Halloween checklist
Two jobs: your children going out, and other people's children arriving. The safety group is short and it is the one that matters after dark.
36 items
Makes your own editable copy. No account needed.
The items
- Costumes
- Decide early — the good ones sell out
- Try it on before the night
- Something warm underneath, and something waterproof over
- Shoes they can walk in for an hour
- Reflective tape or a light on the costumeEvery costume is black. Every driver is looking for adults.
- Face paint, tested on skin a day early
- Make-up remover for afterwards
- Pumpkins
- Buy a few days ahead, not two weeks×2
- A proper carving tool, not a kitchen knife
- Newspaper for the table
- Battery tea lights rather than candles
- Keep the flesh and the seeds for soup and roasting
- Somewhere safe to stand them, away from the path
- If you are handing out sweets
- Enough sweets, plus half again
- Some without nuts, and something that is not chocolate
- A bowl by the door
- Outside light on, and the path clear
- A sign if you would rather not take part
- Shut the dog in another room
- Going out
- Agree the route and the streets
- A time to be home
- One adult per group
- A torch each
- A charged phone
- Only knock at houses that are decorated or lit
- A bag with a handle that will not break
- Check the sweets before eating, and drop anything unwrapped
- At home afterwards
- Something hot to eat when they come in
- Agree how much of the haul is for tonight
- Pumpkins on the compost within a few days
- Costume packed away for a school dressing-up day
Makes your own editable copy. No account needed.
Questions people ask
- How many sweets should I buy?
- Ask a neighbour how many callers they get, then buy for that plus half. Buy something you would eat yourself, because you will be eating the rest of it.
- What makes trick or treating safer?
- Something reflective on the costume, a torch each, an agreed route and a time to be home. Costumes are dark and the evenings are dark.