My Ultimate Halloween Bucket List

Of course I love Halloween. Is it my favorite holiday, though? I don't think I can choose just one favorite. 

But Halloween is one of my favorites partly because it's my mom's birthday. Mostly, it's a fun low-stress holiday with zero obligations. 

No gift shopping. No coordinated food prep for days beforehand. I just love the no pressure, fun atmosphere of this iconic American holiday. 

All I have to do is find a few secondhand costumes, buy some candy to share, and show up just me and my immediate family. (I also take my mom out to dinner but she likes to do that on another day.)

Being free from social obligations means I have the energy to celebrate all month long however I want! 

I've made a Halloween specific bucket list for myself and thought I would share it. Personally, I think it's my most creative list so far. 

Some of these ideas are basic while others are unique to make the ultimate all around awesome Halloween season! 

Tell me which of these ideas resonates with you at the end of this post! Also, leave a comment if you have any additional ideas for me.  

1. Host a big Halloween party (mine was standing room only!) ✓

2. Win a costume contest (We got a restaurant giftcard as our prize) ✓

3. Plan a couple's costume ✓

4. Have coordinated costumes with your family or a group of friends ✓

5. Dress up as a pinata with a nerf stick or pool noodle. Let people hit me with it and when they do I'll scream and throw candy in the air.

We announced our pregnancy on Halloween!

6. Spooky movie marathon

7. Give candy to trick-or-treaters ✓

8. Carve pumpkins (obvious maybe but a lot of people haven't done this yet) ✓

9. Go to a fall festival ✓

10. Get through a corn maze ✓

I quite enjoy corn mazes when we have it all to ourselves 

11. Have a Witchy photoshoot. I want to dress up and go to the woods with my cousins. I'm thinking moody photos with green smoke bombs and a cauldron. 

12. Do a Ghost photoshoot. (I did one with my kids last year as a play on feeling tired and unalive as a mom of three littles. I used the caption: "Check on the ghost moms in your life. They might be 💀") ✓

13. Pumpkin Head photoshoot

14. Horsemaning photoshoot. Try this fun photography trend from 100 years ago! You'll need a friend to do this with you. See how many "headless" poses you can do! 

My ghost video was even more fun to make than I hoped.

15. Put a colored smoke bomb in your jack-o-lantern ✓

16. Go to a pumpkin walk

17. Go to pumpkin day at the zoo and watch animals smash and eat  pumpkins  (We got to see the camels with their pumpkin treats) ✓ 

18. Have a pumpkin carving contest. Assign a few judges and have a few categories to win like scariest, cutest, most intricate, etc.

19. Make Wednesday Addams's black lemonade. Homemade lemonade with some black food coloring and some dry ice.

An apple cider slushie at an orchard is perfect on a sunny fall day.

20. Bake chewy pumpkin chocolate chip cookies! This recipe slays and the cookies are not even a teeny bit fluffy. I use mini chocolate chips though. ✓

21. Decorate your living space for Halloween ✓

22. Decorate the garden. Preferably with homemade creations

23. Listen to a spooky book while walking your neighborhood at night. (I loved listening to World War Z while spying creepy decorations in the dark.) ✓

Our neighborhood goes all out with their Halloween decorations

24. Take a walk in the woods at night. Are you brave enough to go alone?

25. Go on a ghost tour. I especially want to take a tour in Savannah, GA.

26. Read dark stories by candlelight like Edgar Allen Poe or Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury

27. Go to a murder mystery dinner or host your own

I made these Marshmallow and Kristoff costumes, but not from scratch. Love them! 

28. Go to an escape room. See if you can find a zombie themed escape room (I haven't had the zombie experience yet) ✓

29. Do something that scares you. Maybe horror movies don't phase you, but are you brave enough to sing karaoke in front of a crowd? Do you have it in you to try a food that makes you feel little apprehensive? It can be anything as long as it's unnerving to you.

30. Make a Halloween playlist. (I've got a funky mix of dance music and spooky alternatives) ✓

31. Have a glow in the dark dance party. (I bought 100 glow sticks for an epic post trick-or-treating dance party for less than $9.) ✓

Trick-or-treat after party with all the glowsticks and spooky music

32. Run in a Zombie 5K or a Glow 5K (I genuinely love the idea of running from zombies. Pretend zombies that is.)

33. Go to High Fitness Halloween! (my favorite)  ✓

34. Host a mystery movie night with homemade caramel corn and chilled apple cider from a local apple orchard. (I make my caramel corn with 1/2 c salted butter, 1 c brown sugar, 1 can sweetened condensed milk, and 10-ish cups of popped popcorn) ✓

35. Have a Halloween bonfire maybe with savory s'mores (cheese to toast, dried meats, crackers) and decorations

36. Get the most out of your costume/kids' costumes and wear them as many times as possible in the month of October ✓

My kids asked for Jack and Sally pumpkins which warmed my heart.

37. Go to a haunted attraction. Haunted houses, haunted forests, haunted cornmazes, haunted hayrides. I love it all! ✓

38. Attend a Halloween candlelight concert with a quartet playing Halloween classics

39. Enjoy an apple cider slushie at an orchard (Rowley's for me) ✓

40. Indulge in hot, freshly made apple cider donuts. We get them at Cross E Ranch and eat them right away. Do you like cinnamon sugar or glazed best? I can't decide. ✓

I prefer the hot donuts at Cross E Ranch!

41. Go axe throwing. Bonus if you wear a Jason hockey mask or a Scream mask ✓

42. Make a black cocoa chocolate cake

43. Create a witchy bubble bath! Favorite fall scented bubble bath, glowsticks, maybe even a blacklight? ✓

43. Decorate my yard with an Elden Ring theme! This one is kind of far fetched but a girl can dream, right? I'm thinking a 12 ft Death Bird, a Fingercreeper lurking on my roof, and a Chanting Winged Dame to serenade passersby. 

I married a wonderful man who truly loves to dress up for Halloween with the family!

45. Make a costume entirely from scratch

46. Create a no-buy costume only from things you already own or can borrow ✓

47. Make pumpkin spice ghosty sweet rolls. (Shape them like ghosts before baking and use chocolate chips for the eyes and mouth on top of the frosting)

48. Toast your pumpkin seeds for a healthy and delicious snack. (I boil them in salt water for about 10 minutes then toss them in a mixture of melted butter and worcestershire sauce and/or garlic powder, spread them on a baking sheet and toast them for 1.5 to 2 hours at 210°F) ✓

49. Hold a screaming contest! Select a judge to determine who's scream is the most shrill, loudest, scariest, and so on. 

I love some good toasted pumpkin seeds. The secret is butter and garlic! 

And there you have it! I will likely add to this list from time to time. I hope you found some ideas for your own spooky season! 

Hi, I'm Kaitlyn and I'm so glad you're here. Get to know me and more about my blog