Halloween is a fun holiday that can take many guises.
And with Halloween coming, Thursday October 31st, you’ll want your house and decorations to be ready!
Whether you want to have a ghoulish, macabre manor or a friendly-ghost haunted house, you and the kids can have great artsy fun decorating for All Hallow’s Eve.
Halloween Posters
If your kids are small, tempera paint and butcher paper can be great for little tykes to paint Halloween posters to decorate your home. Butcher paper is an affordable support that’s widely available, and tempera paint is perfect for a child’s first experience with paint. It’s available in jars, tubs and tubes in many colors. It dries quickly and is an opaque paint that can be thinned and cleaned up with water.
If you purchase a group of inexpensive frames into which pictures slide in and out and cut your paper to fit the opening, your little Rembrandt can keep you supplied year round with an ever-changing gallery rotation of original artwork for every holiday.
Bunting And Banners
Use that same roll of butcher paper to cut a bunch of paper triangles and have the kids paint their spookiest scenes. If they’ve learned to write, they can also add colorful holiday messages. Use a long piece of twine and fold the tops of the triangles over the string and glue or staple them to create a bunting to display across a mantle, above a doorway or across a wall in the dining room.
Jack O’ Lanterns
If your children are old enough to use scissors but too young for Jack O’Lantern cutting with a knife, they can still decorate a pumpkin. Construction paper, colored craft foam sheets, glue and colored markers give your budding artist a chance to create fun, funny and colorful Halloween pumpkins.
Tempera paint and glow-in-the-dark paint can also give character to a plain gourd. You can outline the faces if your children are too young to get the idea, or they can paint their own creation if they’re a little older.
Halloween Centerpiece
Collect a grouping of mini-pumpkins and gourds. Make sure you have assorted sizes and shapes to keep your centerpiece interesting. If you’re a brave soul or have carefully covered the entire surrounding area of the kid’s craft space, let the kids spray paint the gourds with the colors of fall or to match your room’s décor. If you’ve a more timid nature, take care of the spray painting yourself.
You can use gloss enamel or matte finish paints for different looks. Then, let the kids go wild with glitter paint. Once the paint’s dried, group your gourds in and on a variety of baskets, pillar candle holders and other decorating props. Add some fall leaves, dried flowers and interesting sticks to complete the look. The kids can have fun in the back yard or park foraging for those finishing touches.
There’s loads of simple ways your kids can decorate your home for Halloween. It’s pretty much a holiday that revolves around them, so why not let them be in charge of the festive décor? Check out craft stores for supplies, or look on line for bargains. Just supply them with the basics and let their imagination go. You may be surprised at the outcome, and your guests are sure to be in for a visual trick or treat.
