Halloween is one of my favorite holidays.  It runs a close second (neck in neck) to Christmas.  As such, I feel that it should be properly celebrated throughout the month of October.  Now that I have a preschooler, it’s even more fun participating in fall and Halloween themed activities such as local festivals, hitting up a pumpkin patch, parties, and putting together costumes.  While we adore going out and about to enjoy all that the season has to offer, I love making things festive at home, too.  One way in which I do so is by taking a weekly family tradition, such as movie night, and giving it Halloween-themed twists.

On movie nights, I like to set the tone for the evening with dinner.  For a kid-friendly meal, I made “Mummy Dogs,” which are simply hotdogs wrapped in thin strips of crescent roll dough and baked in the oven (375 degrees for 10-13 minutes).  “Spiderweb Dip” (ketchup with a mustard spiderweb design) served as a dipping sauce.  Veggies and dip, or as I called it, a “Harvest Plate,” provided a healthy and filling side dish.  The table was set with our “every day” plates, set on top of metallic orange chargers (to make it special), with Jack-o-Lantern napkins (purchased at Target).

For dessert, we enjoyed sliced apples served with caramel sauce (jarred caramel flavored ice cream topping).  Additionally, instead of traditional movie theater candy (which I like to provide for our usual movie nights), we had Halloween candy.  Finally, we had a movie night staple—homemade popcorn.  To serve everything, I used black cauldron bowls in various sizes, purchased from Crate & Barrel.

I like to deck our house out in (non-scary) Halloween decorations, which helps set the atmosphere for events like this.  Candles were lit, lights were dimmed, and glow necklaces were given as a special treat for the little guy.  My husband had been tasked with keeping our son out of the room while I set up.  When I called them in to begin the festivities, my son looked around in wide-eyed wonder and said, “ Oh, it’s so beautiful!  Thank you, Mommy!”  Every effort was worth it for that reaction.

My son is a big fan of “Toy Story” right now, so our featured film was “Toy Story of Terror.”  However, some other good kid-friendly movie options for a Halloween movie night include “Hocus Pocus,” “Bedknobs and Broomsticks,” “The Worst Witch,” “The Goonies,” “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” (Disney version), “Beetlejuice,” “It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown,” and “Garfield’s Halloween Special.”  I’m sure there are many more, but these are just a few that come to mind.

🕸🕷🎃 HAPPY HALLOWEEN! 🎃🕷🕸