by Sas Freeman

Created on: October 21, 2009

What a fun time of year, Halloween. What other time of year do the adults in your neighborhood act like the children. Adults and children alike dress up. Many adults go with their children trick-or-treating, partly for the kids and the other partto go trick-or-treating. Most of the other adults and some of the younger generations that are just too old to go trick-or-treating hand out candy. And to top off the holiday is the parties and decorations throughout the yards.

Not all of the fun is just on Halloween night though. How about the crafts that the family works on together up until that fun night? Here are some craft ideas the family can partake in.

Making the costumes.

It is fun to go to the store and pick out a costume to wear for Halloween, but it is more fun to mix and match items to come up with the perfect costume. Say the seven year old daughter wants to dress up as her favorite music singer. Sure, there is probably an outfit on the shelf, but wouldn't it be much more fun to let her walk through the clothing section and find pants and a shirt that looks very similar to her idea of the singer. Then there is a trip through the hair accessories isle to finish any extras. And of course, if her hair is a different color then the singers, there are wigs and hairsprays that are sold specially for Halloween. You can do this for every child and adult that is dressing up. On Halloween, you can enjoy working together to make the ensemble look just right. The best part of this is after Halloween, anyone that dressed up will have an extra outfit to mix and match with the rest of their wardrobe; unless it is stained or ripped for the Halloween costume.

Decorating the yard and house.

Many people would be amazed at how fast decorations can be made. There are many fun decorations to make at home that will not cost you an arm and a leg like the store decorations. One decoration is mini ghosts that hang from the trees. These are simple and fun to make. You will need a white garbage bag, old paper, and string. Cut the garbage bag into squares. They do not all have to be the same size. Different sized squares will make different sized ghosts. You will also want to cut your string into lengths long enough to hang the ghosts from. Place a small wad of paper in the middle of a square and pull the square up around it. Tie one end of a piece of string around the square as close to the wad of paper as possible. This will keep the paper in place and will provide your hanging mechanism. The ghost isn't finished yet. You will want to draw some eyes on the ghost with a permanent marker. Repeat this with the rest of the squares. Once this is done, hang them from the trees.

You can also make a large spider to cover the front yard, a fence, or to hang off of your ceiling inside the house. Take a large trash bag and fill it with those beautiful fall leaves that are filling up your yard. Once this is done, close up the end tightly. You do not want it popping open. You might even want to reassure the end is closed with black duct tape. Now take a length of at least two more garbage bags and secure them to the sides of the bag you just filled. You do not need to fill the new bags. Do this until you have all of the legs of your spider connected. If you are using individual bags, you can duct tape the bags together. Your spider is now complete; all you need to do is find the perfect spot and prop his legs so he looks just right.

Have a happy Halloween and enjoy the family.

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