2020 has certainly come with its fair share of challenges, and navigating Halloween fun while staying safe is certainly one of them! While our town has yet to decide if trick-or-treating will officially be sanctioned this year or not, we’ve decided to forgo that tradition in favor of our own family Halloween party.

I’ve seen a lot of parents on social media complaining about the fact that Halloween might be “cancelled” and saying things like, “Oh, just let the kids have their fun!” But I think a lot of the time WE (the parents) are more upset about the traditions our kids are “missing out on” than they are — in my experience, my kids are just excited to get to make new traditions this year. When I first floated the idea of planning our own Halloween party instead of going trick or treating, my girls jumped right on it and haven’t looked back since! For us, traipsing around crowded streets in the dark in exchange for buckets full of candy just isn’t worth the risk this year — but that doesn’t mean we won’t still be having some Halloween fun!

The first place we started when planning our Halloween party is Pinterest! Lila planned last year’s New Year’s Eve party using Pinterest, so she was excited to see what she could find for Halloween and put it all on the “Lila’s Halloween Party” Pinterest board. Then she quickly wrote her own list of activities and the supplies needed:

Here’s the official agenda for our Family Halloween Party 2020!

Haunted House Throw-down

We’ll be working in pairs (Mommy & Nora, Daddy & Lila) to decorate one room each as the spookiest Haunted House we can create! Lila was very specific when it came to the decorations we could use, and here’s her final list:

• Fake skeleton heads
• Fake pumpkins
• Fake witches
• Fake eyeballs
• Fake cobwebs
• Fake bats
• Fake trolls — this, we couldn’t find.

Mummy Wrapping Game

We’ll be using that precious Coronavirus staple — TOILET PAPER! — to wrap each other up like Mummies!

Cobweb Maze

We will tape streamers up in our upstairs hallway to make a “cobweb,” then the goal is to get from one end of the hallway to the other without breaking the web!

Pin the Nose on the Witch

A party classic with a Halloween twist! Lila is going to draw a big picture of a nose-less witch, then we’ll take turns trying to get the nose in the right place.

Ghost Bowling

I voted for this version of Halloween bowling (there are so many on Pinterest!) because we could make it using things we already had — water bottles and cotton balls!

Candy Scavenger Hunt

This will be our official trick-or-treat replacement! We’ll turn off all the lights and give the girls flashlights to use while following the clues on this free printable to find little bags of Halloween candy hidden throughout the house.

Our dinner menu includes PB&J Spiders and a Candy Apple Bar with some Halloween Drinks for Kids [and probably some Adult Halloween Drinks for those of us 21+.]

And for the first time ever, we’re doing family costumes! Nobody will see us in them, but it’ll still make Halloween feel special. Lila will be Hermione Granger, Nora will be Ginny Weasley, Daddy will be Harry Potter, and I’ll be Mrs. Weasley.

This might just be the best Halloween ever — COVID restrictions and all!