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Every year, our family looks forward to Halloween. It’s one of those holidays that can be fun for all ages and we love everything about it! While we try to fit in as much as we can during the month of October, we have specific Halloween traditions that we never miss. From the pumpkin patch to counting their candy at the end of the night, my kids look forward to Halloween every year.
Visit a Local Pumpkin Patch
Pumpkin patches are a great opportunity to get out into your community, take some pictures, meet some neighbors and pick out the perfect pumpkin for your family. In our case, we always get one for each of our daughters. From petting zoos to hay rides, pumpkin patches should definitely be on your to-do list every October!
Fun Fact: Not all pumpkins are orange. Some pumpkins are white, others are red, blue, or yellow. Traditional orange pumpkins change color from green to orange for much the same reason that leaves do. When they lose their chlorophyll, the “underlying” orange color is revealed. The orange color is caused by carotenoids, a healthy source of vitamin A and the same thing that makes carrots orange.
Create Spooky Treats
While it’s fun to buy the giant bags of candy, there is nothing better than creating fun, spooky treats for Halloween. A must have for our family are caramel apples. This year, we found some fun decorative fingers to add to them, to give them a little something extra. You can also add eyeballs to take it up a notch. For our youngest, the creepier, the better.
Fun Fact: The average parent eats one-fourth of their children’s Halloween candy.
Decorate Pumpkins
Whether you carve, use stickers or paint your pumpkins, it’s so much fun allowing your kids to decorate their own pumpkin. Let them use their imagination to create and you’ll be surprised what they can come up with.
Fun Fact: The heaviest pumpkin in the United States was grown in 2014 by a man named Beni Meier and it weighed 2,323 pounds.
Going Trick or Treating
While my kids love everything about Halloween, the thing they look forward to the most is trick or treating. Choosing their costume is usually an ordeal, but once that’s done, they can’t wait to get out there and get as much candy as they can. At the end of the night, they dump their goodies onto the floor and separate it into 4 piles (one for each of them and one for Mom and Dad).
Fun Fact: Americans spend about $3.8 billion on Halloween candy every year.
Making Sure Our Teeth Stay Healthy
Once all of the candy and treats are gone, it’s time to make sure we are taking care of our teeth. Halloween wouldn’t be the same without Halloween candy! Crest proves this point by bringing a group of school-aged children together for a focus group where they are asked to test out some new healthy alternatives for the season and it’s hilarious. I’m sure my kids would have acted the same way. Check out the video here.
Fun Fact: Only 48% of adults enforce a stricter teeth brushing/flossing routine on Halloween for themselves ;however 70% of parents enforce stricter teeth brushing/routines on Halloween for their children.
What are some of your favorite Halloween traditions? Comment below and let us know!
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This blog post is sponsored by Crest. All opinions are my own.
Corinne
November 1, 2018Next year, I totally want to try making some spooky treats with my kids! I love that you brought up toothpaste though, so important with all of the treats and candy they get!
Sundeep
November 1, 2018Love the tradition. We enjoy halloween party every year. But not these kinds of treats. I must say you had a great evening and you guys enjoyed a lot
Rachel
October 31, 2018We are SO OCD about making sure our kids brush their teeth. Also? Those pumpkins are SO cool!!!
Jessica Taylor
October 31, 2018We l love making spooky treats, and Crest is always our go-to after a night of candy binging lol
Anosa Malanga
October 31, 2018We normally have such tradition and also having a Halloween party with family and relatives. It’s really important to make sure that we take care of our teeth especially kids because there are so many sweets coming from the treats.
Amanda
October 30, 2018We have a MASSIVE pumpkin carving party every year. It’s fantastic but exhausting!
Julie
October 30, 2018LOVE all of these ideas! Such fun traditions!
bohemian babushka
October 30, 2018That Blue Cat Pumpkin was Cutisimo! Great suggestions, thinking of doing some with The Grands, the using Crest, we already use it with them.
Kathryn at QuestFor47
October 30, 2018Pumpkin patches are the best! So much fun to do, especially around Halloween. This is a great list, and thanks for sharing about oral care. Also so important!
jeanine
October 30, 2018Great traditions to start! I think next year we will for sure be trying to head to our local pumpkin patch. It would be so much fun.
Supermompicks
October 30, 2018I love fall and everything halloween! My family does all of these!
Cara Cozy
October 30, 2018what a cutie! Love the pumpkin picking shots
Dawn @ Our Food Fix
October 30, 2018Loving these Halloween tradition ideas! I am all about pumpkin patches, apple picking, and making spooky treats 🙂
What Corinne Did
October 30, 2018halloween is not as big in the uk as it is in the us but i do love baking spooky treats! they are so much fun to make!
Rachel
October 30, 2018It would be fun to give the kids new toothpaste and brushes for halloween. It would probably inspire them to go brush!
