I'd like to help your family get the most out of this holiday season. Thank goodness, the economy has brought many people back to their senses.

What used to be standard in the 70s--homemade, handmade, creative fun--fell out of fashion with the increase in wealth many households saw. Now it has a chance to make a comeback, to help another generation form lasting memories of sharing with family.

Halloween was one of the greatest holidays of my childhood. I have vivid memories not only of the day itself, but all of the weeks leading up to it, the expectation and excitement. I didn't know then what made it special; I just enjoyed myself.

As an adult with time to reflect, I can see that much of the joy of the experience comes from participating together, as a family. For that, I owe my mother a genuine thanks. You don't build memories like that when preparing for the holiday involves a quick trip to the store.

Consider these projects for your own homemade Halloween celebration. Many of them can be used to fill time in the weeks leading up to the 31st, so why wait??

Fake Blood

Buying a tube? Boring...Make your own blood. Your kids will gain all of the fun of experimenting and the pride of doing it themselves. They can occupy themselves for hours trying to decide what is better- ketchup? Red food coloring and corn syrup?

Why stop at blood? They can use basic household and kitchen supplies to try to develop their own fake skin, scars, sores. Let them raid the cabinets for oatmeal, cornstarch...whatever you can spare. Generic versions are cheap and work just as well.

Tombstones

You can make a whole graveyard of stones from cardboard cutouts or old pieces of picket fence. The more decrepit they are, the better they'll look. Find creative names and dates to add to the markers and paint or sharpie them on.

When they're ready, go out into the yard (or in your front room) and set up your graveyard. If vandals reign in your area, wait until closer to Halloween. With such inexpensive materials, it won't be a big loss if they're destroyed or stolen.

Papier Mache (paper mache) is fantastic if you want to make fake heads or body parts for your display or costume. Cardboard and balloons make good forms to give shape to your creations. A flour based simple glue and newspaper are layered to create a skin over your form. Once the article dries, you can paint it.

Scary Guys

An old snowsuit or set of overalls makes a great body. Stuff them full of newspaper or plastic bottles to puff them up. Styrofoam wig bases make exceptional heads for your bodies, but if these are hard to find, you can substitute a jack o'lantern or one of your paper mache heads.

Ghosts

What says Halloween more than the old fashioned sheet ghost? Cut out two eye holes and drape it over your child's head. If your kids don't want to be the ghost, draw on a couple of eyes and a haunted mouth and hang your ghost in a tree or on your porch. You can put a soccer ball under the sheet for a head if it won't hold its shape.

Costumes

Make your costumes from only what can be found for free, around the house or self made. Encourage your kids to get creative. As an alternative, set a small dollar amount to spend on accessories. Challenge each other to see how crazy you can get in your ideas and your execution.

Inexpensive components can be found at rummage sales or your local Goodwill store. By getting an early start, you will have a better selection to choose from than if you wait until the end of the month, when more people will be looking for last minute items.

Host a Party

With all of the dangers of allowing children to walk at night to collect strangers' candy, why not simply stay in? Get together with a few other families--relatives or people along your street--and hold a family or community party.

Party Ideas

Bob for apples. If you are worried about germs, bob for a single apple at a time and change the water in between or have multiple small tubs from which to bob individually.

Give Out Some Fruit and Veggie Treats

That Hidden Valley Ranch commercial isn't wrong. Kids love little packets of stuff and many of them like vegetables. Small packets of baby carrots are sold at the store and you can make your own packets with some food wrap. Put grapes or nuts or trail mix inside and pass them out along with a little candy.

Refreshments

If you want to serve some real food at the party to balance out the candy, give your foods gruesome names. Call spaghetti and sauce guts and blood. Cauliflower brains.

Donut on a String

Race to see who can eat their donut from the string. Tie one end of the string across an open space, thread on several donuts, tie off the other end. The height of the string should be about the average height of the kids participating. No using your hands!

Pumpkin Carving

Nothing is quite as much fun as getting to design your own jack o'lantern face! Adults can help with the cutting as needed or give the kids butter knives. Spread newspaper. Let them scoop their guts and trace the features.

Save the seeds! Rinse them. Butter a cookie sheet, spread out the seeds and lightly salt them. Bake them until golden brown and they make a delicious, high fiber snack.

Halloween Night

Consider spending much of the evening at home. Let your kids enjoy scaring other kids and passing out candy. Let them hide in the yard or on your porch or sit motionless with the candy dish until kids come up close. You may even get them to rake leaves and clean up the yard without thinking it is a job--it's all part of readying for the fun!

Don't forget a scary recording. Spooky sounds add a dimension to the atmosphere. Consider your neighbors and play them at a respectful volume, turn them off between visits or attach them to a motion sensor.

Candy Buyback

If you have kids who struggle with weight issues, consider a candy buyback program. Once you arrive home with your loot, spread it out and separate the safe bits. Then make the kids an offer. Set a price for a certain number of candy items.

You can make this into a big deal. Give it a name, like The Candy Auction and let them know to expect it as part of their evening (or even the next day when there's more time and usually a come down from the thrill of trick or treating).

The specifics can be worked out to fit your household--like how much you are willing to pay per piece or in total. Let kids learn a little about money and negotiation as you dicker for a price for each piece or for candy lots.

Gather everyone around the table with their candy, then begin the bidding. For example, Mom can offer 5 cents for a mini candy bar. Set a timer if you have a child who procrastinates. The child can accept your offer or make a counter offer. If you reach an agreement, make the trade.

Set rules for what happens if an impasse is reached. If you can't set a price, either the child keeps that piece, they lose it or you have one final fire sale round at the end to settle any undecideds.

Kids will have to make a choice--delicious candy or the value of it. Don't like the money aspect? Auction for calories and make yours nutritionally educational. Or collect the bulk of the candy and have kids earn it over the following month upon completion of chores or homework.

A second way you can conduct your auction: everyone adds their candy to a community pile. Each family member gets to choose a favorite two or three pieces, then the auction begins. Set out one item at a time and let kids bid against each other (or flip a coin to see who goes first and alternate buying pieces).

Even better, if the parents are paying the kids for their candy buyback, part of the deal can be that kids must save half of everything they make off the auction. They can use that money for long term savings or Christmas gifts.

This activity gives them choice and allows you to determine the value of the candy (by how many calories or what it contains, for example). Parents can assign each candy a cost and give the kids pretend dollars to spend, thereby limiting how much candy kids will get in total.

Resources:

Papier Mache Crafts 

Halloween Origins, Customs and Traditions