halloween giving: how to BOO! your friends (on a budget)

I’ve said it before–spooky Halloween is not my thing.

So this weekend, when our family was officially BOO’ed for the first time, a whole new chapter of Halloween fun–and Halloween giving–opened up for us.

BOO’ing is all the craze, it seems, though (boo-hooo!) we haven’t fallen victim to BOO’ing quite like this–ever.

What I love about BOO’ing is that it actually adds an element of sneaky, fun, giving to this candy-saturated holiday.  Maddy, Owen, and Cora were actually thinking of others this week instead of thinking about when they were going to get their next Twizzler or Nerds or Laffy Taffy fix.

My kids are Boo-happy.  I am BOO-happy.  I hope that your families will become BOO-happy, too.

Here’s the skinny. . .

Halloween Giving –How to BOO! Your Friends (on a Budget):

Really, BOO’ing can be as simple as you want–or need it to be.

How CUTE is this BOO! sign??

We planted ourselves on our driveway. . .

. . . and enjoyed our Halloween BOO-ty! (I had to.)

Our BOO experience went like this:

• the doorbell rang;
• we saw a flash of a woman sprinting through our front yard;
• said woman jumped into a family-sized vehicle with kid in back–and zoomed away;
• vehicle paused near end of our street;
• we noticed a black plastic treasure at our doorstep;
• the kids and I brought out said treasure, shoving candy in our mouth as we did;
• said vehicle slowly drove past our house again (easy to get lost in our ‘hood), and we all stared in the windows though both passengers were covering their faces;
• we eventually figured out who it was (thank you, thank you, Jessica!!!) and began plotting our own BOO! experience.

How FUN is that??!

We knew we wanted to do something similar, and we got to work immediately–using what we had around the house. I definitely wanted to add candy to our own BOO! surprises, but I knew that if we thought a bit, we could rock out something pretty cool and totally spooky without spending a dime.

Our tiny Halloween puppets would be fun for our own BOO! basket.

And then we started crafting.  I brought out a few on-hand craft supplies, including popsicle sticks from when we made our 150 Fun Things to Do, Halloween foamies, Halloween foam beads, and leftover some ties from our Halloween Scarves. And I let the kids go wild.

Owen worked his Halloween beads.

And his buddy’s name is on his necklace!

We made a few Halloween puppets using the popsicle sticks and foamie stickers and ties from the scarves.  Owen made a long necklace–or something–with the foam beads, writing the letters of his buddy’s name on each pumpkin.

Maddy wrote her own Halloween poem–

–and it seriously rocked, especially with her Halloween-embellishments!

Maddy started writing a poem, a Halloween poem, that seriously rocked.  She wrote it in her best handwriting, I copied it, and then we printed out two copies on lime green cardstock.

Cora’s super-awesome note. . .

. . . paired with some Halloween printables makes for an awesome BOO! basket if you ask me.

Cora worked on making a different kind of treasure, a note written on popsicle sticks and tied together with a foamie. Awesome.

Meanwhile, I grabbed some Halloween coloring pages from last year’s Halloween class parties and a few copies of our Hallween Word Search.  Why not, right?

I also printed out the instructions.

 Printed on green cardstock, our BOO! signs looked rad.

Those handy dyed t-shirts have sure gone far–here they work as ties for our BOO! door signs.

And the instructions go in our BOO! Baskets as well.

I followed Jessica’s lead and used free printables from an incredible, amazing, totally fabulous site, AndersRuff.  We used part of the Modern Happy Halloween Kit, though so many of their designs are incredible and are worth checking out.

We grabbed two pumpkin buckets we had around the house, we added some orange tissue paper, a handful of candy, and all of our homemade goodies:

• the BOO! note
• the BOO! door sign
• the BOO! instructions
• Halloween coloring pages
• Halloween word search
• Halloween puppets
• Halloween beaded beautiful things
• Maddy’s poem

BOO! baskets, loaded and ready for the drop.

Owen, ready for his drop and run.

We planned to BOO! two families, just like the instructions said.

We decided on one family right off the bat–a family that had a child in both Owen and Maddy’s classes and that we’ve known for ages but who we don’t see enough.  And the other family we decided on was one with three kids and who we love and often walk home from school with–great longtime friends who we just wish we could spend more time with.

But on the way home with the second family the day we planned to BOO!, they just all had a bad day.  Kids crying. Mom frustrated. Kids upset. Mom upset. We’ve all been there.   So my kids decided then and there that these guys needed our BOO! to cheer them up.  They needed their buckets filled–and we thought our BOO! could do just that.

Of course we brought Brady along for the fun.

We finished our baskets, and loaded Vanny Vanerson.  Brady had to come along for the adventure.

Maddy made the actual BOO! drop, but we all hooted and hollered when she got back in the car.  The most exciting part? The after-the-drop-driveby when we saw our pals searching through the basket, wondering who BOO’ed them.

It was fun. It was a lot of really unexpected fun, and the really cool thing is that we did it with our own supplies, with our own creativity, with awesome–free!–printables on the web.  And that means that any family could do the same.

So. . . what are you waiting for? Start the BOO!-tacular fun in your ‘hood!!  Happy, happy Halloween, and three cheers for not-so-spooky Halloween fun!

fyi: Huuuuge and happy thanks to my sweet and smart amiga, Jessica, for BOO!’ing us this weekend and introducing us to this fun  Halloween tradition. Also huge thanks to the gals behind AndersRuff for creating a fab site that is full of beautiful awesome we all can use. You ladies ROCK!

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Want a few more fun halloween party ideas?

• halloween class party
• more halloween class party ideas
• GHOST bingo!
• spider web craft
• pumpkin match 
• halloween word search
• halloween ghost cookies
• boo! your neighbors
• alternatives to halloween candy
• halloween joke notes
• halloween learning
• hats, cats, and pumpkin grid game
• dinner in a pumpkin
• candy experiments

fyi: Some of the links in the post above are “affiliate links.” This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive an affiliate commission. Forever and always I recommend only products or services I use personally and believe will add value to my readers. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.” For more information, please see teachmama media, llc. disclosure policy.

originally published on 10/23/12