Top 10 Halloween Websites to Raid for Ideas

I love Halloween, and I guess if you're here, you love it, too!

I know once September and October roll around, I love to browse Halloween websites for brilliant ideas. I love to go all out: crafts and activities for the kids, decorating, costumes, treats, parties, scary movies-- anything and everything that will put me in the Halloween spirit, I'm up for it!

I've accumulated a few favorite websites along the way that have some great Halloween tips and ideas, and today I want to share them with you. So without further ado, here are my top 10 Halloween websites for ideas to raid!

If you have little kids who love Halloween as much as you do, then a good way to keep them busy in October is to give them plenty of Halloween fun crafts and activities to do. My favorite go-to website for these things ever since my children were little is Activity Village.

This website has loads of things for kids for all occasions, and their Halloween section is just great. It's chock-full of free printable crafts, coloring pages, art projects, cute little ideas for games and playing, and has some links to very child-friendly free Halloween games.

Just bookmark this because your kids will surely want to visit it over and over as the big day approaches.

For those more into fun crafts for adults, try Paperclipping. I don't know about you, but for me part of the fun of Halloween is my paper crafts. Everything from making hand-crafted Halloween cards in September to send out to family members to scrapbooking the event for posterity-- I love ideas to create these kinds of keepsakes.

Paperclipping has a lot of great scrapbooking ideas, particularly for Halloween. Even if you prefer digital scrapbook, you'll find inspiration in the layouts and themes.

One of the best ways to set the mood for Halloween is by listening to popular Halloween songs, scary soundtracks and even spooky stories and sound effects. If you like to get yourself psyched with these kinds of things, log into Halloweenradio.org, a free online Halloween radio station. They have a brilliant selection of things to listen to while you're doing your crafts, decorating your house or making treat for your Halloween guests.

I love watching scary movies and shows all through October-- in fact one of my favorite Halloween traditions is settling down with friends or family after the flow of trick-or-treaters has receded for an all night horror movie marathon.

But of course, I can't wait for Halloween night-- I have to start priming myself up in the beginning of October! So I like to really gear up my Netflix cue come Halloween time.

While I have some old favorites, I also like to look for things I've never seen before-- you've got to have some scary surprises for Halloween, right? What good is a horror movie fest without something to make you jump?

So, for this, I turn to RottenTomatoes.com. They may not specifically be a Halloween website, but they've got a great list of the 100 highest rated horror movies to check out.

Along with scary music and scary movies, a few scary stories can also hit the spot on Halloween. A great website to raid on those dark October nights when you've got nothing else to do is CreepyPasta.com. You can scare yourself silly-- or you can learn a few really good tales to tell your friends around the fireplace on Halloween night.

Store-bought costumes are easy to find and buy. You can look for them anywhere, online or in shops.

A much more difficult task is coming up with cool, unique costumes that you make yourself. I don't know about you, but I'm always looking for ideas because in our family we like to make our costumes.

The website Coolest Homemade Costumes is one of my favorite websites to raid for costume ideas. These are user-submitted costume ideas and instructions, complete with great photos so you can see what you're getting (don't you just hate it when costume articles don't include photos?)!

Do you like to cook for Halloween? Whether you're looking to bake just a few special treats to eat while you watch your favorite horror movie, or whether you're going all-out for a massive Halloween dinner party, you've got to check out Divine Dinner Party. Not only does this great website have tons of recipes and photos, but they also give a lot of great tips for planning all kinds of Halloween parties.

Some of their recipes are really 'gross' beyond belief-- but in a good, Halloweeny way.

Is there any Halloween decoration cooler than a glowing jack-o-lantern? If there is, I can't think of it. For Halloween, at least at my house, there simply must be pumpkins.

My favorite website for pumpkin carving patterns and ideas is Stonykins. They have dozens of free patterns for you to print, from traditional Halloween stuff to celebrities and politicians to some very non-traditional things you might be surprised and delighted to find (like Christian pumpkin patterns).

They also have thousands and thousands of patterns for a small fee-- 20 cents or less each (depending on how many credits you buy-- the more credits, the cheaper they are). They even have licensed logo patterns for major sports teams! You've got to check it out.

Serious Halloween decorators need to know about Monster List of Halloween Projects. This website has user-submitted projects with detailed instructions ranging from beginner to advanced. As of this writing, the website boasts 788 projects, and it grows every year. They're also really good about testing broken links and keeping the website updated.

Follow the legend that tells you if a project is new, for beginners or advanced crafters, whether it's static or animated. From life-sized props to fully digitized and motorized creations, you'll find some truly amazing stuff here to help you deck the haunted halls in honor of the season.

I guess I'm biased because I'm new to Hubpages and loving it... but I really love raiding the Hubpages Halloween section. Whether you're looking for costumes, decorations, entertainment or any kind of ideas, chances are there is at least one great hub about it right here.

Whether you're new to hubpages, or a long-time member, don't forget to check right here-- and don't forget to show your love for fellow hubbers by leaving thumbs up, votes and comments whenever you do find something great.

Hope you will find my top 10 list here useful, and happy Halloween!