them collect the candy without ever leaving home.
13. Watch a spooky movie marathon
If your family is need of a night on the couch, this is the alternative halloween option for you. Select two or three of your seasonal favorites like “It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown”, “Hocus Pocus”, and “Scream”.
Throw on your costumes, bring the snacks to the couch, and put your feet up. Keep them age appropriate and save the scary ones for after the kids have gone to bed.
Whether you choose to try one of these ideas or all of them, celebrating halloween at home is a bit easier with a little help from Safeway.
I shopped at Safeway in my local area, but you can also find convenient and delicious ingredients for all your tailgating needs at the Albertsons Companies family of stores, including Albertsons, ACME Markets, Jewel-Osco, Vons, Randalls, Shaw’s Supermarket, Star Market, and Tom Thumb. Safeway also offers Grocery Delivery and DriveUp & Go™ for convenient ways to shop!
