• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
Peanut Blossom
  • Start Here
  • Family Recipes
  • Book Club
  • My Cookbooks
    • Facebook
    • Instagram
    • Pinterest
    • Twitter
menu icon
go to homepage
subscribe
search icon
Homepage link
  • Start Here
  • Family Recipes
  • Book Club
  • My Cookbooks
    • Facebook
    • Instagram
    • Pinterest
    • Twitter
  • ×

    Home » Blog » Halloween

    10 Best Fall Activities for Kids

    Published: Nov 4, 2013 · Modified: Sep 27, 2021 by Tiffany Dahle · This post may contain affiliate links.

    2.8K shares
    • Share
    • Email Friend!

    These easy, last-minute fall activities for kids don't require a lot of planning and are perfect for procrastinators who want to make the Halloween season feel special for their families.

    Two girls stand next to a wooden sign painted to read "Honey Crisp"

    It is so easy to have time get away from you during the start of a busy fall. Settling into the new school year and figuring out your new routine with a new rotation of after school activities makes September and early October fly by in a blur.

    But sometimes, the greatest family fun happens at the last minute in a flurry of impromptu moments.

    With less than one week before Halloween one year, I glanced at the calendar and realized I had done NOTHING for my girls that was even remotely related to the season.

    I knew once November 1 hit, the focus would switch to Christmas and I couldn't stomach the idea of just completely skipping a holiday season altogether.

    I had just 7 days to make the most of fall and Halloween for my kids and it was the most fun we ever had celebrating the spooky season.

    You too can wait until nearly the very last minute and then sneak in a whole entire season's worth of fun and awesome in the span of just a few days.

    Jump to:
    • 1. Name Your Time Frame
    • 2. Find a Pumpkin Patch
    • 3. Go Apple Picking
    • 4. Set a Spooky Bubble Bath
    • 5. Have a "Creepy Crafts" Night
    • 6. Host a Halloween Costume Photo Session
    • 7. Add Something Special to Carving Pumpkins
    • 8. The Easiest "Fall Feast"
    • 9. Boo Your Neighbors
    • 10. Take Lots of Photos
    • More Fall Activities You Can't Miss
    • 💬 Comments

    1. Name Your Time Frame

    Whether you have time for a whole week or just a few days, give it a goofy name and you immediately up the "fun" factor.

    I declared ours to be "Spooky Week."

    I brainstormed one activity or event for each day and made a checklist for our seasonal bucket list chalkboard I keep in the kitchen.

    I always pad our activities bucket list a little bit by adding checkboxes for things I know we'll be eating along the way:

    • pumpkin bread for breakfast
    • apple cider at the orchard
    • caramel dip for the apples

    2. Find a Pumpkin Patch

    A festive pumpkin patch has black and orange pennant flags in the background.

    We headed to the local family farm for an event with Little Pea's school.

    We enjoyed a hay ride, picked out our pumpkins from the patch, and joined her class for pizza.

    If you don't have a real patch to go to near you, make a big deal out of a trip to the local home hardware supply store or roadside stand. Buy their popcorn or hotdogs and make it an event!

    3. Go Apple Picking

    Two girls carrying baskets walk through an apple orchard.

    We came *this* close to missing apple season altogether.

    Instead, we took our chances and hit one of the last big weekends at Sky Top Orchard in Flat Rock, NC. We ate apple cider donuts, drank fresh apple cider, picked our apples, and the girls played on the playground before we headed home.

    The lesson? It's never too late to visit the pick your own fruit orchards. Just go for it!

    If you can't go to an actual orchard, head to a local roadside stand and pick up a bag of granny smiths and make one of these awesome apple recipes.

    4. Set a Spooky Bubble Bath

    A stack of Halloween picture books sits on a bathroom counter next to a lit candle.

    This is one of my all-time favorite fall activities to do with kids.

    Fill your bathtub with oodles of bubbles, turn the bathroom lights off and light as many candles as you can find and place them on the bathroom counter.

    Read aloud a bunch of Halloween books by candlelight while your kids soak in the bubbles.

    Need inspiration for fun Halloween books to read? Check out this list of over 30 fall & Halloween books to get you started.

