Happy Halloween

Hello everyone, welcome to our Halloween edition. I thought we would have a little fun this weekend so here is a little bit of Halloween randomness. I've put together some fun food ideas as well as what you can do with leftover pumpkin and some simple to make decorations.

Is it just me or has this year gone so fast? It seems that summer disappeared in the blink of an eye. I hope you found some of my last activity ideas helpful over the holidays and here I am back again with a few more fun things you can do this Weekend with the kids in preparation for a spooky time.

Halloween is an annual festival many people celebrate. It originates from the Celtic festival of Samhain. This festival marked the end of the harvest year and was said to be a time where the boundary between the spirit world and ours was very thin. People would light bonfires and wear costumes to ward off unwelcome spirits. 

Now we have come to celebrate this occasion mostly in a much less serious way, but the costumes and bonfires are still very popular on this day. 

So if you fancy celebrating this festival, why not have a bit of fun creating your own spooky party.

Here are some simple food ideas that you can make with the kids without any special equipment.  

1- Spider sandwiches.

A super simple idea, make up your sandwich as usual. then use a round surface such as a cup or glass to cut around to make a circle shape. Add legs using any slim edible stick like food such as twiglets, fizzy laces or Mikado chocolate sticks. Finally add some eyes, you can use anything, smarties, cut up olives or even just a small blob of ketchup or chocolate spread. Use foods that go well together... unless your being super spooky and want a cheese spread and fizzy laces sandwich! 

2 - Ghostly bananas

Cut a banana into half so you have two pieces that stand upright. add eyes and a mouth using a small readymade icing tube you can buy in most supermarkets. Its that easy. If you wanted to, you could dip them in chocolate or add a lolly stick to make them easy to hold. You could even freeze them to make an ice lolly.

3- Spooky cookies.

Make any cookie recipe you like. We chose gingerbread as its quite firm to cut. Choose the designs you want, you can make a template from paper if you need to. Then cut out the shapes you like using a butter knife. Cook as per instruction and decorate with simple icing. Ghosts, pumpkins and bats are very easy to do. 

Now its time for the decorations...

Decorating pumpkins, you can carve pumpkins or decorate them. We love to decorate our own with some eyes and mouths. They can be as scary as you like and a lot easier to draw on faces then carve for littler ones. The great thing about leaving it intact, is you can use the pumpkin to eat after the day. Why not try Pumpkin Pie or Pumpkin Soup with the flesh. And find out here how to cook the seeds to make a tasty snack.

Alternatively, you could paint your own pumpkins.

 

     

Use cups and bowls to draw around to make the pumpkin shape, then cut them out and paint them. Add a little stalk and wait for them to dry. You can then paint or draw on your spooky faces. We used an old cereal box to make ours.

Got some toilet roll or kitchen roll tubes? Cut them into smaller tubes and cut out some wing shapes using some more paper or card. Paint black, stick on the wings and hey presto you've got some adorable little bats! 

There are loads of resources online for fun, easy to make Halloween decorations. We found some brilliant ideas here.

Last but not least, add your favourite costume and you are ready for your party guests.

Thanks for reading and have a fantastic day whatever you decide to do this Halloween.

With Love,

Rainbow Nation Clothing.

XXX