With Halloween days away, it’s hauntingly scary how fast October has flown! But like a witch in the wind, here are safe and socially distant crafts, games and snacks to keep your crew safely celebrating at home as I shared on a recent episode of Live! with Kelly and Ryan!

HAUNT UP YOUR MASK!

For the first time in the history of our country, nearly every American owns a mask! So transform one into a mini-costume for your face using crafting supplies you have at home: pipe cleaners, pom poms, tinsel, small insect toys. I managed to create goth butterflies, Gomez from The Addams Family, let’s get batty bats, a monster mouth and more!

Tips:

• Wash a new mask before use.

• Use a non-accordian-fold mask.

• Test paint pens and permanent markers on the side first, as some fabrics bleed.

• I made many mistakes, but still turned them into something!
  
  

DIY HALLOW-SCREAM PINATAS!

Here’s a different way to distribute your candy this year! If you’ve ever felt monster-moody (I MEAN SINCE MARCH!), here’s a chance for the whole family to get their ya-yas out with these do-it-yourself HALLO-SCREAM Piñatas!

Supplies:

• Small Paper lantern 

• Streamer 

• Double-sided tape

• Scissors

To a small lantern, tape up the bottom hole with cardboard.

Cut a piece of streamer the fits the widest circumference of your lantern. Fold it onto itself. Cut 2/3 into the streamer, leaving the top 1/3 uncut. Repeat. This makes the fringe.

Use double stick tape to tape the fringe carefully onto the lantern. I did so about every 1/2 inch so the fringe was dense and overlapped, but you can space it out more if you like.

Repeat until you cover the entire lantern with fringe.

Design a face however you like for the character you have in mind: I made a black ghost, a black kitty cat and a one-eyed, flying purple people eater.

Fill candy in the top. Hang up and have the kids take turns hitting the piñata!

Tip:

• This project takes time! Watch a scary Halloween movie while you craft!

• If you use a same color lantern and streamer, (like white and white) you can space the fringe further apart.

PUMPKIN GROWLER CHARADES!

Make a festive Jack-o-Lantern by carving a fake pumpkin and decorating with googly eyes and black construction paper!

Place inside Halloween-themed charades cards to draw upon to play a fun game with the family!

Use later to place treats like pencils, glow-in-the rings and spider puzzles!

WHAT’S IN THE WITCHES’ BREW?

Make a murky witches’ potion and then hide treasures that family members need to figure out! This is an amazing tactile and sensory experience for kids of all ages!

Supplies:

• medium-sized cauldron

• 1.5 cups corn starch

• 1.5 cups all natural, free and clear dish soap

• 4 cups water

Blend all of the ingredients together well to make froth and foam. Add desired amount of food coloring like green or blue + red for purple. Blend again, and pour into cauldron with ghoulish plastic insects, spiders, worms, snakes and the like hidden at the bottom!

Have family members dip in hands in the gooey mixture to figure out what lies beneath!

Tip:

• Play around with the ingredient amounts to get the consistency you want! At the show, the blender was much smaller, and I had to work in tiny batches with totally different quantities of ingredients — and it all worked out just fine!

SNEAKY STACK!

Pumpkins never rose to such freaky heights! 

Using any candy you have that is stackable, unwrap.

Give each family member a pile and chopsticks on a white plate.

See who can stack the most using ONLY chopsticks in 30 seconds! 

Tip:

• For younger kiddos, you can have them use their hands!

WITCHES OF ICE-WICK POTION PUNCH!

To make a memorable punch that kids will love, freeze up water in gloves, and float ice hands in your favorite drink! I made a Vitamin-C-packed beverage to further boost the family’s immunity!

BOO BOWLING

Get 10 small white cups, draw ghost faces on them if smooth or use black construction paper and cut out faces and use hot glue to apply; stack them into a pyramid shape: 3 on the bottom, 2, 1. Everybody has a turn trying to knock down as many cups as they can...with ping pong balls! I found the smallest ping pong balls possible to make it more challenging with eyes on them at a dollar store. Keep a rolling score of how many cups you’ve knocked down. The person with the highest score at the end of playing, wins!

RING AROUND THE PUMPKIN

Get real pumpkins of various sizes with stems. Use any kind of rings you have like glow-in-the-dark necklaces or swimming rings! Arrange the pumpkins in a clump on the floor and have kids stand a distance away and try and toss as many rings onto the pumpkin stems as possible!

WITCHES OF ICE-WICK POTION PUNCH

Two frozen elements, hands and witches fingers, add to the scare-factor of this frightfully delicious non-alcoholic punch served in a punch bowl w/ cups that the whole family can enjoy!

A little red grenadine around the edge of the punch bowl (to make a truly bloody mess as we mothers know!! Aye aye aye..)

Recipe:

4 quarts Cranberry-Pomegranate or Cranberry - Grape Juice Cocktail

1 cup Pineapple Juice

1 cup Lychee Juice

6 oz Frozen Lemonade Concentrate, thawed

2 liter bottle of Club Soda

Red Grenadine for bloody effect on bowl

Scary Ice Elements:

Food Safe Gloves (for icy hands)

CAUGHT IN THE SPIDER’S WEB!

I could likely only make one ginormous one on the floor of the set. I have spiders to toss. I think we make each ring of the web worth more points as you get closer to the center: 3 -- 5 --10

Unlike this girl, you do not stand in the web. Each host would have to stand on opposite ends of it, so I’d have to make it at least 6 feet across.