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Halloween and Fall are one of my favorite times of the years. I celebrated long before I had a kid. I decorated my home, cooked soups, and watched my favorite fall films. So for me the only thing that has changed is now I have other people with whom I can share the season. Fun and lowkey things to do:

• Hot cocoa walks.  My daughter and I love walking through the neighborhood looking at the leaves change colors and our neighbor’s seasonal decorations—Halloween, Christmas and Thanksgiving. We also like homemade cocoa with whip cream and sprinkles.  Sometimes we take the hot cocoa on a drive and explore nearby neighborhoods.
• Set the stage…decorate. I include my kids in this.  She does get a veto on Halloween items that are too scary.  As of last year, we do not take out our pair of mini skeletons.  She also likes to have some in her room—the shiny black cat.  I start early.  We only have 3 months of holidays and I do not see anything wrong with frontloading or backloading the holiday by starting early or ending late.  Ideas for decor:
  1. My favorite it shiny spiders I got from Walmart sometime ago. They are not scary. I make a trail of them around the house. I also have some soft fuzzy type. A funny story about this: my niece came over during Halloween one year. She was about 3 and insisted on sleeping with the spiders like they were a stuffed animal. She loved them. I believe Michaels also has these.
  2. This year I also invested in floating candles. It is battery operated and can be controlled with the remote control. There is some amount of work with this. The kit comes with it. This purchase is not a regret. It has a upgraded my living room. It is not creepy or eerie–just feels more magical. My daughter loves turning them on and off. Buy this item
• Eat outdoors.  My kids always wants to eat outside.  We have a covered patio screened in with netting but it has a clear roof.  I wanted it this way so it does not keep away the daylight from the interior tea room adjacent to it.  However, it makes the outdoor patio feel like a greenhouse during the summer and provides no insulation in the winter. Fall and Spring to me are the only seasons the patio is tolerable weather, and we use extensively.
• Crafts/Projects.   If baking is not your thing, try something else. I know the obvious things to do is carve a pumpkin. I don’t enjoy this. It is messy and I just don’t have the patience. I prefer other forms of art.  Michaels has inexpensive Halloween ceramics and some have lights.  The whole family can paint their own.  Then you can have a keepsake that won’t rot. We placed ours in the front window. This year I have been working with Glow in the Dark Paint. This year I have been working with glow in the dark paint. Purchase here.

• Change the menu.  Changing up the routine seasonally works for us.  We have something to look forward to each season that does not become the same old same old. Retire your menu seasonally—restaurants do it all the time. It keeps things fresh.
  1. Seasonal Treats. Surround yourself with Pumpkin/Gingerbread flavors. Big soft Ginger cookies and pumpkin bread. I make pumpkin bread every year. It makes my house smell so good. Don’t feel guilty about baking too many sweets—it is the season of sharing. That is part of the fun to share the treats with neighbors, friends and family.
  2. Soups. Not sure why, but daughter loves the idea of soup. She loves soups with a lot of broth-clear broth. We love chicken corn soup. It is a delicate soup that is a fusion dish based off the egg drop soup.  I am not a fan of the recipes out there. I may be adding my own soon, but the soup is simple made of chicken, corn, broth and egg. People usually season with tabasco, vinegar and soy sauce at the end.  
  3. Homemade Chicken Pot Pie.  The recipe I have is from this old book I had called Southern Basics. It has parsnips, mushrooms and peas.  The base broth recipe is flavorful and has a bit of a kick. I make extra and use it in other soups.  This is a long recipe. I usually make the broth a day ahead and use pastry puff instead of making my own.
  4. Shepherd’s Pie. I have seen numerous recipes that used cauliflower in place of potatoes. For me cauliflower is not a substitute for potatoes, flour, or rice.  Although I like cauliflower mash, the texture does not work for me.  So I mix it with mashed potatoes. My shepherd’s pie topping is half potato and half cauliflower.  I make them separately and combine. Soups Shepherd’s Pie and Chicken Pot Pie are dishes my daughter gobbles up.
• Create the ambiance with fuzzy socks, scented candles, music and a fireplace. My husband thinks you should not turn on the fireplace when it is very cold outside. I disagree. Fireplaces, at least ours, are not very efficient when it is very cold outside. I am all for Bonfires outside. Everyone now has Google and Alexa, you can always request them to play themed music. I ask Alexa to play Halloween music or Fall Music. Kick back, relax and take in the season.
• Care Packages. This is good for older kids in high school/college or grandparents/other relatives. I used to send my brothers care packages when the were in colleges. Even if your kid is the “mama stay away” type, people including college students love receiving personal packages full of goodies. During Covid, my daughter and I created them for her grandparents.  I did these for my siblings when they were in college before exams.  I believe homemade packages with cards attached are special.  They are fun to make and more memorable then prepackaged gift sets, and they make the receiver feel special. Here are some items of my favorite care package items:
  • Fuzzy socks
  • Aromatherapy—soaps, candles, and lotions.
  • Baked goods
  • Instant soups/snacks (college students)
  • Pictures in frames (grandparents)
  • Coffees/tea/cocoa
  • Specialty hard candy (lemon drops)
  • Specialty snacks.
• Storytime with Halloween tales.  Like the menu, I change up the reading list with the season.  Here are some of my favorite Halloween tales:
  • EEK! Halloween! By Sandra Boynton
  • The Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid of Anything. By Linda Williams, illustrated by Megan Lloyd
  • Room on the Broom
  • The Itsy Bitsy Pumpkin By Sonali Fry Illustrated by Sanja Rescek
  • Halloween Night By Marjorie Dennis Murray, Illustrated by Brandon Dorman
  • Where’s the Witch by Ingela Arrhenius
• Fall Gardening. For a kid there is something magical about planting a seed and having it transform into something bigger. My husband plants year around and our daughter participates, and yes, we eat what we plant and share with friends and relatives. One year my husband planted pumpkins. Pumpkins are beautiful vine plant that look very much like what I remember from Cinderella. The pumpkin pictures you are seeing are from our garden. You have to plan ahead and find out the winter plants that will grow in your region. We planted eggplant, and squash. I also like planting red, orange and yellow flowering plants. I planted fall colored Zinnias in our front yard last year. They brightened up our front yard. They are annuals. I thought they died, but they came back this year. Black cat petunias, and purple flowering plants are also fall plants that add to the decor. I have to confess, I am a Eva Gabor of the planting world. It is my husband’s passion. I just benefit from it.