    Out of everything we did during "Spooky Week," I think this was my girls' favorite activity. And it isn't any harder than lighting candles.

    When you're last-minute-ing it, it is all about the presentation!

    5. Have a "Creepy Crafts" Night

    A preschooler sits at a table working on a fall art activity.

    This can be as easy as setting out fall-themed coloring pages and crayons like I did.

    If you want to put in extra effort and do a full craft, go for it. But it is all in the presentation.

    My girls came home from school to discover a festive art filled table waiting for them:

    • All the coloring pages printed and set at their place
    • Markers and colored pencils waiting in cups
    • Watercolor paints and brushes set with water cups

    They could barely contain their excitement. . . over coloring! Something they do every day.

    But it was made extra special because I set up the full invitation to creativity ahead of time.

    Don't forget to proudly hang their festive art all around your dining room for decorating for the rest of the season.

    6. Host a Halloween Costume Photo Session

    Two girls pose for Halloween costume photos in front of a black backdrop.

    Kids have such a hard time waiting to wear their costumes. My girls asked daily if it was time to try them on again.

    Since Trick or Treat comes and goes so quickly, I did a costume photo session in our living room one night.

    Because the girls weren't overly crazy about heading out the door to get candy, they were more patient with me taking pictures.

    Earlier in the day I had printed out this awesome spooky backdrop from Caravan Shop and had it printed cheaply at Staples. I taped it to our wall for our photo session.

    They had so much fun being allowed to dress up in their costumes and play in the living room for an evening and I got some of the cutest photos ever!

    7. Add Something Special to Carving Pumpkins

    A young girl sits next to her carved pumpkin on the front step.

    The key to last-minute fall fun is always trying to set the mood.

    We made our pumpkin carving night a little more special by listening to the "Family Halloween" channel on Pandora while we worked. Awesome hits like "Monster Mash", "Ghostbusters", "This is Halloween" and so many more definitely made the night more fun.

    Adding music to the pumpkin carving ended up turning the night into an impromptu dance party in the living room.

    8. The Easiest "Fall Feast"

    Two girls sit at a festive dinner table for Halloween.

    Also known as "dinner."

    You're going to feed them anyways, right?? It only takes a few extra minutes to give a regular weeknight dinner a little festive flair:

    1. Give your family dinner a fancy name: Fall Feast, Halloween Hoopla, Treats Before Tricks, etc.
    2. Serve everything up on festive paper plates and napkins.
    3. Serve apple cider as the dining beverage.
    4. Throw a couple mini pumpkins in the center of the table.
    5. Light a candle or two.
    6. Turn on that Pandora music playlist again.

    Our pre-Trick or Treat meal involved crescent roll Mummy Dogs and breadsticks made from the leftover prepared dough. They came out all misshapen and odd so I dubbed them "Bones." The girls thought it was hysterical.

    The Lesson: Silly names and a playful attitude cover most culinary mistakes.

    Looking for a few easy dinners to serve for your own fall feast? These are some of my kids' very favorites:

    • Make Ahead Mac and Cheese
    • Crispy Baked Turkey Taquitos
    • Creamy Taco Pasta Skillet
    • Easy Philly Cheesesteak Sloppy Joes

    9. Boo Your Neighbors

    • You've Been Booed! FREE Printable

    Grab your FREE You've Been Booed Starter Kit here and then get into the kitchen for a little baking fun with the kids.

    This is such a fun Halloween tradition to do in your neighborhood.

    Your kids will have so much fun baking treats for their friends.

    10. Take Lots of Photos

    A little girl dressed in a farm day outfit stands in front of her front door.

    You can easily make anything and everything a bigger deal than normal during your celebratory time frame simply by taking a few extra photos of your kids.

    Little Pea had an "On the Farm" day at preschool to celebrate fall. She was so proud of her costume she actually asked: "Take my picture mommy??"

    Pause a moment before running out the door, in the middle of the baking session, or in the middle of an art activity, and snap the picture. Your week will go fast and you'll love looking back on the festive fun later.

    A black photo backdrop has been taped to the front of a garage door.

    And the photos don't need to stop with just your kids, get the neighbors involved!

