Isolation Imagination: Quar-o-ween & socially distant spooks!
Fall feels different this year as we brace for what will likely be another wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in the US and across much of the world. Halloween, Día de los Muertos, and other fall festivities will inevitably look and feel different. But that doesn’t mean we can’t enjoy some of the fun we usually look forward to at this time of the year.
As we mentioned in our first post on the topic, there are a lot of important reasons to keep up family traditions and routines during these uncertain times. Keeping up expectations and traditions is especially important for the developing children in our lives. So, here are some ideas for how to stay safe and remain socially distant while still celebrating your favorite fall festivities!
Trick or Treat from 6 Feet
Getting dressed up as favorite characters and creatures to knock on neighbor’s doors and ask for candy (or threaten trickery) is a classic Halloween tradition in the US. In usual years, I see this is a positive way to be an active member of our immediate communities, getting touch-points with our neighbors and finding common ground in common culture. It is important for our children (and ourselves) that we are reminded of our ability to work together, to share with one another, and to be kind and friendly to our neighbors. Of course, with the need to stay socially distant this season, that tradition is going to look a little bit different. But that doesn’t mean every aspect of our traditions need to be eliminated! Get dressed up! Maybe even make your own costumes!
Then see if your neighborhood ordinances and safety guidelines would support any of the following socially distant trick or treating ideas:
Bowl-o-rama: get dressed up (incorporate masks into your costumes, perhaps?) and walk around your neighborhood, staying socially distant, stopping at houses that are inviting you to take candy from a bowl left out for sharing (without social contact). You can get creative with this too - it doesn’t need to just be bowls on doorsteps, it can be spooky scavenger hunts in front yards!
Halloween costume drive-by parades: get all dressed up and either sit on your steps and wave at the cars passing by or get dressed up and get in your car and let neighbors sit on their steps. If you want keep the physicality of trick-or-treating included in the festivities (usually you get a nice walk in), then you could even put on your family costumes and bike around town (if the costumes are bike-safe!) instead of being in cars.
Do a backyard Halloween-egg-hunt for your immediate family if you don’t feel comfortable getting the whole neighborhood involved this year (maybe use only black and orange plastic eggs as a way to make it feel more festive). You could even make it nighttime ready and make the eggs glow (put a glow-stick inside or use glow-in-the-dark nontoxic paint)!
Reverse Trick-or-Treat! Organize some friends, neighbors, or family to drop off little Halloween goodies for your kids on your doorstep! Be sure to have them all ring the doorbell at different times and then scurry away so as to remain socially distant! It will be a fun reversal of the usual Halloween tradition of ringing the doorbell to ask for candy! Then your family can do the same - get dressed up and decorate goodie bags to “ghost” your neighbors and friends with - leaving little treats for them to find on their own doorsteps!
Jack-o-lanterns with a view
As the months are getting chillier and the days are getting shorter in our neck of the woods, we are trying to keep spending as much time outside as we can. Sometimes that means thinking outside the box in terms of what to do with traditional fall activities. But this week we took an old Halloween tradition and made it Quar-o-ween ready!
After finding a safe and healthy pumpkin patch, supporting a small local family farm, and picking the very perfect pumpkins, we made plans for carving! Since we usually would carve pumpkins with two friends, we invited those friends to a pretty park, wore face masks, found nearby picnic tables (6 feet apart), laid out tablecloths, and took out the carving tools! We used pencils to draw out our designs, and got to carving! The changing leaves fell around us as the wind whispered through our hair. Who knew carving pumpkins outside could be even more fun than carving them inside!? Even with the social distancing, it was the perfect fall day!
Did you know? Pumpkins of different colors mean different things:
A decorative teal pumpkin indicates a food-allergen friendly house where you can get little toys or treats that aren’t for eating (ideas for this include: play-doh, crayons, slinkies, yo-yos, keychains, etc.)
A person carrying a blue pumpkin indicates that they may not interact with others in a "typical” way
Here are some other basic Halloween safety resources:
https://www.nsc.org/home-safety/tools-resources/seasonal-safety/autumn/halloween
https://www.healthychildren.org/English/safety-prevention/all-around/Pages/Halloween-Safety-Tips.aspx
