How To Create a Backyard Trick or Treating Village
Published on October 8, 2020 | Last Updated on January 18, 2022
Piper started talking about trick or treating months ago and while it won’t look the same this year, I still want to make it special for her! We decided to have a few friends over and created socially-distant trick or treating on RainBOO Road!
I know everyone has mixed feelings about how to celebrate this year. I’m obviously not a medical professional, and if you’re considered high risk for COVID, I wouldn’t recommend this project or hosting. But we decided as a family to keep exposure down but not isolate ourselves. I always feel more comfortable with a small group of friends outside, so that’s what we’re doing for Halloween. I wanted to give Piper and her friends the experience of trick or treating but eliminate strangers’ exposure.
How to Make your own Backyard Trick or Treating Village
The blank cardboard houses are from Zulily and unfortunately, they’re no longer available. But I found a few other options below on Amazon! You could also use an existing playhouse or make your own out of the amazon boxes you have laying around!
Where To Buy Playhouse
- Blank Playhouse
- Doodle Playhouse (on sale!!)
- Unicorn Playhouse
House Supplies
- Craft paint and brushes
- Hot glue gun
- Paper cups for lights
- White post-it notes for windows
The houses were already white so I only had to paint accents like the doors, roof, and planters for the porches. For the windows, I outlined the edges of post-it notes then created a cross down the center. Once the doors dried I used my hot glue gun to attach the windows.
For the porch lights, I cut small paper cups in half and glued the edges to either side of the door. If you have a craft cutter you can cut out house numbers for the houses or buy numbers from the craft store!
I wanted each house to be a different color of the rainbow and I left the permanent decor pretty generic. I can fold them up to store in the attic and bring out for other projects and playdates later on!
How To Make the Houses Spooky
To get each house Halloween ready, I added spiderwebs and spiders from Dollar Tree. My friend Tiffany, the magic-maker behind Glamfetti created color-specific balloon garlands to come out of the cauldrons in between each house. She also made the cute little bats for the houses. We used removable glue dots so the decorations wouldn’t damage the houses.
I put a cauldron with a different type of candy, activities like bubble wands, small slime containers, and stickers from Target. The kiddos would go inside the house to get their candy but I might mix it up a bit for actual Halloween. Fingers crossed a few of the parents won’t mind sitting in each house to make the trick or treating seem more realistic!
All in all, the kids had a blast with our backyard trick or treating party, running from each house to see what was inside! What are your plans for Halloween?
Photos by Kate Robinson Photography
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