It's
fair to say that this has been something of a topsy-turvy year in many
ways with lots of the things we usually look forward to as a family having to
be postponed or cancelled altogether.
My
children have always really enjoyed Halloween, in fact it's one of our
favourite times of year, so they were pretty upset to hear that trick or
treating is highly unlikely to go ahead this year. But, after 7 months of this
"new normal" we're all living with, I was determined to try my best to
bring the fun back to Halloween for them.
Although
things are different this year, that doesn't mean they can't still be fun and
enjoyable in new ways - and so I set about looking for ideas to help us to
enjoy Halloween as a family.
You
may remember that earlier this year, we worked with MAOAM's Mischief Hub to enjoy some family fun
time with their suggested pranks and games -
we had such a great time, so I've called upon the Mischief Hub once again to
help me bring the fun back to Halloween 2020!
MAOAM, creators of some of the UK’s favourite
sweets including the MAOAM Stripe and Pinballs, have put together MAOAM's Mischief Hub. It’s a
brilliant online resource bursting with ideas and inspiration for
injecting some fun and laughter into your family time.
It features MAOAM's super fun mascot – Max, The Mischief Maker, as well as
renowned Prank Masters Dick & Dom who guide us through some fun and
creative Mischief Mission videos!
My kids are big fans of Dick & Dom so they love checking the
Mischief Hub to see what they've been up to.
There are lots of ideas for games, pranks and activities you can
enjoy as a family - with some suggestions for Halloween fun too!
WHAT HALLOWEEN MISCHIEF DID WE GET UP TO?
For
this activity, we didn't need much other than some orange and black paint,
black card to make the bat wings, a glue stick, some googly eyes, a green pipe
cleaner and a black marker pen - and some toilet roll tubes of course!
The
children got busy painting their toilet rolls - to make the pumpkin we simply
added some googly eyes, coloured in a mouth and added a bit of green pipe
cleaner for a stalk.
For
the bats, we added googly eyes - cut out some ear and wing shapes, and glued
them on.
After
our craft session, we decided to play a little Halloween challenge game.
We
challenged the children to show us their best zombie walks, best creepy spider
crawls, and their best spooky dances - the winner of each challenge won a MAOAM
Stripe! This was such a fun and easy game but kept them entertained for ages. They
particularly loved wearing their Halloween costumes to play!
This
year we also decided to make the most of Halloween by having our first ever
Halloween tree - this was great fun for the little ones to help decorate, and
it was pretty inexpensive too. We got a small black Christmas tree for under
£15 and decorated it with lights, tinsel and orange baubles from the pound
shop, so we spent less than £20 for the whole thing.
We
also decided to adorn it with some MAOAM treats too!
Finally,
we decided that if we can't go trick or treating this year - we can have a
trick or treat treasure hunt at home instead!
I
made some clues on the computer, printed them off and dotted them around the
house for the children to find and follow - some of the buckets contained a
trick (plastic bugs, oobleck or cold baked beans!) and some contained a treat
(MAOAM Stripes, of course!)
MAOAM
and Capital FM will be going on tour across the country this month to spread
some Halloween cheer - there'll be a Mischief Manor including a spooky hall of
mirrors and even a zombie photo wall! And of course, there'll be free MAOAM
treats too!
The
event will follow current government guidelines with social distancing measures
in place, use of Track & Trace and of course hand sanitiser stations
available.
Check
out the tour map below, and be sure to head along for some spooky fun! You can
find out more by following MAOAM on Facebook @ MAOAM_UK, Twitter @OfficialMAOAM
and Instagram @MAOAM_UK.
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