If your idea of celebrating Halloween doesn’t involve scary movies, devils, and witches, try switching it up with a faith-based holiday celebration.
Christian kids can celebrate Halloween the way it was intended, as the eve before All Saints Day. Instead of focusing on the secular version, we as disciples of Jesus can make it into an occasion where we let the light of Christ shine through.
Fortunately, religious doesn’t have to mean boring. We have lots of great ideas for fun activities, pumpkin carving, costumes, treats, and decorations. Let the festivities begin!
Enchanting Activities
Pumpkin Prayer Booklet
Turn an ordinary Halloween activity into an act of faith with this Pumpkin Prayer Booklet. Instead of creating silly faces on your pumpkin, use this activity to demonstrate God’s love for us.
Prepare the pumpkin ahead of time by removing the seeds and guts, then carve out the pumpkin sections and place them back in the holes.
Have children take turns removing pieces as you work through the prayer. Use our free Pumpkin Prayer Booklet or you can purchase the Pumpkin Prayer Booklet With Hearts.
Gratitude Tree
Celebrate the fall season with a joyful heart full of gratitude for God’s blessings. This Gratitude Tree Activity will help little ones appreciate their many blessings as they attach leaves to the tree with all their most precious gifts.
Pumpkin Bible Craft
Another great thankfulness activity is this cute Pumpkin Bible Craft Creation by Mrs. Jones Creation Station. Cut out the strips of orange paper that read, “I am thankful for” and have kids complete the sentence with their greatest treasures. Staple them together in a circle formation, then finish with the Bible verse leaves.
Christian Halloween Crafts
Not only will you find lots of coloring activities from Printablee, you’ll also discover many great activities to help little ones celebrate Halloween with spirit. There are door decorations, windsock crafts, bible quote printables, and lots of other spooktacular ideas included in their Christian Halloween Crafts Ideas.
Trinity Candy Corn Coloring Page
The Father, Son, and Holy Ghost can be learned while coloring these sweet treats. Help young ones understand the Holy Trinity by comparing it to candy corn. The three colors represent each part of the Trinity – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, yet combined, they make one whole candy corn (Trinity).
For additional resources on teaching the Trinity, check out our St. Patrick and the Holy Trinity Catechism lesson.
Gord-geous Christian-Themed Pumpkins
Most Halloween pumpkins have some sort of disfigured smiling face, but there’s no rule that says you have to carve your pumpkins that way. As a matter of fact, there are no rules when it comes to pumpkin carving!
Let your imagination run wild with some great cutouts that inspire warm and cozy fall feelings. Using inspiration from the Pumpkin Prayer, try using hearts for eyes, a cross for the nose, and fish for the mouth.
Don’t want to get messy? Use markers to draw scenes, faces, or words of love. Or cut out shapes from construction paper and glue onto the pumpkin.
Pumpkin Carving Ideas
- Crosses
- Fish
- Hearts
- Lion
- Words of Inspiration – Jesus, Love, Mary, Angels, Heaven, etc.
- Dove (Holy Spirit)
- Flowers
- Crown of Thorns
If you need a little help coming up with great ideas, check out these Christian-themed pumpkin carving ideas from Daring Daughters.
Use your imagination to carve out sentiments of faith, hope, and charity while enjoying the simple joys of pumpkin carving with little ones.
After you’re done carving your pumpkin and saying the Pumpkin Prayer, save those seeds to plant new “seeds of faith”. Children’s Ministry has a great bible lesson incorporated into planting pumpkin seeds. This is a great way to include a catechism lesson in a fun activity.
For more ideas on what to do with pumpkin seeds, check out all the great Pumpkin Seed Activities from Fun-a-Day.
Fa-BOO-less Faith-Based Costumes
Turn away from the devils and witches and let the spirit of All Saints Day inspire your children’s costumes. Instead of demonstrating the darker side of Halloween, let this holiday be an opportunity to show the world what Christians look like. Here are a few ideas for costumes.
- Jesus
- Mother Mary
- Queen Esther
- Joan of Arc
- Mother Theresa
- David & Goliath (joint costume idea)
- Moses
Looking for more inspiration? Try these Easy Saint Costumes by Catholic All Year . Talk about easy. Kendra at Catholic All Year has created adorable costumers for All Saints’ Day using t-shirts. Using simple materials, you can make Halloween what it was originally intended to celebrate, All Hallow’s Eve, the day before All Saints’ Day. Let’s put the faith back in Halloween with these creative costumes!
All Treats, No Tricks
What’s Halloween without Trick or Treating? Give them a sweet treat with an even sweeter message with these Scripture Lollipops with inspiration messages printed on the wrapper.
Another great treat to hand out are these Scripture “Fruit of the Spirit” Gummies.
Share your Halloween treats with these Christian Pumpkin Party Favor Bags, with inspiring messages of God’s love.
Thrilling Games
Minute to Win It Games
Minute to Win It Games are super easy and quick games to keep kids entertained. As the name implies, each game lasts only one minute (or you can designate any time), and the pace is pretty fast.
- Israelites Building The Egyptian Pyramids
- Take 36 cups and have players stack them in pyramid formation as quickly as they can. The first to get them stacked without falling over is the winner.
- Breath of the Holy Spirit
- Players use a straw to blow a cotton ball across the table. The first to the finish line wins.
- People of the Bible
- