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

home / Activities / holidays / halloween / halloween giving: how to BOO! your friends (on a budget)
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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.

halloween giving: how to BOO your friends!

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.

we were BOO'ed

How CUTE is this BOO! sign??

we were BOO'ed

We planted ourselves on our driveway. . .

we were BOO'ed

. . . 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.

how to BOO your friends on a budget

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.

how to boo your friends -- on a budget

Owen worked his Halloween beads.

how to boo your friends-- on a budget

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.

how to boo your friends-- on a budget

Maddy wrote her own Halloween poem–

how to boo your friends-- on a budget

–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.

boo your friends--on a budget

Cora’s super-awesome note. . .

how to boo your friends-- on a budget

. . . 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.

how to boo your friends-- on a budget

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

how to boo your friends-- on a budget

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

how to boo your friends-- on a budget

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 your friends--on a budget

BOO! baskets, loaded and ready for the drop.

boo your friends--on a budget

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.

boo your friends--on a budget

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!

how to boo your friends -- halloween giving

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!

Some affiliate links are included in this post. If you’re cool with it, please consider using them  so your friend over here at teachmama.com will score an itsy-bitsy, teeny-weenie cut of your purchase.

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

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About amy mascott

teacher, mother, dreamer. lover of literacy, fun learning, good food, and three crazy-cool kids. finder of four-leaf clovers | dc metro · http://about.me/amymascott
tweet with me: @teachmama

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Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. thsu

    October 24, 2012 at 11:33 am

    what a lovely way to make someone’s day. but i’m dying to know what the boo note said

    Reply
  2. Alexandra

    October 25, 2012 at 1:41 am

    I am also not a fan of a spooky halloweens. Especially if it leaves you with a 3-year-old asking if she is really gonna be haunted by witches…Great idea with booing!

    Reply
    • amy

      October 25, 2012 at 9:26 am

      thanks, Alexandra!! PLEASE let me know how your boo’ing goes!!

      Reply
  3. Vicky @ Mess For Less

    October 25, 2012 at 4:08 pm

    I have really been wanting to try this. Do you just pick one person to Boo or do you Boo a bunch? Pinning this!

    Reply
    • amy

      October 25, 2012 at 10:52 pm

      hey Vicky! The ‘BOO!’ sheet explains it all but I think you’re supposed to ‘boo’ 2 people. However, my girlfriend who BOO’ed us first delivered SIX boo baskets to start off–I think anything goes! Have fun, and huge thanks for reading, my friend!

      Reply
  4. Brandy

    October 26, 2012 at 12:15 am

    I have never done this with people’s homes, but where I taught elementary school the classrooms did it with one another. Always so much fun. Unrelated side note: I will be in your part of the country come March. Probably not very close to you but a lot closer than I am now (AL). We are going on a trip with another homeschool family to D.C and Williamsburg. I have never been to either unless you count a layover at the airport on my way to Boston. I am soooo very excited!

    Reply
    • amy

      October 26, 2012 at 11:45 am

      Oh, how neat!! BRANDY. I am totally going to meet you down in DC when you come up here–seriously inviting myself along for a part of the day. Or at least for a minute to say hello and hug you IN REAL LIFE. 🙂 Williamsburg is awesome. DC is so cool. You’ll have a great time. Please check out this post by my pal Jess: http://aparentinsilverspring.com/2010/02/what-to-do-with-kids-in-washington-dc-100-things.html in case you want/need some more ideas (I’m sure you have it all planned out already!)

      Reply
  5. pat

    September 16, 2014 at 6:15 pm

    What a neat idea to do with the grandkids!

    Reply

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