Fun Family Halloween Activities That You Can Do At Home

The spookiest night of the year is finally here. After all the trick-or-treating is finished, you and your family can get together for a fun Halloween themed game night. There are tons of spooky activities that you can do, but we have put together a few of our favorites.

Kid-Friendly Movies and Treats

Gather around your comfy living room furniture and watch a not-so-scary Halloween movie. Some options are Casper or Scooby-Doo. Since it is Halloween, you have the perfect excuse to treat yourselves to some sweets. You can either dip into the trick-or-treat candy or make your own delicious recipes.

Pin the Stem on the Pumpkin

This is essentially the Halloween version of pin the tale on the donkey, but it can still make for a fun game. You can even create your own pumpkin with orange construction paper. Use green paper for the stem and hang it up on a cork board.

Bewitching Chairs

This is another spooky spin on a classic game of musical chairs. You can make a witch's hat from some everyday materials and use it as a game prop. You can find full instructions for the game on Family Education here.

Scavenger/ Treasure Hunt

Have kids go on a scavenger hunt around the house. Add a touch of Halloween to the scavenger hunt by using glow in the dark stickers and arrows as clues and dim the lights. You can use candy as the treasure or choose other prizes. 

DIY Fall and Halloween Wreaths

Photo by Ben+Sam

Home decor really plays a part in making your house feel like home. You can welcome guests to your home with a festive fall or Halloween wreath. With these ideas and tips you can make your own with minimal supplies and time.

Traditional Leaf Wreath 

Supplies

• Fake leaf garland (red, orange, yellow)
• Hot glue 
• Wreath twigs (found in craft store)

Steps

1. Lay out your twig wreath. You can usually find this already in the shape of a wreath at a local craft store, otherwise you have to shape the twigs into a circle. Once you have that, work in your leaf garland, placing it in the inner part of the wreath. 
2. Use varying shades of red, orange and yellow to blend the leaf colors. Cover the inner part of the wreath with leaves with some twigs exposed around the outer part. 
3. Glue loose pieces of garland onto the twig wreath and hang.

Halloween Ghosts and Ghouls Wreath

Supplies

• Plain wreath (craft store)
• Purple or black yarn
• Fake cobwebs
• Skull props 
• Glue
• Black ribbon
• Foam letters

Steps 

1. Wrap either purple or black yarn around your wreath until covered. 
2. Cover wreath in black ribbon and garnish it with a few cobwebs.
3. Glue on some skull props to one part. 
4. On the top or bottom, glue on the word "Boo" in some white foam letters and hang. 

Now, your home is ready to welcome trick-or-treaters and Halloween guests. Plus, if you are making the traditional leaf wreath, you can keep it up all the way until Thanksgiving!

How To Turn Your Sofa Into A Monster

Some of the best Halloween decorations are the ones that you create yourself. This year, you can incorporate pieces of your furniture into your decor for some clever spookiness. In this blog, we are talking about couch monsters, and not the ones under your cushions. With slight adjustments to an old couch cover or sheet, you can turn your sofa into a monster. Here's how:

Supplies

• Large black or dark grey sheet or couch cover
• Paint
• Paintbrushes
• Tarp
• Glow in the dark paint/sticks 

Steps 

1. Test out the sizing of your sheet on the sofa. Before painting, you should align and mark where the sheet covers the back cushions-this is where you will paint on the eyes. 
2. Once you've aligned your sheet to the sofa remove the sheet. Then, in a well-ventilated area, lay out a tarp and place your sheet or couch cover on it. 
3. Make sure that the sheet is face up and flat before painting. Paint some scary eyes on the middle of your sheet or cover where you have marked it. 
4. Then, paint on a scary mouth with some jagged teeth. 
5. Leave the sheet flat to dry overnight. 
6. Once completely dry, you can cover your couch with it. But, you must make sure that it is absolutely dry before doing this to avoid getting paint on your furniture!

*Try gluing glow in the dark sticks on or use glow in the dark paint for a scarier version.

Now that you have a couch monster, you can incorporate other pieces of furniture like lamps and end tables! You can add some googly eyes to a lampshade for an easy Halloween decoration and change the light bulb color for an added spookiness. 

Tips for Decorating Your Home for Halloween

Photo by Unskinny Boppy

With less than a month until Halloween, stores are full of spooky candy, costumes and decorations. But, some of the store-bought Halloween decor can be a bit cheesy, depending on where you place it in your home. Here are a few tips for decorating your house for the spookiest night of the year! 

1. Lighting and color: One of the simplest things that you can do to set a scary mood in your home is dim the lights and use dark colored decor. You can cover your furniture and sofas with some dark sheets or couch covers and if you can't manually adjust your lighting, you can switch out the light bulbs for some dark colored ones. 
2. DIY Halloween decor and candles: Sometimes the scariest decor is the kind that you make on your own, because it's not likely that your house guests will have seen it somewhere else. An easy decor creation is Mason jar candles. You can fill the jars with toy bugs, skulls, or some candy body parts and then turn it into a candle with this DIY. 
3. Spooky music: A scary movie isn't complete without a soundtrack. The same goes for your Haunted House. Create a track of the most horrifying tunes that you can think of and play it at your next Halloween party. 

And if you still need a few home decor and furniture items to complete your home before October 31, check out our spooktacular October deals before they vanish! 

October 2014 Deals

Fall has arrived and with it, our October deals! Take advantage of the spooktacular savings on some name brand furniture and decor products from designers and suppliers like: Ashley, Benchcraft, Serta and more! Check out the flyer and video below for more information on our October deals or visit your local Home Decor Outlets store.