Tips for safe Halloween fun
It can be very easy to have a safe, fun Halloween without spending a ton of money.Costumes
With a little creativity, you can create many costumes from things you have around your house or by buying something you can use again.
For example, buy a simple sweat suit and you can become almost any animal you want. Want to be an alligator? Buy a green suit and green felt. Cut squares from the felt and tack them to the sweats. When you are done, remove the decorations and wear your sweat suits.
Want to be a unicorn? Buy a sweat suit, white felt and colorful yarn. Create a horn from the felt and tack to the hood, then attach the yarn down the back of the hood as your mane. A cow? Buy a white sweat suit and black felt. Cut black spots from the felt and tack to the shirt and pants. You can be a Dalmatian the same way – just add floppy ears to you hood.
Plain t-shirts can become so many costumes, too. Cut an M out of felt and tack it to a shirt and you are an M & M. Cut a face out of felt pieces and your child can be any Sesame Street character they want to be. Looking online can offer you hundreds of ways to create a costume without spending much money.
If you want to help your child develop their creativity, let them decide what they want to be and then use their imagination to look around your home and find what they need to create their own costume. Give your child boxes of different sizes, paint, cotton balls, yarn and craft foam and let them go wild.
Decorating Pumpkins
In most families, it’s a tradition to carve pumpkins close to Halloween. But when you have small children or family members with special needs, it may not be safe for them to use a knife or they may even have trouble using one of the safe carving tools available in many stores.
If this is the case in your home, paint your pumpkins instead. Your pumpkins will last longer since they aren’t carved and, after Halloween, you can wash the paint off and still use your pumpkins as fall decorations.
If you have a lot of craft items in your home, dump it on the table and really let your family decorate their pumpkins. Pipe cleaners, craft foam and stickers all work really well to decorate a pumpkin.
Staying Safe
Before you leave home to go to a party or trick or treating, carefully look at your child’s costume and be sure it’s not too long or too tight, especially around their neck. Make sure they can easily see – masks can be a danger to children’s safety as they walk. Use face paints over masks, if at all possible. A few days before your child will be dressed up, make sure they won’t have a reaction to the face paint by putting just a small amount on their cheek and watch for a reaction. If any redness or itching happens, don’t use the face paint.
Take a picture of each child as you leave home, just in case you get separated. If you need to get help looking for your child, you will have a picture handy that shows them in their costume. For smaller children, consider writing your phone number on their hand or arm so if they get lost, you can be contacted.
Stay in well-lit areas and only go to homes with the porch light on. Put reflective tape on your child’s costume and give them flashlights or glow sticks to carry. Go trick or treating with children under 12 and tell you children to stay in a group. As a driver, slow down and watch carefully. Kids are excited and won’t always think to cross streets at crosswalks.
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