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31 ways to safely celebrate Halloween this year

While the holiday will look different this year, you can still keep the Halloween spirit alive.

AUSTIN, Texas — COVID-19 has changed businesses, events, traveling and pretty much everything that exists in 2020. Halloween will look different this year, but it’s not canceled. You can still celebrate, but you’ll just have to get creative.

This could also be an opportunity to find new traditions that will carry on after coronavirus has gone.

Here are some ways that you can still celebrate Halloween. 

1. Halloween scavenger hunt

On Easter you hunt for eggs, so why not do the same concept for Halloween? You could hide candy, pumpkins or toys from the dollar store around the house.

2. Bake Halloween goodies

Make pumpkins out of Rice Krispies treats. Decorate cupcakes or cookies. Buy baked goods from the grocery store and turn them into monsters. Make spooky cake pops.

3. Put up a Halloween tree

Trees don’t only have to be dedicated to Christmas. Decorate a tree with Halloween items like spider webs, bugs, candy, witch hats and ghosts.

4. Dress up and throw a Zoom party

Dressing up is the best part of Halloween. Get those costumes on and show them off in a Zoom party with your friends.

5. Dress up and have a costume fashion show

You could make a runway and have everyone take turns showing their costumes.

6. Watch Halloween movies

There are so many great Halloween movies to watch, including "Harry Potter," "Monsters, Inc.," "Nightmare Before Christmas," "Halloweentown," "Hocus Pocus," "It’s the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown," "Casper," "The Addams Family," "Beetlejuice," "Ghostbusters" and "Goosebumps."

7. Trick-or-treat at home

Have your kids knock on bedroom doors in costumes and give out candy.

8. Have a dance party

There are a ton of fantastic spooky songs that will keep the kids dancing the night away.

9. Make your own haunted house

Choose a room in your home and fill it up with spooky stuff for your kids to walk through.

10. Dress up your stuffed animals or dolls

Make little costumes and invite them to your party.

11. Halloween pinata

You can buy one or make one yourself.

12. Halloween game night

Use toilet paper to turn someone into a mummy, play pin-the-wart-on-the-witch or just play the board game Clue. You could also create your own games for Halloween, like tossing candy into red Solo cups.

13. Have a Halloween photo booth

Create a Halloween backdrop and your own props and set up a camera to take pictures.

14. Bob for doughnuts

Hang doughnuts on some yarn from a clothesline or tree and have the kids try to get a mouthful. No hands!

15. Go to a drive-thru haunted house

It's a socially distant way to still get scared

16. Make ghost garland

All you need to make them is white yarn, scissors and either a black marker or googly eyes.

17. Decorate pumpkins

A classic Halloween activity that has many options, you can carve pumpkins, paint them or marble them using nail polish.

18. Make spider webs to put on your walls

All you need is black yarn for the web and pipe cleaners to create the spiders. You could also buy plastic spiders from the store.

19. Decorate every door in your home

Turn each door into a monster, or wrap spider webs and caution tape around them to make them look spooky.

20. Put spooky statues on your shelves

Take a visit to Goodwill and pick out some animal or human figurines. Spray paint them black and paint the eyes red.

21. Make yarn pumpkins

All you need is orange yarn and green pipe cleaners.

22. Have a caramel apple bar

Dip your green apples into caramel and have different toppings like candy, Oreos or sprinkles for people to add to their apples.

23. Tell ghost stories

Turn the lights out and get a flashlight to hold under your face while you tell spooky stories around the fireplace.

24. Check out Art Heist at the Paramount Theatre

This is an interactive downtown walking theater show happening Oct. 14 through Oct. 31.

25. Decorate facemasks

Buy a plain facemask and turn it into a Halloween-themed mask by painting or adding stickers.

26. Check out a drive-in movie

There are a bunch of options in Central Texas to see a Halloween-themed movie.

27. Play Halloween bingo

Print bingo cards online or create your own. Buy little prizes for winners.

28. Try out a virtual escape room

Some escape rooms are offering a virtual option, or you can find escape room games online.

29. Camp out under the moon

Halloween is a great night to get the tent and sleeping bags out and sleep under the moon and stars.

30. Visit a pumpkin patch

There are many pumpkin patches around Central Texas offering socially distant fun.

31. Celebrate all day

Halloween finally falls on a Saturday this year. Start your day with a Halloween-themed breakfast and set up activities for the entire day. You can even let the kids stay up a little later than usual because there’s no school the next day!

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