Happy Halloween Halloween is such a fun holiday, especially for kids.
My family loves a good haunted house.
But have you ever noticed how most haunted houses are all about blood and gore, and are much too frightening for children?Who wants their kids viewing torture chambers and beheaded zombies?In my opinion, those things really don't have much to do with Halloween.
I really wanted to have a haunted house that was all about Halloween - witches, ghosts, pumpkins, bats, etc.
So about 7 years ago we started building a kid-friendly haunted house in our garage, which is a HUGE hit every year.
Our house is the most popular in the neighborhood on Halloween, and every year we get more and more visitors.
Our haunted house includes fun Halloween scenes which kids of all ages can enjoy.
(The parents seem to enjoy it too!) We change the haunted house around every year, and each year we add a little more.
Here are some scenes from last year's haunted house.
Entrance/first hallway:Haunted Forest - Fog machine, scary trees with blinking eyes, strobe light, flying ghost, and a talking witch with cauldron.
Second hallway:Black light, green spider web with skeleton and spider, pirate scene with hanging sword that moves via a pulley.
Third hallway:Lit up coffin with smiling mummy, and a graveyard scene with a ghost that rises up and down.
Last hallway:Pumpkin patch including pumpkin with blinking eyes, full moon, scarecrow.
Exit:Hauntville scene - display of haunted houses, ghost on black light that goes up and down.
Tips Start planning your scenes well before Halloween.
Although the first year we did it, we put the whole thing up two days before Halloween.
We only had three scenes, and just used decorations we had around the house.
We have certainly expanded since then.
Start building the haunted house about one - two weeks prior to Halloween.
You want to have everything ready to go the day before Halloween.
To make non-moving things move, we use fish line and drape it over a beam on the garage ceiling.
Then we pull the string when someone walks by.
This is how we make the ghost rise above the tombstone, and make the sword by the pirate move.
We have also purchased several props that move by themself.
We have a ghost that flys back and forth, and a skeleton that rises up and down by itself.
For easy walls, we just use plastic tarp which is very inexpensive from someplace like Target or Walmart.
Some of our props are homemade.
We took several boxes and made them into haunted houses.
We cut out windows and put flickering table top strobe lights in them for an eerie effect.
We also put miniature posable skeletons around the haunted houses as well.
We call this area Hauntville.
These types of projects are great for kids - they can certainly help out with making things for your haunted house.
Lastly, remember to have your kids invite all the kids in their class.
It makes your kids feel kind of special.
Watch a video of my haunted house at www.
hauntedhouseforkids.
com Happy Haunting!
My family loves a good haunted house.
But have you ever noticed how most haunted houses are all about blood and gore, and are much too frightening for children?Who wants their kids viewing torture chambers and beheaded zombies?In my opinion, those things really don't have much to do with Halloween.
I really wanted to have a haunted house that was all about Halloween - witches, ghosts, pumpkins, bats, etc.
So about 7 years ago we started building a kid-friendly haunted house in our garage, which is a HUGE hit every year.
Our house is the most popular in the neighborhood on Halloween, and every year we get more and more visitors.
Our haunted house includes fun Halloween scenes which kids of all ages can enjoy.
(The parents seem to enjoy it too!) We change the haunted house around every year, and each year we add a little more.
Here are some scenes from last year's haunted house.
Entrance/first hallway:Haunted Forest - Fog machine, scary trees with blinking eyes, strobe light, flying ghost, and a talking witch with cauldron.
Second hallway:Black light, green spider web with skeleton and spider, pirate scene with hanging sword that moves via a pulley.
Third hallway:Lit up coffin with smiling mummy, and a graveyard scene with a ghost that rises up and down.
Last hallway:Pumpkin patch including pumpkin with blinking eyes, full moon, scarecrow.
Exit:Hauntville scene - display of haunted houses, ghost on black light that goes up and down.
Tips Start planning your scenes well before Halloween.
Although the first year we did it, we put the whole thing up two days before Halloween.
We only had three scenes, and just used decorations we had around the house.
We have certainly expanded since then.
Start building the haunted house about one - two weeks prior to Halloween.
You want to have everything ready to go the day before Halloween.
To make non-moving things move, we use fish line and drape it over a beam on the garage ceiling.
Then we pull the string when someone walks by.
This is how we make the ghost rise above the tombstone, and make the sword by the pirate move.
We have also purchased several props that move by themself.
We have a ghost that flys back and forth, and a skeleton that rises up and down by itself.
For easy walls, we just use plastic tarp which is very inexpensive from someplace like Target or Walmart.
Some of our props are homemade.
We took several boxes and made them into haunted houses.
We cut out windows and put flickering table top strobe lights in them for an eerie effect.
We also put miniature posable skeletons around the haunted houses as well.
We call this area Hauntville.
These types of projects are great for kids - they can certainly help out with making things for your haunted house.
Lastly, remember to have your kids invite all the kids in their class.
It makes your kids feel kind of special.
Watch a video of my haunted house at www.
hauntedhouseforkids.
com Happy Haunting!