Frugal Halloween Decorations?

**Daisygirl** · 10-05-2006, 10:23 AM

Anyone have some cheap ideas for thrifty Halloween decorations? With the daycare this year I want to really go overboard! I'm looking for ideas for inside and outside!

**marie_squared** · 10-05-2006, 10:53 AM

Originally Posted by Daisygirl

Anyone have some cheap ideas for thrifty Halloween decorations? With the daycare this year I want to really go overboard! I'm looking for ideas for inside and outside!

youve got a daycare? how old are the kids?
why not let them make some of the decorations. -- colored construction paper can get pricey sometimes, so its best to buy it during the bank to school season. you can get halloween coloring books from the dollar store and tear out the pages and let the kids color them and stick them to the windows. -- if you have spare dark flat sheets, you could use that as a table cloth or hang it on the walls or ceiling, depending on what you wanted to do.

i know that at our dollar tree they sell the plastic pumpkin things kids use to fill with candy. you can get a couple of those and place them out buy the front door, fill them with dirt (kids can do that) so that they dont blow away because theyre pretty light.

you can take a trash bag or two and cut it up into long shreds and tape them to the ceiling. not too long or the kids will be grabbing at them, you get the idea.

thats all i can think of right now, if i come up with something later on, i'll post it.

**Sari** · 10-05-2006, 11:41 AM

What my family did when I was younger is we made a scarecrow. Take a man's old clothes (we used a flannel shirt and overalls) stuff with pinestraw or if you don't have that use newspaper, and use a pumpkin for the head. It was really fun for us. That would be a good project for your daycare kids, depending on age.

**kabin63** · 10-06-2006, 11:30 AM

I think I need some ideas too. My neighbor is having a bonfire party about a week before Halloween and wants my DD and some of her friend to do a sppoky trail. It sounds like fun to me!

**momof42003** · 10-06-2006, 07:35 PM

I have gone and bought cut outs that I reuse every year on my windows. They consist of "Happy Halloween" banner, jack-o-lanterns, falling leaves, and cute little kids dressed up in Halloween costumes. I even have cournocpias, and indian corn cut outs. These are on my door, windows, entertainment center and everywhere. At the dollar tree I bought some flower bushes for a dollar, and separated them and now have single fall flowers dotting the house. My MIL gave me a light up jackolantern a few years back and it sits on the front porch along with three mums, and dried corn stalk. I am hoping to get some more jackolantern "objects" to put in the yard, and maybe a spooky ghost or two.. I am not really into the creepy, scarey decorating. I have pieced mine together over the years.

Spider webbing is alway cheap, and so are the little spiders that go on them. Cut out bats, cats, witches hats from black construction paper. How about orange and black paper chains also made from construction paper? Take white trashbags, cut into 6x6 inch squares, and take a ball of tissue paper and put in the center, tie raffia or ribbon around its "neck" and paint eyes on the GHOST... Hang in a tree, or off hooks using fishing line. You can always make fall leaves from brown and orange colored paper, make banner saying Happy Halloween using your computer. Get online and get clip art and print on your computer. Don't forget to make pumpkins and jack-o-lanterns from the construction paper. I think that most of these items can be made pretty easily with some adult help and the kids can take their project home the Friday before Halloween so that their family can enjoy their works of art for Halloween night.

**Sara Noel** · 10-06-2006, 08:33 PM

This is a cute idea if you have some spare jars.
http://www.kidsdomain.com/craft/spooky-pumpkins.html

cute cool whip lid and plastic grocery bag craft:
http://www.kidsdomain.com/craft/sackghost.html?trnstl=1

above can use a balloon instead of the lid:
http://www.enchantedlearning.com/cra.../balloonghost/

egg carton bats:
http://www.enchantedlearning.com/cra...rton/bat.shtml

I'm going to do this one with my kids:
http://www.dltk-holidays.com/halloween/msodajack.htm

**MarshHen** · 10-07-2006, 09:47 AM

Sara,

Thanks for these sites, they are all excellent sources for kids crafts. Will try them out on my Kindergarten Sunday School class and my own grandbabies. LOL, I'm dying to try a few myself, they look like great fun!

**kabin63** · 10-07-2006, 10:02 AM

Sara,
These are some very cute ideas. thanks

**Daisygirl** · 10-08-2006, 12:08 PM

Sara: These are great -- what wonderful websites -- I have marked them all as favorites -- they will really help me come up with some great ideas for my own kids and my daycare kids. Thanks!