It is surprisingly easy to be THAT house this Halloween night! It only takes four simple steps:
- Full size candy bars
- Halloween decorations
- Wear a costume
- Surprise them
You deserve it. Your neighborhood deserves it. Here are four simple steps to make sure that this Halloween you add to the fun and help your neighborhood enjoy the fright night.
Give out the full size candy bars.
The bigger the better when it comes to candy. Sadly these days every house has the same candy to offer. It used to be that kids got a lot of variety when they went trick or treating. Everyone would come home, dump out what they got, savor over the best treats, and excitedly trade with each other for their favorite sweets.
Unfortunately, the current state of halloween candy is that every house on the block has one of the three different fun-size ‘variety’ bags to offer trick or treaters. In this age of corporate conglomerates we have seen most of the smaller, independent candies gobbled up by the big guys. The result is that every house, door after door, has the exact same candy to offer trick or treaters.
This year you can change things. Your house can be different. It can be a shining beacon of excitement and hope to trick or treaters on the dark Halloween night. You can be the guy who finds a different candy and upgrades the fun size. Your house can be the one that hands out the big, full size candy bars and be written into neighborhood legend. Kids will revere your house as they walk by and whisper to their friends the immortal line, “That place on Halloween gives out full size candy.”
If you do the math, then a full size candy bar bought in bulk costs you between 50 cents and a dollar per bar. That is about ten times the variety pack cost of the smaller ‘fun size’ candy bars. If you have fifty trick or treaters it is not a crazy investment. If you have five hundred then it adds up fast.
Decorate Your House.
The opportunities are endless and every year more fun ways to decorate emerge. Lights, cameras, action you name it and it is yours. Want to set it up the front yard with a graveyard theme then add some tombstones and skeletons. Trying to make it fun instead then put up any of these goofy Halloween inflatables that inflate in a second and include spooky lights or inflatable archways that kids walk through to get their candy.
Another easy way to decorate is the amazing lighting options available from spotlights and haunted house displays to easy changes like orange LED lights on your porch. The new lighting options are weatherproof and waterproof. They also do not cost a lot of money to operate.
If you do not want to spend a lot of money just get out the sidewalk chalk. Have your kids lay down on the sidewalk and outline them for easy chalk outlines. Make a scary police scene spooky by adding lots of outlines then placing construction paper silhouette cutouts of monsters on your windows. Just like that you have easy Halloween decorations.
Wear a Costume
Nobody wants to hear you tell them that you are going as a ‘middle-age dad’ or a ‘suburban husband.’ Go get off the couch and go into the costume shop and find something fun and frightening. Costumes have gotten cheap and there are tons of awesome options. Everyone can find something they love.
At least find a mask or a pair of glasses or something fun that adds to the Halloween spirit. At best, think of a costume that compliments something your kids are doing. Is your son Spiderman this year? How about you go as Venom. Is your little girl Red Riding Hood? You should be dressing up as the Big Bad Wolf. There are lots of fine ways to play it and to give your kids a fun Halloween surprise to start off the night.
Surprise Them
Everyone wants a fright on Halloween and the best houses offer them something special that catches them off guard. Maybe you have a second floor window that overlooks your porch and you can put a spider on a string or a ghost to swoop down. Inside your house there might be an opportunity for something to jump out or for something to swing down when you open the door. Hang a rope that connects from your porch to a tree outside and run a ghost along it. Anything out of the ordinary helps break the monotony of modern trick or treating.
Do you have some other great tips on how to be a dynamic dad this Halloween? Please add them to the comments below.