It's fair to say that this has been something of a topsy-turvy year in many ways with lots of the things we usually look forward to as a family having to be postponed or cancelled altogether.
My children have always really enjoyed Halloween, in fact it's one of our favourite times of year, so they were pretty upset to hear that trick or treating is highly unlikely to go ahead this year. But, after 7 months of this "new normal" we're all living with, I was determined to try my best to bring the fun back to Halloween for them.
Although things are different this year, that doesn't mean they can't still be fun and enjoyable in new ways - and so I set about looking for ideas to help us to enjoy Halloween as a family.
You may remember that earlier this year, we worked with MAOAM's Mischief Hub to enjoy some family fun time with their suggested pranks and games - we had such a great time, so I've called upon the Mischief Hub once again to help me bring the fun back to Halloween 2020!
WHAT IS THE MAOAM MISCHIEF HUB & HOW CAN IT HELP?MAOAM, creators of some of the UK’s favourite sweets including the MAOAM Stripe and Pinballs, have put togetherMAOAM's Mischief Hub. It’s a brilliant online resource bursting with ideas and inspiration for injecting some fun and laughter into your family time.
It features MAOAM's super fun mascot – Max, The Mischief Maker, as well as
renowned Prank Masters Dick & Dom who guide us through some fun and
creative Mischief Mission videos!
My kids are big fans of Dick & Dom so they love checking the Mischief Hub to see what they've been up to.
There are lots of ideas for games, pranks and activities you can enjoy as a family - with some suggestions for Halloween fun too!
WHAT HALLOWEEN MISCHIEF DID WE GET UP TO?
First up, we decided to have a go at some good old fashioned Halloween crafting following the MAOAM Mischief Hub's suggestion of using toilet roll tubes to make bats and pumpkins!The children really love to craft and it's the perfect way to spend a rainy Saturday afternoon.For this activity, we didn't need much other than some orange and black paint, black card to make the bat wings, a glue stick, some googly eyes, a green pipe cleaner and a black marker pen - and some toilet roll tubes of course!
The children got busy painting their toilet rolls - to make the pumpkin we simply added some googly eyes, coloured in a mouth and added a bit of green pipe cleaner for a stalk.
For the bats, we added googly eyes - cut out some ear and wing shapes, and glued them on.
We added some string so that the children could hang them up - it was a really fun way to spend half an hour, and they look so cute hanging up in the living room.
After our craft session, we decided to play a little Halloween challenge game.
We challenged the children to show us their best zombie walks, best creepy spider crawls, and their best spooky dances - the winner of each challenge won a MAOAM Stripe! This was such a fun and easy game but kept them entertained for ages. They particularly loved wearing their Halloween costumes to play!
This year we also decided to make the most of Halloween by having our first ever Halloween tree - this was great fun for the little ones to help decorate, and it was pretty inexpensive too. We got a small black Christmas tree for under £15 and decorated it with lights, tinsel and orange baubles from the pound shop, so we spent less than £20 for the whole thing.
We also decided to adorn it with some MAOAM treats too!
Finally, we decided that if we can't go trick or treating this year - we can have a trick or treat treasure hunt at home instead!
I made some clues on the computer, printed them off and dotted them around the house for the children to find and follow - some of the buckets contained a trick (plastic bugs, oobleck or cold baked beans!) and some contained a treat (MAOAM Stripes, of course!)
This is a really fun any-weather alternative to trick or treating for Halloween.
MAOAM'S MISCHIEF HUB GOES ON TOUR!
MAOAM and Capital FM will be going on tour across the country this month to spread some Halloween cheer - there'll be a Mischief Manor including a spooky hall of mirrors and even a zombie photo wall! And of course, there'll be free MAOAM treats too!
The event will follow current government guidelines with social distancing measures in place, use of Track & Trace and of course hand sanitiser stations available.
Check out the tour map below, and be sure to head along for some spooky fun! You can find out more by following MAOAM on Facebook @ MAOAM_UK, Twitter @OfficialMAOAM and Instagram @MAOAM_UK.
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