The second October rolls around, I’m ready to trade in my cozy fall pumpkin spice for witch’s brew and dive headfirst into Halloween festivities. Give me spooky mantle decor, skeletons posed in compromising positions, pumpkin carving with a mug of mulled cider, and a thrifting mission for an oddly obscure Halloween costume request from one of my children, and I’m in.
One of my favorite ways to squeeze a little more magic out of the season is with a Halloween bucket list. Basically, it’s creating a list of fun Halloween activities I would like to do.
And by “bucket list,” I definitely do NOT mean a giant list of things we must accomplish by midnight on All Hallows’ Eve, although that sounds spooky and a little sinister. But seriously. Nobody needs that kind of pressure. Think of it more as a “wouldn’t it be fun if we did this?” list. A collection of all the things you’d love to do this month.
That way, when you unexpectedly find yourself with a free Saturday (ha!), you already have a list of ideas waiting on the fridge instead of staring blankly at your people wondering what to do.
To make your Halloween plotting a little easier, I’ve put together a collection of free Halloween bucket list printables for you. They’re at the bottom of this post. Pick your poison, I mean, your favorite design, print it out, and fill it with all the Halloween activities you’re hoping to squeeze in this year. Bonus points if you tack it on your refrigerator with a set of Halloween ghost magnets.
Now grab your broomstick or wand, gather your fun ideas, peruse some of the best Halloween ideas I’ve curated below, and let’s make some Halloween mischief, I mean, magic.
120+ Halloween Activities, Fun Things, and Ideas
All the ideas, tips, and tricks to help you celebrate the whole season long. From classic Halloween activities to enjoy as a family to ideas for Halloween traditions and other fall activities for September and October.
Halloween Adventures and Spooky Outings
- Go Trick-or-Treating with friends (is there anything more iconic to start this list)
- Attend a local trunk-or-treat event (or other community Halloween events)
- Decorate a trunk for trunk-or-treating
- Trek through a corn maze (or a haunted corn maze)
- Visit a haunted house
- Attend a local Halloween parade
- Go on a spooky hike or trail
- Attend a Halloween themed trivia night
- Or Halloween karaoke night
- Take a local ghost tour
- Attend a harvest festival
- Go on a hayride (bonus…make it haunted)
- Visit a pumpkin patch or go pumpkin picking
- Find a local-ish spooky landmark and visit it
- Check out THE kid-friendly Halloween house in your area…everyone has one somewhere close by
- Find and stay the night at a haunted hotel
- Take a nighttime walk with headlamps
- Stroll a local historical cemetery and learn more about it
Halloween Party and Hosting Ideas
- Host a Halloween cookie decorating party
- Have a spooky movie night for friends (or watch a Halloween classic)
- Or a cozy Halloween movie night (no scary movies for moi)
- Have a Halloween party (for families or adults, your pick)
- Host a family fire night and tell spooky stories
- Create a Halloween scavenger hunt for friends
- Host a pumpkin carving contest
- Start hosting an annual Halloween potluck
Halloween Bucket List Ideas for the Homebody
- Get in the Halloween spirit and decorate your home with reckless abandon
- Or just decorate the front porch and consolidate the effort there (my favorite low-effort Halloween porch)
- Create a Halloween-themed mantle (like Frankenstein, evil doctor, dark academia, Poe, etc.)
- Hang Halloween lights like it’s the 90s
- Dole out Halloween candy to trick-or-treaters while wearing a costume
- Create a Halloween-themed morning ritual (special coffee, themed mug, playlist, etc.)
- Purchase a set of Halloween-themed pajamas and wear them way too much (I’m jonesing for these from Hanna Andersen)
- Bonus if you also wear some fuzzy Halloween socks
- Tackle a favorite Halloween puzzle (bonus if it glows in the dark)
- Hang vintage window clings like your grandmother used to
- Dress up for a festive dinner at home (bonus…make it themed)
- Cultivate a spooky season book stack and work your way through them
- Break out the kids’ Halloween picture books and arrange them on the shelves with decor
- Decorate a Halloween tree
- Go stargazing in the backyard on a clear night
- Mix a spooky playlist of Halloween songs
- Learn about the history of Halloween, Frankenstein, witches, etc.
- Assemble a spooky Halloween sensory bin for small children
- Eat dinner by candlelight using long tapers in a candelabra
- Have a Hocus Pocus movie marathon (or Hotel Transylvania, or Beetlejuice, etc.)
- Up your Halloween wardrobe
- Hang paper bats around the house
- Create a Halloween-themed candy bar for a movie night
- Thrift nostalgic Halloween books (Goosebumps, Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, etc.)
