Halloween Crafts for Kids: 12 Easy, Not-Scary Ideas

Halloween crafts don't need to be scary to be fun. These twelve ideas use friendly pumpkins, smiling ghosts and cheerful bats, so they're perfect for little ones who aren't keen on the spooky side of the season. Most use paper, glue and things from the recycling bin, and each one comes with tips to make it easier or harder.

What you'll need

• Printed pages from our Halloween coloring pages
• Crayons, markers or paint
• Child-safe scissors and a glue stick
• Paper plates, toilet-roll tubes, lolly sticks
• Orange, black, white and green paper
• Optional: googly eyes, cotton wool, pipe cleaners, string

Cover the table with newspaper and set out everything before you start, so little hands aren't left waiting.

1. Paper plate pumpkin

1. Paint or color a paper plate orange.
2. Add a green paper stem and a leaf.
3. Cut out triangle eyes and a smiling mouth from black paper and glue them on (or draw a happy face).

Easier: use a coloring page pumpkin glued to the plate. Harder: add a curly pipe-cleaner vine.

2. Friendly ghost garland

Color and cut out several ghosts from our Halloween pages. Give them different expressions: happy, surprised, sleepy. Tape them along a string and hang them across a window or doorway.

3. Toilet-roll bats

1. Paint a toilet-roll tube black (or wrap it in black paper).
2. Cut wings from black paper and glue them to the back.
3. Fold the top of the tube down to make ears.
4. Add googly eyes and a little smile.

Hang them upside down from a string for a bat cave. More ideas: toilet roll crafts.

4. Handprint spiders

Trace your child's hand twice on black paper (fingers are legs), cut out and glue the palms together to make an eight-legged spider. Add googly eyes and hang it from a pipe-cleaner thread.

5. Cotton-wool ghosts

Draw a ghost outline on dark blue or black paper. Children glue on cotton wool balls to fill it, then add two black eyes. It's a lovely sensory craft for toddlers.

6. Monster masks

Paper plates make great masks. Cut out eye holes, then let children design their own monster with paint, paper, pipe-cleaner antennae and googly eyes. Tape a lolly stick to the bottom to hold it up.

7. Pumpkin suncatchers

Cut a pumpkin shape out of the middle of black card. Stick contact paper behind it and fill it with torn orange and yellow tissue paper. Tape it to a window and watch it glow.

8. Candy corn pattern strips

Cut paper strips in yellow, orange and white and glue them in a repeating pattern. This is a gentle way to practise patterns, which is great early math.

9. Witch's hat crown

Color a witch's hat from a Halloween page, cut it out and staple it to a strip of paper sized to your child's head.

10. Haunted house collage

Draw a simple house on black paper. Add yellow windows, a paper moon, bats and a friendly ghost peeping out of the door.

11. Painted mini pumpkins

Skip the carving knife. Small children can paint real mini pumpkins with washable or acrylic paint and add stickers. It's safer than carving and the pumpkins last longer.

12. Halloween I Spy

Not a craft, but a great calm-down activity after making. Count and color pumpkins, bats and ghosts on an I Spy page.

Ideas by age

Toddlers (2–3): cotton-wool ghosts, sticker pumpkins, painting mini pumpkins and big Big & Simple pages. A grown-up does all the cutting.

Preschoolers (3–5): paper plate pumpkins, handprint spiders, suncatchers and pattern strips.

School age (6–9): toilet-roll bats, monster masks, haunted house collages and garlands they design.

Tweens (10+): let them run a craft station for younger siblings, design a full window display or make detailed paper-cut silhouettes.

Using crafts at a party

Set up two or three craft stations at a Halloween party. Children can make a mask at the first station, a bat at the second and color at the third. Keep finished crafts on a drying table with names on them. See Halloween activities for kids for party games.

Common mistakes to avoid

• Too scary. Let children choose how spooky they want their crafts to be.
• Loose glitter. It gets everywhere. Use glitter glue or skip it.
• Doing too much for them. Wonky bats and lopsided pumpkins are part of the fun.

Frequently asked questions

What's the easiest Halloween craft for toddlers?

Cotton-wool ghosts and sticker pumpkins. Both need very little cutting and are lovely sensory activities.

How can I make Halloween crafts less scary?

Use bright colors, smiling faces and friendly characters like cartoon bats, happy pumpkins and silly monsters.

Can these crafts work in a classroom?

Yes. Most need only paper, glue and scissors, and they can be prepared ahead with pre-cut shapes for large groups.