Kids' Halloween Crafts That Are Fun for the Whole Family

Are you preparing for a Halloween that looks a little different than usual? Know that there are plenty of great ways to celebrate the spooky holiday, even if trick-or-treating proves to be out of the question. One good way to get your entire family in the spirit? Sit down at the table and make some eerily fun crafts. Best of all, our Halloween projects are a whole lot more fun than they are work—and your little ones can start making them right now. Carving pumpkins on a cool autumn night is just one of the ways you can celebrate the upcoming holiday with age-appropriate activities for the whole family. We're sharing an array of easy Halloween craft ideas that can be brought to life with just a few tools and supplies you likely already have in your home.

Are you celebrating Halloween at home this year? Maybe you've invited your closest family over for afreakishly fun and socially distant Halloween dinner, or you're planning a backyard scavenger hunt for the kids to safely find candy. Give your children an active role in decorating your living room, dining room, and making the front porch and yard to evoke the spirit of October 31. Crafts like our Halloween piñata help liven up any party space while also giving your youngest guests something to do during the event. If you want to ensure young revelers work for their Halloween candy, there's no more fun way to do just that than by asking them to swipe at a giant Jack-o'-Lantern strung up on the front porch. You (and your little ones!) can create your own in just a few steps with the help of one of our printable templates.

This season, we also encourage you to think beyond pumpkins and jack-o'-lanterns as you dream up crafts for your kids—from cackling witches to sinister spider webs and chilling skeletons, these festive Halloween projects will keep children entertained all season long.

Halloween Paper Mobiles

Owls and spiders make family-friendly companions on Halloween. Print our templates and cut them out, then enlist help from the little ones to assemble the pieces. They'll flutter and spin as they dangle from the ceiling.

Halloween Paper Chain Garland

Jaunty jack-o'-lanterns, foreboding bats—these are Halloween-appropriate versions of the classic paper-doll chain. Begin by selecting the template you'd like to create, and then print it onto your choice of paper before cutting it out. Fold your choice of colored paper as indicated on the template; align the edges of the template with folds, and trace with a pencil. Be sure to leave part of the folded sides intact. To finish, cut out the tracings and unfold into a chain.

Halloween Skull Jewelry

For a cute accessory that can help pull together a last-minute Halloween look, the kids will love making skull necklaces and bracelets. They're made simply from oven-bake clay, and you'll need to braid a few different colors of embroidery floss into necklaces by knotting the ends.

Green Slime-in-a-Jar with Bugs

Sticky green slime is great as a party favor or an inedible candy substitute for trick-or-treaters. Start by stirring two teaspoons of guar gum into four cups of hot water with green food coloring; then, push this mixture through a strainer using a spatula to remove lumps. Mix another two teaspoons of borax with one-and-a-half cups of water until its dissolved; stir slowly into the guar gum mixture. Let the mixture cool and the slime thicken, then decant it into small lidded containers with a few plastic spiders from a novelty store. Finally, print out our label template, cut it out, and adhere it to your jars with double-sided tape.

Shop Now: The Container Store Hinged Lid Jar, $1.29, containerstore.com. Hyde & EEK! Boutique Small Spiders, $3 for 150, target.com.

Colorful Leaf Decoupage Pumpkins

To make these decorative pumpkins, we cut out leaves using templates and layers of bright tissue. You can achieve one of two different looks—coated in colorful leaves, pictured here, or paired with a pretty printable design below.

Parrot Glasses

This four-eyed accessory can be put together fast and is fun for kids of all ages. It's a sufficiently understated parrot costume—kids can make this costume in a flash. Glue a yellow beak and add feathers to green eyeglasses frames.

Hanging Paper Ghosts

Made from text-weight paper, a whole horde of ghosts can be unleashed to greet trick-or-treaters. Use a fringe cutter to cut down an entire piece of printer paper; fold the sheet over itself at every four-to-nine-strip interval, depending on the desired width. Join the two ends of the paper with double-sided tape, and round the corners of the unfringed edge with scissors to create top of the ghost. Next, draw a face with black marker; open the ghost up to a cylinder with one end fringed. Then, cut a two-by-one-half inch strip from a new sheet of paper; secure the strip across the top of the ghost head with double-sided tape to create a loop. Thread the string through the loop—and it's ready to hang.

Shop Now: Recollections White Cardstock Paper, $16, michaels.com; EK Tools Fringe Scissors, $12.57, amazon.com.

