At Sawyer, we celebrate Halloween all October long. We love spooky season and all of the fun that comes with it! One of the best ways to celebrate Halloween with your family is through arts & crafts. Halloween crafts can double as boo bag goodies, costume party invitations, decor for your house or desk, and so much more.
In this guide, we’re sharing some of our favorite Halloween crafts for kids and toddlers. We’re also including some Halloween templates that can make it even easier for you and your family to celebrate the season.
Halloween crafts for kids
These are just a few of our favorite Halloween crafts for kids, but the list can go on and on. These Halloween activities are great for the whole family, so enjoy the time together, have fun, and make some great memories!
1. Jack-o-lanterns
Of course, the first item on our list of Halloween crafts for kids is a classic: Carving pumpkins. For children under 10, we recommend handling the knife work yourself. But don’t worry, they can still be completely involved! Let them come up with the idea and direct you so you make their dreams come true. Once you have carved the pumpkin, they can fully take over and decorate with paints, glitter, markers, and whatever else they want to add. Even if you have older children, we still recommend that you keep a close eye on their carving and offer to help if they need it. Pumpkins are tough!
2. DIY costumes
Halloween is so much more fun with a homemade costume. For parents, it is a source of pride, and for children, they get to have more say in the way it looks. It’s a win-win! Even if you don’t think you are the craftiest parent in the bunch, with enough time and the right resources, you should be able to create something fun for your child and yourself. Check out our list of DIY Halloween costumes and superhero activities for some inspiration and get out that hot glue!
3. Decorated candy bags
Once you have your child’s costume prepared, the next step is to decorate fun and festive bags for the best part of Halloween: Trick-or-treating! A good candy bag has handles and won’t break easily under the weight of a full afternoon’s worth of trick-or-treating spoils. Bonus points if your child can connect their candy bag to their costume’s theme! For example, if they dress as Dora the Explorer, their candy bag can be her backpack or if they dress as Winnie the Pooh, their candy bag can be a honey pot!
4. Toilet paper roll dolls
Did you know that you can use empty toilet paper rolls to make fun dolls and action figures with your little ones? Just break out the construction paper, markers, paints, googly eyes, and glitter! Then, get to work designing a mummy, Frankenstein’s monster, Dracula, a werewolf, and whatever else catches your child’s fancy.
5. Spider cookies
Get some Oreos (the Halloween ones have orange creme in the middle!), pretzel sticks, candy corn, mini marshmallows, and black frosting. Break the pretzel sticks in half, then stick 3 in each side of the cookie to make spider legs. Next, break the white part of the candy corn off and stick those in the bottom of the cookie for the fangs. Smush 2 mini marshmallows down flat and add a drop of frosting on the back of each to “glue” them to the top of the cookie as the eyes. Finally, add a dot of black frosting to each marshmallow as the pupil. Tasty and fun!
Halloween crafts for toddlers
Arts and crafts with toddlers is always a good, and tiring, time. These little ones love getting messy and making art, but they might not have the easiest time sitting still. Choose Halloween crafts for toddlers that are quick and easy so you don’t have to battle their attention span. Try some of our favorites below!
1. Apple stamp pumpkins
Apples aren’t just delicious snacks, they are also easy tools for crafting. You can cut an apple in half and then use the half as a stamp! With your child, dip it in orange paint and stamp it down on a piece of paper, then let them decorate their pumpkins with pipe cleaners, googly eyes, construction paper, glitter, and more!
2. Lollipop ghosts
These little sweet treats make a perfect addition to boo bags or even trick-or-treating giveaways! Plus, they are fun to make with your little one. All you need to do is wrap a tissue around the top of a lollipop and then tie it with ribbon to make it look like a ghost. Then, let your toddler get ghoulish with the decorations!
3. Paper plate masks
Cut a paper plate in half and hold it over your little one’s face to mark the eye holes. Use scissors or a hole punch to make eye holes, then hand the “mask” over to your toddler and let them go at it! They can make a monster, vampire, ghost, werewolf, alien, or anything that they want. Have fun with it. Make a mask yourself too and then you can play dress-up!
4. Leaf ghosts
We love a craft that starts with a scavenger hunt! Head outside with your little one and find the best leaves you can. Then, come back and paint them white, then decorate them like ghosts! Your ghosts can be colorful, classic, cowboys…whatever your heart desires. These leaf ghosts make great decorations or perfect boo bag additions.
5. Handprint bats
It wouldn’t be a list of crafts for toddlers without a handprint craft! Little ones love getting their hands dirty and parents love art that features their tiny hands! Dip your toddler’s hands in black paint and then press them down on paper one at a time facing outwards so they connect at the base forming the shape of a bat. Then, let them add googly eyes to their bat and paint or color the surrounding scene.
Halloween templates
Between meals, snacks, naps, and activities, you might not have time for a full arts & crafts session with your family. We get it! Use these Halloween templates to create fun Halloween crafts and decorations with less time and effort. We won’t tell, we promise!
- Ghost finger puppets
- Paper bag vampire puppets
- Halloween masks (and you don’t even need to cut eye holes!)
- Pumpkin template
- Halloween spell printable
- Frankenstein’s monster handprints
- Printable Halloween masks
- Paper witch doll
We hope these ideas for Halloween crafts for kids and toddlers have given you some inspiration this spooky season! Remember: Halloween is a fun and exciting time, but it can also be overwhelming, especially for little ones. Check out our early childhood learning expert’s advice on how to make sure everyone has a great Halloween this year! Happy Halloween, everyone!