    I already had our Halloween sign printed so I just moved it outside to the front of the garage door and put a note out on Facebook tagging all my neighbors to come to our driveway for pictures.

    I recommend printing out several copies of different designs and putting them at different heights so that the bigger kids and grown-ups don't have to scrunch down and the little ones can get more than their head in the shot.

    Give your neighbors enough time to plan to come to your house early in their costumes. It is the perfect kick-off to a group Trick or Treating event.

    This photo came from my Instagram feed. If you want to be inspired by future last-minute endeavors, be sure to follow along here.

    How about you? Any other great last-minute tricks you employed to make your fall special? Leave me a note in the comments, I'd love to add it to my list next year!

    More Fall Activities You Can't Miss

    • Host a Fall Reading Picnic
    • 8 Fall Family Photo Tips
    Last Minute Fall Fun | Peanut Blossom

    More Halloween

    • Costume Photo Tips for Capturing Preschoolers

    Reader Interactions

    Comments

    1. leslie

      November 05, 2013 at 1:59 pm

      Adorable!!!! with 4 kids from 16-5 i am definitely a last minute person. this is the cutest post i've ever seen. i really like your writing and projects. I have an intermittent blog myself, and being so busy, rarely comment or even follow other blogs (i know, you're supposed to and to comment to get yourself out there, but i haven't really done that yet)
      I am only commenting on this because i truly liked it! I will follow you on pintrest and instagram too

      🙂 happy fall
      leslie

      Reply

    Trackbacks

    1. Crockpot chicken soup with spiced applesauce oat bread - Peanut Blossom says:
      September 26, 2016 at 8:45 am

      […] all the fun seasonal things into one big make-up the few days before Halloween. (Check out my Fall Procrastinator post to see […]

      Reply
    2. Procrastinator’s Halloween Week Kick-off! Last minute fun to have with your family. » Peanut Blossom says:
      October 27, 2014 at 9:13 am

      […] like last year, fall snuck past me and I realized the Sunday before Halloween that it was now or never! This is […]

      Reply
    3. They Had Me at Procrastinator | Yeager Family says:
      October 22, 2014 at 3:48 pm

      […] or the day of which means means they need to be quick and simple to pull off!  So, when I saw this blog post from Peanut Blossom featured on The Artful Parent site with the title of, Ultimate […]

      Reply
    4. How to throw an EASY Halloween party on the CHEAP!!!! - A girl and a glue gun says:
      October 21, 2014 at 12:51 pm

      […] source […]

      Reply
    5. It’s never too late to capture milestones » Peanut Blossom says:
      February 17, 2014 at 6:13 am

      […] season for this trick. What about using a sign for the first day of an annual summer camp? Or a Halloween sign? It’s an adorable way to include a caption right within your […]

      Reply

    Leave a Reply Cancel reply

    Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

    Primary Sidebar

    Hi, I'm Tiffany!
    I believe a great family recipe is one that makes everyone at the table happy, not just the kids. I'm the author of two bestselling cookbooks for kids that are chock full of recipes everyone in your family will love. I'm also the hostess of the best online book club for moms.

    More about me →

    What's Trending Now

    • The Best Easy Apple Recipes
    • The Best Salted Caramel Recipes
    • Roasted Sausages and Potatoes with Apples
    • Authentic Snicker Salad

    Popular

    • Freezer Friendly Apple Crisp
    • Best Book Club Picks for 2021
    • 10-minute Trader Joe's Meals
    • 30 School Lunch Ideas for Kids
    • 30 Quick Dinners for Busy Nights
    • Classic Beef Bolognese Sauce
    • 30 Clever Meal Train Ideas with Recipes
    • 21 Harry Potter Snacks for Movie Night

    Footer

    ↑ back to top

    About

    As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.

    • Contact
    • Privacy Policy
    • Disclaimer

    Favorites

    • Bread Recipes
    • Soup Recipes
    • Quick Dinner Recipes
    • Harry Potter Fan Club
    • Reading with Kids

    Holidays

    • Easter Recipes
    • 4th of July Recipes
    • Catholic Celebrations
    • Thanksgiving Recipes
    • Christmas Recipes & Ideas

    Copyright © 2022