Pasta Skeletons

Kids can bone up on anatomy and create a fun Halloween decoration at the same time when they make a skeleton out of noodles. With an illustration of a skeleton as a guide, they just need lots of dried pasta, white glue, and construction paper to assemble the pictures. We snapped some of the pasta in half and used alphabet-soup noodles to make labels.

Shop Now: Sfoglini Artisanal Pasta, $20 for 2, food52.com; Creatology Black Construction Paper, $2.49 for 50 sheets, michaels.com.

Ghost Lollipop Favors

If you have a wrapped lollipop and a pleated coffee filter, you can make these spooky surprises. The rounded tops of candy-on-a-stick are anatomically suited to recreate a group of ghosts.

Bat Mobile

Eek! Winged bats take flight and swarm around this handmade mobile. To begin, download and print our bat template, enlarging and reducing to create a variety of sizes if desired; cut out the template with scissors. Trace the template onto black card stock, and then cut them out and fold them—to make one whole bat, fold a sheet of heavyweight black paper in half widthwise. Then, place the template' straight edge along the fold, and trace its outline. Cut out the paper along the traced line and unfold before folding the bat's wings where the template's dotted lines indicate. Repeat for each bat.

Next, make a small hole in the center of each bat using a thumbtack. Poke a piece of thread through each hole, and knot it—tie the bats to a tree branch (painting it black is optional). Hang the branch from two pieces of thread secured to the top of the window with flat thumbtacks.

Shop Now: Creatology Black Construction Paper, $2.49 for 50 sheets, michaels.com; Martha Stewart Precision Scissors, $15, amazon.com.

Paper Mice

These creepy, crawly paper mice are not so nice. Stick these unsavory critters on stair risers, baseboards, or any spot where they might give unsuspecting passersby a little jump.

Shop Now: Creatology Black Construction Paper, $2.49 for 50 sheets, michaels.com.

Halloween Noisemakers

These witches and bats cause double trouble—as noisemakers and place cards. Download and print our template, then glue black paper to the backs for sturdiness before cutting them out. For noisemakers, cut the mouth slit using a utility knife. Snip the stem off an orange balloon, and stick the cut end through the slit from the back. Attach the printed round to a wooden craft stick using craft glue. If you're creating place cards, fill in the slit with a black marker. Write a guest's name in iridescent pen on the black border of each round, and set them on dinner plates when finished.

Shop Now: Creatology Black Construction Paper, $2.49 for 50 sheets, michaels.com.

Witch's Broomstick Favors

On Halloween night, give your little trick-or-treaters a proper send-off with broomstick favors filled with candy. They'll cackle with delight.

Skull Treat Bags

Plain black-and-white favor bags get into the Halloween spirit with this quick trick. For variety, print and make a mix of black-on-white and white-on-black bags.

Shop Now: Celebrate It Treat Bags, $4 for 16, michaels.com; Martha Stewart Precision Scissors, $15, amazon.com.

Skeleton Balloons

Glue dots are extra-sticky and adhere to balloons' latex surface better than double-sided tape. To begin, cut out this template—trace the shape onto card stock and construction paper and cut them out. Decoupage the skeleton's face onto a balloon; trim a white paper garland into your desired size (here, we used 14 inches for a spine, 16 inches for arms, and 19 inches for legs). Adhere the spine and arms to the balloon using Glue dots; add on legs, hands, and feet clip-art with the same dots.

Shop Now: Celebrate It White Balloons, 12", $3 for 15, michaels.com; Removable Glue Dots Roll, $5, michaels.com.

Halloween Piñata

Who's ready to put the "treat" in trick or treating? This easy-to-make piñata is actually a paper lantern disguised as a grinning jack o' lantern.

Pressed Leaf Pumpkins

Turn pressed foliage into greeting cards or gift tags for bags of candy. Gather freshly fallen leaves with stems. Dry them for several days in a leaf press or sandwiched in newsprint inside a heavy book. Coat one side with spray adhesive, press onto colored paper or note cards, and let dry. If desired, use a pair of kid-friendly scissors to trim them into a pumpkin shape and cut facial features. Snip the stems to preferred length. For the tags, punch a small hole in the paper, thread with a ribbon, and tie to a bag of candy.

Shop Now: Montessori Large Leaf and Flower Press, $30, montessoriservices.com; Elmer's Multi-Purpose Spray Adhesive, $8.49, michaels.com.