Finally! Halloween lands on a Sunday! Forget the mad dash out of work, harried fast food dinner, and stress of getting your child crammed into costume just in time for trick-or-treating. This Halloween, you can really savor the fun with your little ones with this leisurely all-day agenda.

MORNING

Rise and shine! If you’re an overachiever mom or dad, you may want to dress in costume when you wake the kids; as long as it’s nothing too scary, they’ll think it’s a hoot! Surprise the kids further with a macabre breakfast of Spiced Ghost Pancakes served with a side of banana ghosts and clementine pumpkins.

Now it’s play time! Halloween games include “Pop Goes the Pumpkin,” “Spider Toss,” “Bobbing for Apples,” “Pin the Tail on the Black Cat,” “Doughnuts on a String,” “Witch’s Hat Ring Toss,” and “Dead Man’s Guts” for the bravest of the bunch. Every kid loves a good treasure hunt; these free indoor and outdoor printables makes riddle creation wickedly easy.

A Halloween craft is always a scream. KiwiCo has Halloween luminary kits easy enough for a 3-year-old to do. Older kids might like the puking pumpkin science or light-up haunted house. A cookie-decorating kit is equal parts fun and scrumptious. With construction paper, googly eyes, a glue stick, and a few old toilet paper rolls, you can make a whole cast of Halloween characters.  

AFTERNOON

For lunch, try Halloween cookie cutter sandwiches or monster sandwiches. You can use a cookie cutter to make a pumpkin-shaped block of cheese. Then serve up green olive or grape “eyeballs,” toasted pumpkin seeds, and Halloween-shaped pretzels. 

We’re all about resting and digesting, so time for a frightening film! A Halloween popcorn bucket adds ambiance and you might want to add slow-cooker mulled apple cider for a festive touch. Toddlers can watch Pooh’s Heffalump Movie, Curious George Boofest, or Monsters Inc. For elementary age children, Disney+ won’t steer you wrong with The Nightmare Before Christmas, Cruella, Monsters Inc, or The Muppets Haunted Mansion. You can always get nostalgic with Scooby Doo on Zombie Island, the Addams Family, Casper, or Garfield’s Halloween. Older kids might be prepared to transition from Hotel Transylvania to Beetlejuice and Ghostbusters.   

After all that sitting, it’s time for a Monster Mash Dance Party! Turn out the lights, bust out the glowing jewelry, drop this bones-shaking playlist, and get down with your boogey bad self! Bonus: you can participate in the dance party while cooking dinner, though you should probably light a few candles so you can see what you’re doing! 

EVENING

Quick and easy “ghoul-ash” should do the trick for a dinner that’s fast, hearty, and satisfying. For a finishing touch, try mummified garlic bread or spider bread on the side.

Now squeeze into costume, grab a flashlight, and out the door you go for trick-or-treat fun!   

Top the night off with a pumpkin-scented bath fizzer and a Halloween read like Room on the Broom, Creepy Carrots, Snowmen at Halloween, or The Little Old Lady Who Wasn’t Afraid of Anything.