Halloween is mere days away and you are starting to feel nervous about the rise of COVID cases. Our family will likely do a home-bound Halloween this year because we have some immune-compromised kids and for us, it’s just not worth the risk.
You can imagine how popular this is going to be with our kids. Good thing 1) it’s not my job to be popular and 2) Tara and I are ridiculously creative! ? Here is what we are planning.
WE WILL PREPARE OUR KIDS For Halloween at home
We aren’t leaving this decision to the day before Halloween. It is astonishing that a kid who can’t seem to get his clothes on in the correct order can track how many days are left to candypaloosa 2020. That means, we need to pre-empt the devastation of keeping him from trick-or-treating and start talking about our plans now.
There will be no surprises on October 31st.
PLAN A: WE WILL STILL “GO” TRICK-OR-TREATING
We feel comfortable going to the immediate next-door neighbours and they know our situation so we know things will be safe.
But we’ll also trick or treat at home. I plan to make every room in the house into a street for the kids to go door to door. Maybe I’ll set up some stuffies as homeowners… heck maybe I’ll even dress a couple of them up. For sure we’ll let the kids dress up.
Then I’ll open all the windows and make it super cold in the house so we still get the distinct feeling of freezing.
Maybe not…
PLAN B: HEAD TO THE RELATIVES
If the kids still need an outing, then we’ll simply pack up the van and head out to the grandparents’ places. On the way, I will regale them with stories of how my dad used to drive me and the neighbour kids for a few hours to the different farms. I will tell them how one year we hit up 27 homes and had four shopping bags full of loot. It was a good year.
Maybe we’ll circle the block and go back and back and back to Nana’s until we have drained her bowl dry. She would probably like that.
PLAN A/B PART 2
We will let the kids watch a movie. It could be in the van on the way to the grandparent house, or after we get back, but that we’ll make it special. Now we will NOT be watching something Halloween themed… I don’t need to nightmares, to say anything of my kids.
But what we might do is watch something themed to their costumes. Last year we had a Storm Trooper and Woody trick-or-treating so a great movie would be Toy Story or one of the lamer, but less scary Star Wars movies… i.e. Episode 1.
We can also pork out on sugar-free candy; popcorn also works. The point is there are plenty of snacks that will be fun and not loaded with sugar.
FINALLY, HERE’S WHAT WE WON’T DO
We won’t drive around town to see the other kids’ costumes. That might be fun with the right kid, but with the wrong kid, it would just rub salt in the would.
We won’t ignore Halloween or pretend like things are normal. Things are not normal and Halloween is fun so we can be at least a little sad about missing it.
We won’t be stingy with treats. We will make sure the kids get a good haul.
These are SUPER simple ideas, you probably a ton more. Please share in the comments, the more the merrier. If you plan to go out this Halloween, have fun and stay safe! (And make sure you check out my blog from last week!)
Thom Van Dycke
Speaker, Writer, Husband, Dad
Tara and I were married in 2001 and have a house full of kids (and a few that have outgrown the house!) We became foster parents in 2011 and since then have welcomed 30 children into our home. Currently, we have 8 kids ranging from newborn to 24-years old (we even have a son-in-law!). My heart beats for kids from hard places and I was trained as a TBRI Practitioner in 2017.
