10 No contact trick or treating ideas for 2020. 10 creative & fun social distancing safe ideas for trick-or-treating this Halloween.
Low Contact & Social Distancing Trick-or-Treating Ideas
Halloween and trick or treating is going to look a little differently this year with social distancing precautions and mandates.
In a neighborhood email circulating last week, I was excited to see my neighbors excited for the holiday, but also knee-deep in brainstorming creative no-contact trick of treating ideas so the holiday can go on! Many of the older folks in my neighborhood can’t wait to sit on their porch and watch children in costumes run from house to house and be giddy from the night’s festivities.
I’m excited too, because Halloween seems a “normal” part of childhood and one thing I don’t want my children to miss out on, if there’s a safe way to go about it.
We don’t need to cancel Halloween – we just need to get creative!!
I’ve pulled together a great list of low contact trick of treat ideas to set up at your house that I know costumed children will surely enjoy!
10 Safe Ideas for Trick of Treating this Halloween
Here are 10 clever alternatives to trick-or-treating this year and also for handing out candy to costumed trick-or-treaters who come to your house for a sweet treat.
1) Spookacular Neighborhood Halloween Scavenger Hunt with Candy Stations
An epic Halloween scavenger hunt will allow kids of all ages social distance fun this holiday. If you’re forgoing trick or treating, this allows you to still walk around in costumes and check out all the Halloween decorations in your neighborhood or nearby area.
Add prizes like these stretchy skeletons or candy of your own for found scavenger hunt items to add fun to this spooktacular scavenger hunt.
If you get everyone in your neighborhood to participate, you can set up various points to collect treats, Halloween candy or spooky goodies.
Download your Halloween Scavenger Hunts here.
2) Create a Candy Graveyard for Kids to Grab Candy From
This idea is absolutely genius, as well as so fun and creative!
Create a candy graveyard in your front yard with halloween decor like ghosts, gravestones, skeletons and bones and spread the candy out next to the tombstones and other decor. You can add an extra creepy factor to it with a Fog machine, too!
Check out the fun idea from Oriental Trading.
3) Glow in the Dark Easter Eggs
Who says eggs hunts are just for Easter?
You can buy Halloween themed or plastic orange eggs, or reuse plastic Easter Eggs you may already have on hand. Fill the eggs with candy, stickers, glow sticks, Halloween themed tattoos, or small prizes and put them in your yard. If you want them to glow at night when it gets dark, make sure you put snapped glow sticks or rings inside so they’re illuminated!
4) Create a Candy Chute
Andrew Beattie, a creative Cincinnati dad, invented a candy chute for contactless trick-or-treating, and I think this is such an easy idea anyone can pull off!
He used an old Amazon delivery tube for it, but you could use any old tube you have for maps, pictures, even fishing rods, and said it only took 20 minutes to create and attach to his front stairs. Now he just has to drop treats from the top into candy bags or buckets below!
5) Create a Venus Fly Trap to Hold Halloween Candy on your Fence or Mailbox
I love all the creative ideas I see online and this one is my personal favorite!
If you want to set out a candy holder on your fence or attached to your mailbox out front (or really anything you can affix it to), then this candy holder is brilliant and festive!
The venus fly trap holder may look complicated, but the steps to create it from The Paper Mama aren’t too bad and you don’t have to be artsy or crafty to pull this off!
6) Have a Decorated Trick or Treat Table in your Driveway
If you’re going for a no-contact and socially distanced Halloween, then it’s definitely time to ditch the traditional communal candy bowl.
Instead, set up a table or two at the end of your driveway that’s been decorated with Halloween decorations. On the table, you can hand out cups, bags Halloween treat bags, or containers or candy spread apart so there’s no touching and allows kids to grab and go. This is a fun contact-free trick or treat options for Halloween this year.
To help keep hand contact at a minimum, put candy into Halloween goodie bags or small cups and set them out on the table for grab and go Halloween candy. If you see a lot of Halloween traffic, you can also just set rows of candy out on the table – allowing you to sit back and keep your distance and have a contact-free trick or treat.
Easy decorations like white ghost face balloons, Ghostbuster table cloth, or an archway Halloween inflatable you can put a table underneath.
Oriental Trading has great ideas for a Fortune Teller Halloween Table, Ghost Halloween Table, Monster Halloween Table, Peanuts Halloween Table and much more.
7) Create a Halloween Candy Hedge
If you have some extra time on your hand, this DIY candy hedge is super creative and absolutely a great idea!
Once you create your hedge following the instructions from Oriental Trading here, then you can adhere the candy with wooden clothesline clips to the faux vines on your hedge. Instead of kids taking candy from a big bowl, this allows kids to pick a piece or two from the candy wall for a socially distanced Halloween fun!
8) Have a Trick or Treat Parade
Organize a drive by parade where it’s a sort of reverse trick-or-treating. Kids can still get dressed up and stand in their yards, while adults in cars can parade through the neighborhood, or on bikes or walking, and can toss candy to kids just like they would in a Fourth of July parade.
9) Use a Halloween Grabber to Hand out Candy
You can still hand out candy, just use a fun Halloween grabber to do the work for you! This is a more personal way to hand out candy to the kids this year, but using a grabber like this Gorilla hand grabber can do the trick!
Simply use the grabber to pick up candy from the candy bowl and hand it out. Using a grabber also helps you stand back several feet so you’re far enough apart, just don’t forget your Halloween face mask for the night!
10) Set out a Sugarlicious Candy Chest
Leave a candy bounty on your front porch or driveway where kids can pick their own treasure (be sure to leave a sign to only take a few pieces!)
This idea is from Martha Stewart. She recommends filling the chest to three inches from the top with pillows, then pile on the Rolos, chocolate coins, and other foil-wrapped goodies. Top it off with colorful beads, plastic skulls, and other spoils from the high seas.
More Fun Halloween Ideas:
- Halloween Party? 24 Fun Halloween Party Games for Kids
- Two Colorful (Free Printable) Halloween Scavenger Hunts for Kids
- 45 Easy Homemade Halloween Costumes You Can Make Without Being Crafty
- Halloween Set: Halloween Activity Page & 4 Halloween Coloring Pages
- 20 Best No Carve Pumpkin Ideas & Pumpkin Painting Ideas this Halloween
- 55 Things to Do With Leftover Halloween Candy
- Healthier Candy Choices this Halloween
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