- Break out the clove-, cinnamon-, and nutmeg-scented candles
- Put a costume on the family pet
- Play Halloween-themed games
- Have a frightfully fun Halloween movie night every Friday
- Put skeletons somewhere weird and unexpected
Food, Baking, and Classic Halloween Treats
- Eat candy corn (love it or hate it, but it’s still iconic)
- Make popcorn balls
- Make spooky rice krispy treats (Pinterest)
- Dip apples in homemade caramel sauce (Sally’s Baking Recipe is the best)
- Bake easy Halloween cupcakes, cookies, brownies, etc.
- Mix up the perfect Halloween Chex mix
- Dress up movie night popcorn with mix-ins like drizzled colored chocolate sauce, Halloween sprinkles, green Kit-Kats, and more
- Make pumpkin spice lattes at home
- Mix a cocktail that smokes (or another adult Halloween beverage)
- Bake pumpkin cream cheese muffins (or pumpkin scones, pancakes, etc.)
- Drink a pumpkin beer
- Bake beer bread using said pumpkin beer
- Craft a fun Halloween mocktail the whole family can enjoy
- Add some Halloween flair to your coffee bar (syrups, sprinkles, etc.)
- Sip apple cider from a local orchard
- Roast Halloween s’mores
- Make caramel popcorn
- Bake pumpkin bread
- Roast pumpkin seeds (bonus if they came from a pumpkin you carved)
- Bake and decorate Halloween doughnuts
- Or make apple cider doughnuts
- Devour a Reese’s peanut butter pumpkin all to yourself
- Eat that bowl of Count Chocula cereal (or another themed, terrible for you, but it’s a treat)
- Bake a pumpkin pie
- Make Halloween waffles (waffle makers from Dash are so fun)
- Assemble a spooky charcuterie board
- Set up a spooky hot chocolate bar
- Create the most nostalgic Halloween food your grandmother used to make
Crafts for Halloween
- Craft a Halloween mask
- Make ghosts out of clay
- Sew your Halloween costume (or costumes for the family)
- Get creative and craft a costume only using things you already have
- Make doll witch hats out of egg cartons
- Carve pumpkins
- Paint pumpkins
- Make Halloween friendship bracelets
- Or bag charms
- Make pumpkin lanterns
- Create a Halloween countdown calendar
- Make Halloween cards and send them to friends
- Craft Halloween party invitations
- Assemble a Halloween garland or wreath
- Make a Halloween village using unfinished houses from a craft store
- Assemble a Halloween season collage
- Make DIY Halloween treat bags to pass out to trick-or-treaters
- Create a Halloween paper chain to hang
- Start or work on a Halloween traditions scrapbook
- Do a Halloween craft that uses far too much glitter (so much inspiration on Pinterest)
- Make a no-sew Halloween costume (like this chicken costume utilizing feather boas and a hot glue gun)
Weirdly Fun Halloween Activities
- Howl at the moon
- Try a spell
- Break out the Ouija board
- Learn the dance to Michael Jackson’s Thriller (Matty! It’s Thriller!)
- Thrift a Halloween sweater vest
- Carve a weird pumpkin
- Take photos in a pumpkin patch accidentally like Wes Anderson
- Randomly dress like a monster
- Thrift the weirdest Halloween decorations you can find
- Eat candy for breakfast. Just once.
- Buy the enormous pumpkin even though you have no idea what to do with it
- Give a skeleton an unhinged job (gym teacher, librarian, crossing guard, etc.)
- Have a family meeting to discuss skeleton placement
- Leave a Halloween fun surprise somewhere in the house for someone to discover (true story, I did this to Colby once with a bloody foot; the dog found it)
- Pretend to be investigating a paranormal incident during a nighttime walk (or recreate the Legend of Sleepy Hollow)
- Put googly eyes or a mask on something
- Spend an afternoon making your house look haunted, then sit on the porch and admire your questionable life choices
- Buy something from the thrift store because it has “Halloween potential” and then spend the next three weeks trying to figure out what the hell you were thinking!
Free Halloween Bucket List Printables
And now for the final part, the free downloadable Halloween bucket list printables. Click on the images below to download your free printable and print off your design of choice. My favorite printable Halloween sheet? Template option four.
Now you can make your own Halloween bucket list. Fill it with ideas for kids and families, make it adult-only, or keep it completely to yourself. The only rule: make it SO much fun that you’re exhausted by the time Halloween comes around. Okay, maybe don’t cram that much in, but you get my point.
And with that, I bid you Happy Halloween. I wish you a fang-tastic season and a hauntingly happy Halloween night. Keep it spooky. Stay weird. Boos and blessings, my fellow weirdos.
Pssst…Now tell me, which of these fun activities will you be taking on during the month of October? For me, it’s pumpkin spice everything, family-friendly Halloween things with the kids, and decorating something so weird that my husband questions our relationship.
Psssssst…What are your favorite ways to celebrate Halloween?! And do you decorate your house?