Kathy
October 30, 2018These are all some of our favorite traditions as well. There are so many great ones when it comes to Halloween. Of course trick or treating is one of the kids favorites.
Evelyn Hernandez
October 30, 2018We love trick or treating, it is a tradition in our family. We also watch scary movies the week of Halloween.
Chubskulit Rose
October 30, 2018Now that my kids are older, we only do trick or treating as tradition
. I miss carving pumpkin with them.
Farrah Less
October 30, 2018We love visiting our local pumpkin patch. It is also the time of the year that they open up the corn maze for public. We always have a blast each time we visit.
Latte Lindsay
October 30, 2018I will admit, I have been tempted to give out toothpaste and toothbrushes instead of sweets! I don’t think it would go down well 😀
Heather Castillo
October 30, 2018I told my girls I was going to do it and they said our house would get egg-ed. lol.
Sophie
October 30, 2018Glad to see the teeth-brushing tradition is observed! Also love your photos of all the Halloween goodies. They look really tempting!
Blair villanueva
October 30, 2018These are awesome traditions. Here in the Philippines we also celebrate halloween but majority is to visit the cemetery to pay respect for our dead relatives, same tradition in Mexico.
Swathi
October 29, 2018These are our Halloween tradition too. going to pumpkin patch, making spooky treats and drink , trick-o-treat and finally hiding the candies from kids.
Terri Steffes
October 29, 2018I love these traditions. The only tradition we have now is decorating the house and buying enough candy. We will easily have 400-500 trick or treaters.
alaina monster
October 29, 2018Oral care is so important. I’m always making sure that my girls are brushing and flossing properly. On Halloween, I also have them rinse their mouths after the night of fun before we get home to brush our teeeth. Our dentist recomended it as a way to help prevent cavities
Tasheena
October 29, 2018I love the family traditions you’ve suggested. I love going to my local pumpkin patch during this time of year.
Pam
October 29, 2018We love picking pumpkins around Halloween. It’s one of our favorite family traditions.
Kita Bryant
October 29, 2018The pumpkin with glasses looks really great! I would love to recreate that.
Sara Welch
October 29, 2018Great post! Keeping your teeth cleaned from all that sugar is a brilliant idea.
Tonya Wilhelm
October 29, 2018We visit our local pumpkin patch each year. It’s so much fun and is a great lead in to fall and the holidays.
Heather
October 29, 2018We do all of these! Gotta take care of those teeth especially with all the candy/treats!
Lane
October 29, 2018I’m not going to lie, halloween is my least favorite holiday, but my kids sure look forward to trick or treating every year!
Heather Castillo
October 29, 2018Why is that?
Theresa Bailey
October 29, 2018I bet a bunch of parents eat more than 1/4 their kid’s candy. LOL. It is a great time of year for the dentist.
Helen Little
October 29, 2018Brilliant traditions! My son is 2 and we’ve just started to visit pumpkin patches. I agree with you on the teeth cleaning though – so many sweets consumed haha.
LottA
October 29, 2018Good traditions! I really enjoyed the fun facts you shared, they made me laugh.
Joanna
October 29, 2018I had no idea that pumpkins could be blue as well. How fun to have a blue pumpkin for Halloween? I’d love to go and get a nice big pumpkin from a farm but the only available option in my city are really tiny supermarket ones.
Heather Castillo
October 29, 2018They are painted, though pumpkins do come in different colors.
Joan
October 29, 2018These are really great traditions I am still yet to find a pumpkin patch to visit but it’s okay one day I will.
Natalie
October 29, 2018Visiting a pumpkin patch sounds like fun, and something I have never done! I also have yet to see a blue pumpkin, pretty neat.
Amber Myers
October 29, 2018We do a lot of these. No pumpkin patches anymore since the kids are older. But we like to make treats and we did carve pumpkins. I love Crest products!
Jen Walshaw
October 29, 2018I would LOVE to experience Halloween in the US – it seems so much fun and such a fabulous experience. it is a much minor celebration here in the UK.
Rebecca @ Strength and Sunshine
October 29, 2018A mix of fun and healthy hygiene sounds good to me!
candy
October 29, 2018Halloween is a big deal around here where we live. We don’t do much anymore since it is just the tow of us now and we live so far out in the country. Every year we do a weiner roast which everyone looks forward too.
Sarah Bailey
October 29, 2018These are some great traditions to partake in around Halloween, I would love to make it to a pumpkin patch one year I have to say.
Jenn@Engineermommy
October 29, 2018Trick-or-treating is a must for the kids. We also try to visit a pumpkin patch each year to develop that sense of tradition.
Jeanette
October 29, 2018I think it is fun to have traditions for the holidays. I really like a couple of these traditions. We will definitely incorporate some of them in our traditions.
Robin Rue
October 29, 2018Fun traditions. We go to a pumpkin patch every year, but my boys are getting older so I am afraid this might have been our last