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Halloween Activities

© Marci Stocks

Crafts can be a lot of fun, especially during a holiday. If you have read my first article for Halloween, Halloween and Your Loved One, you are ready to begin the Halloween activities.

The whole idea is to be creative and to adjust each activity to fit your loved one's needs.

Halloween Crafts

If you are not sure what activities can be done, go to a bookstore and look in the children's section for craft books. I have seen children's Halloween craft books. Keep in mind that just because you may purchase a craft book for children, does not mean that your loved one is a child. These books offer simple crafts that are easy to do. This is especially important if your loved one has dementia.

1. Start by making your own Halloween decorations. You can buy cut-outs of ghosts, goblins, cats, witches, and other halloween characters or you can make your own. However, tracing an already-made image is much easier than making your own. Hang these decorations in your home.

2. Make Halloween scenes on poster boards and then hang them up. Fun utensils to use are sponges cut in different shapes that you dip in paint and then pat on the paper/poster board. You can do a haunted house scene at night and stick on little glow in the dark stars. You can use rhinestones as cats' eyes or cotton as witches hair.

3. Try to use "things" around your house to be creative and, most importantly, to cut down on cost. Great items to use are paper plates, paper cups, cotton, or wooden popsicle sticks. Paper plates would be useful in using to trace large circles for pumpkins and moons.

4. Carve pumpkins together. Have your loved one draw a face on the pumpkin and then you can cut it out. If your loved one is still able to hold objects with a tight grip and cut, then assist him while he cuts the pumpkin. Or, you and your loved one can draw the face on the pumpkin and then color it in with a black marker.

5. If you are going to hand out candies to the trick-or-treaters, your loved one can help you place the candy in the bowl. Make it even more fun by dressing up in a costume.

6. Make Halloween bags for the trick-or-treaters. You can either buy the already made plastic bags for Halloween treats or you can make your own by using little plastic sandwich bags. It's up to you. Your loved one can place several kinds of candy in each bag.