20 Halloween Activities for Toddlers (Nothing Scary)

Halloween with a toddler is genuinely lovely as long as you take the horror out of it. At two and three, a smiling pumpkin is a delight and a rubber mask is a nightmare — sometimes literally, at 2am.

So everything below is friendly rather than spooky. Twenty ideas, plus an honest plan for trick-or-treating with someone who has strong opinions and short legs.

Pumpkin play

1. Pumpkin scooping — You cut the lid, they pull the stringy insides out. The best sensory activity of the entire season, and completely free.
2. Painting a pumpkin, not carving — Safer, simpler, lasts longer, and they can actually do it themselves.
3. Sticker-face pumpkins — Googly eyes and sticker features on a small pumpkin. A friendly face, decided by them.
4. Pumpkin seed sorting and counting — Rinse, count into cups, roast the leftovers.
5. Mini pumpkin bowling — Small pumpkins as balls, empty bottles as pins. Ridiculous, excellent.
6. A pumpkin patch trip — At this age the choosing and carrying is the outing.

Friendly crafts

7. Handprint ghosts — White paint, one hand, a friendly face drawn on afterwards. The keepsake craft of the season.
8. Paper plate pumpkins — Orange paint, a green stem, a smiley face. Ten minutes, no skill required.
9. Tissue paper stained-glass — Contact paper plus orange and purple tissue squares, stuck on the window. Glows in the low autumn light.
10. Cardboard tube monsters — Friendly ones, with wobbly eyes. Nothing with teeth.
11. Footprint bats or spiders — Same principle as the handprint ghosts, cuter than it sounds.
12. Halloween colouring pages — Print a friendly set; our free activity pack has colouring and dot-marker pages that work with orange and purple markers.

Sensory and games

13. Orange sensory bin — Dry pasta or rice dyed orange, with scoops, small pumpkins and cups. Contained on a sheet.
14. "Spider web" wool maze — Wool strung across a doorway at toddler height to climb through. Enormous fun, costs almost nothing.
15. Pumpkin-guts guessing bowls — Cooked spaghetti, peeled grapes, jelly — hands in, guess what it is. Best with three-year-olds; some two-year-olds find it too odd.
16. Ghost bowling with white socks — Rolled socks, plastic bottles with friendly faces drawn on.
17. Balloon ghosts — White balloons with faces, batted around the room. (Inflated only, and bin the pieces if one pops.)
18. A torch-lit den — Blanket fort, one torch, a friendly story. Dark made cosy rather than scary.

The costume and the night itself

19. A costume they can wear over a coat — This is the whole trick. October is cold, and the costume that goes over the coat is the one still on at 6pm. Skip masks entirely.
20. The twenty-minute trick-or-treat — Three or four houses, all people you know, starting early while it's still light. Bring the buggy even if they're walking, take one bag, and go home while it's still fun.

What to skip at this age

• Masks, on them or on you — a familiar adult in a mask is genuinely frightening to a two-year-old
• Anything with a jump scare — decorations that move or make noise unexpectedly
• Scary films or spooky sound effects — even background ones
• A long trick-or-treat route — the sweets aren't the point; they'll be tired long before you've finished the street
• Hard sweets in the bag — a choking risk at this age; swap them out before they get into the bag if you can

The honest expectation

There's a fair chance your toddler will refuse the costume, adore the pumpkin, eat one sweet, and want to go home after two houses. That's a completely successful Halloween. The costume photo takes four seconds and lasts forever; the rest is optional.

More seasonal: 25 autumn activities for toddlers and rainy-day indoor activities.