Does anyone do any sort of a Halloween party for the kids? I typically do, but I have a very young group this year. I have from 14 months to 3 years old. One of my new moms wants to come to the party and "take pictures" I dont' know what she's going to take pictures of with the kids being so little, they won't even understand what day it is. Is anyone else doing a party for that age?

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Here are some threads on Halloween Party: https://www.daycare.com/forum/tags.p...loween+-+party

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I do have a party, but I would never let a parent come and take pictures of any of the kids. Only their own. reason is that I have no idea what they are going to do with the pictures and they also do not have the permission from the parents to take the kids photos.

The kids may or may not enjoy it and I think it will be based off of their costumes and your events. Ask parents not to send them in something that will be over whelming or uncomfortable. Like one year I had a parent send a child dressed as a table full of food...poor kid could not move.

keep it simple and have a good time. we do all kinds of things for all ages. But my youngest is 18 months.....

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I have a unique situation with my families. Most of them already know each other and each others kids. All of my families came to me by current customer referrals. I just have never had anyone want to come to the party before. It's not going to be anything crazy as the ages are 15 months, 16 months, 18 months, 2- 2 yr olds and 2- 3 year olds. I'm also doing it after Halloween. Last year it was so stressful to have 6 little ones with their costumes on before Halloween and making sure that nothing got ripped or stained. Said this year it's going to be after, so that takes the pressure off.

A table of food? UGH, poor kid LOL!

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NOPE.

I am closed that day.

I HATE Halloween.

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Bwa ha ha!! I knew you were smart

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Nah, if I were REALLY smart, I would have closed the next day.

I hate dealing with those nasty candy-hangovers the kids have when parents let them go hog wild with their treats.

I do actually have a standard letter I send out every year at Halloween saying that if any child has any symptoms of a "candy-hangover" that I WILL be calling and having them picked up to go home. Seriously I do.

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Im sure we will do something small with cupcakes, and of course they are welcome to come dressed up as long as they can expect to get dirty

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I love that. I wish that the whole country would celebrate and trick or treat on the Saturday that is closest to October 31. I hate it when it's during the week and you have school and work etc. Have it on a Saturday that way the kids can sleep in the next day and we don't have to deal with it.

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Are you absolutely sure you hate it? I thought you would love it being your special day-


I'm absolutely trying to plan it strategically this year. Of course it falls on our getting out of school early day. Parties will be rushed at school and everything will be caotic I'm sure.

Then last year I had parents upset because their kids wouldn't take naps (the saga never ends) and of course most fell asleep by 5:30 and didn't want to trick or treat.

I do think I will be closing around 4:00 though so we can go to hubs work, do the parade and get to homes earlier.

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Nope, pretty sure I hate it.

I was 6 when I figured out the holiday really wasn't for me.... and anyone who really thinks it is necessary to make a cake that has black frosting on it should be forced to walk through a haunted house alone at night and also bob for apples until they can't see straight any more.

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It's one of my favorite holidays - behind Christmas and Thanksgiving. My sil has already decorated the outside, I'll do the inside this weekend.

We don't really do a party or make it that much more special here. I try to have all the kids gone by 4:30 so I can go to my daughter's house. The association over there provides hot dogs and soda.

Hey, we were married on the 4th of July. Do you mean to tell me that all of the fireworks, parades, and picnics aren't for us?????

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LOVE halloween here. My absolute favorite. We might do something small, not sure yet.

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I LOVE Halloween! I didn't really care about it before having children, but my children (especially my oldest) absolutely Halloween. As a result, I love making it extra special. Starting in a week and a half, we will start our "human body" theme which lasts 2 weeks (to go along with skeletons). For the week of Halloween, we will be doing the Halloween activities. Then on the 31st, I usually try to make my party as low key as possible. I put a table cloth and centerpiece (from the dollar store, both of which are reused annually until they are disintegrated) on the preschool table, I give each child a goody bag (only ~3 cheap toys + a balloon) and that's what they play with throughout the day. I may take out an activity we normally don't play or a new game. We skip our school activities and make our daily walk into a parade. The kids all come dressed in regular clothes with their costume in a bag. During our walk, we put on the costumes (myself included) and "parade" around the neighborhood. I let the parents know that we will be doing all of this in case they want to send a different costume or have me provide one (to avoid ruined costumes before the night). Then I serve food that is Halloween-inspired (but still healthy). I usually don't serve any sweets all day.

I have found that a party doesn't have to be anything crazy or special. Take out a new toy or give them each something super cheap and it literally will entertain them for the entire day. Add in some different food and you have a party!

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its a mixed bag for me....I love the dress up.hate the getting and giving candy part......believe this...I gave out almonds last year............lol

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This is my first year with a young crowd too but I LOVE Halloween. My plan includes:
having them dress up
simple craft
decorate cupcakes (i make the cupcakes day before)
have some type of obstacle course outside (more like tents and tunnels)
have them fill their own treat bags
and Halloween themed cartoon movie
I also have a bunch of wigs and masks from previous cotumes that I will let them use for dress up play

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I do Halloween BIG

It is my favorite holiday. It is all about the kids (no grownups allowed ), I don't have to cook/host a big meal, nobody asks to sleep at my house, no gift giving chaos, the cleanup is minimal and everyone goes home early.

I will serve midnight (hazelnut) butter and boo berry sandwitches (blue berry jam, cookie cutter witch), grinning apple slices (with mini marshmallows between the slices) and wormy slime (gummy worms & yogurt). It is my worst menu ever, but boy is it fun!!

What could be better???

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Sounds like fun!! I do have a question though for everyone. I have a new family now. The little boy is 16 months old and the mom mentioned a week ago about the party saying that she would like to come and take pictures at the party. She asked if anyone else did that and i told her no, they are all working. She said she feels bad because she never runs into the other parents because of the time that she drops off. Guess she thought I had some huge party with the parents invited. For the age group that I have, I'm keeping it pretty simple. I have a 14 month old 16 mo, 18 mo, two 2 yr olds and two 3 yr olds. So, half of my kids won't even understand what day it is. I really don't need her taking pictures. I don't want to be ignorant about it though. Any tips?

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I have had this mom

Offer to take pictures for her. Let her know no one else will be attending because it is too stressful on the kids. If the other kids kids are nervous because of the stranger in the room, if hers is crying for mom, etc the pictures will not be authentic of the fun they would normally be having.

One DCM pushed and pushed so I told her to come on and try it her way with the caveat that if her child started crying and ruining the photos for everyone else, they'd have to leave until after the party. She came, they had to leave, and her child was not in the photos for that party. Never happened again.

It was frustrating, but sometimes you have to let them see it for themselves. Technically we are required to let them in whenever their child is in our care.

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I LOVE HALLOWEEN! So much so that hubs and I got married on Halloween

We always have a little costume party (all my kiddos are 3 and under), decorate cookies, have some treats and take lots of pictures. Everyone goes home with a treat bag!
As with all of our parties, no parents are allowed!

I don't mind the kids the day after. I expect everyone to be a little off. If it's extreme, I'm like Cat and will send home (though, I don't have a letter stating I will...maybe I should )

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How do you get your parents to not show up? I've never had anyone ask before so I'm not sure how to handle it. I know that this dcb will throw a tizzy if his mom comes and leaves. Plus with the age group that I have it's going to be the type of party that I'll do what I feel they can handle for the day. I might have great plans, but if they're all crabby then maybe we'll do one thing. Would be different if I had a 4 yr old preschool. This is such a young crowd.

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That's a good idea about telling her that she'll have to split with the kid if he starts being a stinker, which I know he will with her here. I think maybe too I might do a party flier saying something like if everyone leaves me their emails, I will gladly send out pictures of the party. Maybe that will give her the hint.

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I'm not doing much. I just have 2 kids right now-siblings 25 mo and 8 mo. I'll decorate, but probably not much else. It seems silly to do the costume thing when there is no one to see her. It's not like costumes are a big thing-we went to the park in a princess dress a couple of weeks ago. We are big on costumes around here right now.

DCK and all of her little cousins will come to my house early on their rounds. Hubby and I will be in costume and have special goody bags for all of them. This is subject to change if I manage to fill my open spot with an older child.

I can't remember off-hand, but we had either 300 or 500 kids last year. I'll have to look it up before we go candy shopping.

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If a parent asked to come, I would simply tell them that it's a kid-only event (except for me, of course!) and in order to keep things running smoothly I require that parents not attend - and that I will send photos. I then recommend that if they want to have a special day with their child alone, they are more than welcome They usually understand.

If a parent just showed up unnanounced I would call for little Johnny and say "Johnny, your mom is here early for you today!! Come and get your shoes on!" LOL.

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I LOVE Halloween! Last year we had a party and all the parents sent treats. (I sent out a letter the day before about the party and welcoming them to send treats. I fixed several different treats and dressed up like a witch. We decorated our garage and the kids listened to spooky music, ate treats, played pin the broom on the witch and bobbed for apples. They all brought their costumes and looked precious! My husband came come from work early and helped with the festivities. It was a lot of fun. Also a lot of work on my part and I'm pretty sure most of the kids were too young to remember it! I'm planning something small this year. Dress up, make cupcakes and spooky punch, watch a Halloween video maybe....

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We are going to have a little party where the kids can wear thier non-scary costumes. I am going to wear a costume for the first time in years. So far the only thing I kind of have planned is to make pumpkin sugar cookies. I will probably find a holiday kind of craft and game and maybe a short special video.

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Have them come in regular clothes, and change into costumes at a certain time for a neighborhood parade - and if you have other kids int he neighborhood, spread the word!

Color pumpkin coloring book pages, paint mini pumpkins, have orange tissue paper squares cut up and ready to be wadded and glued to a construction paper pumpkin with choices for eyes, nose and mouth already cut out.

Pumpkin flavored mini-muffins sounds like a fun treat.

Play pin the nose on the giant poster-board pumpkin (Or felt?)

Check out Pinterest for craft ideas.

And include in the letter home ahead of time that they WILL get messy that day, they need clothes other than their costumes. Tell the parents you can have them dressed in their costumes for photos with their craft projects at the end of the day, if that's what the parent wants.

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