Celebrating Halloween with your Looked After Child
Why is Halloween celebrated?
Halloween began as the festival of Samhain, part of the ancient Celtic religion in Britain and other parts of Europe.
Hundreds of years ago people believed, during Halloween, the spirits of dead people could come 'alive' and walk among the living.
The Celts would have a big party and it was all to scare away the ghosts and spirits. People would light bonfires to ward off ghosts and would put masks on after dark so the ghosts would think they were fellow spirits.
In more modern times Samhain is celebrated from October 31st to November 1st to welcome in the harvest and welcome in the dark cold winter.
Celebrating Halloween with your Looked After Child
It's important that you are mindful of this and communicate with your child or young person prior to an event to help eliminate some of their fears and address any concerns they may have surrounding this time of year.
What can you do this Halloween?
Even though this year might be slightly different from last year, you can still have a fun Halloween without trick-or-treating. Have a look at our ideas below.
- Make things that are usually “scary”, fun or silly. Think Monsters Inc!
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Decorate pumpkins
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Pick a family costume theme and stage a family photo-shoot
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Bring the decor indoors. There are plenty of non-scary decorations!
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Watch some family-friendly Halloween films
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Trick or treat at home! Decorate each room, dim the lights and give out different sweets in each doorway
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Pumpkin patch stomp game. Lay down a string of tied-together orange balloons "pumpkins" filled with sweets and go crazy stomping on them
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Play hide and seek but with sweets
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Prepare a Spooktacular Halloween dinner
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Host a virtual party. I think we can all agree Zoom has become the norm for 2020, why not host a virtual costume party
- Go "ghosting", ghosting is a way to show people you are thinking of them even when you can't hang out with them in person. Make a bag of Halloween goodies and leave it on a friend's, family's or neighbour's doorstep
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Halloween bake night. (Our favourite!)
Interested in Becoming a Foster Carer?
We're pleased that you would like to register your interest in fostering with Futures Group.
- Have a spare bedroom
- Are over 21 years of age (there is no upper age limit)
- Have experience of interacting with children or young people
We're always looking for foster carers from different cultural, religious and racial backgrounds, single people, couples (whether married or living together, with or without children). Together we can make a difference to children's lives.