What a great tradition it would be to start an annual Halloween Disco (note to cultural purists: you may want to stop reading now!).

Like it or loathe it, Halloween is here to stay.

This year is perfect, as Halloween itself falls on a Saturday night. I don’t think it matters in other years though, you can either run the disco on whichever night Halloween falls, or the closest Friday or Saturday night.

Here’s a cool idea for the trick-or-treat part of it.

Get all parents to bring in a bag or two of wrapped lollies or novelty toys. In various locations around the room, have a number of parents dressed up as spooky creatures with a stash of lollies to hand out. Divide the kids up into groups, and have them (in as much order as you can manage!) go around the room to attend to their trick-or-treating.

On the other hand, you might want to ban tricks, and kids might pull something ‘dazzling’ out of their hats to impress their mates!

The alternative is to hand out a lolly bag when the child arrives and purchases their tickets (easier, but who needs easy?!?)

If you are totally a sucker for punishment, there are also some pretty cool games that you can set up. 

On a completely separate note, an idea I have done with my kids for many years is to distribute a note in your neighbourhood with a balloon and a piece of string. The note will say that you will be trick-or-treating on Halloween and if they are happy for you to come to their door, to please blow up the balloon and leave it on their fence. Also invite other families to also trick-or-treat to houses with balloons. It’s fantastic, as it respects the right of grumpy purists (ok, they’re not all grumpy!) to avoid the door knocking, and it means that kids can go with confidence up to doors they know are friendly and prepared.

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BONUS HIDDEN TIP: HALLOWEEN GAMES

• Turn the daddy into a mummy (using toilet paper)
• Turn anyone into a mummy – with a 60 second time limit
• Sensory boxes with goopy eyes and brains
• Haunted house (if you have one left over from a fete or can borrow one!)
• Pumpkin bowling

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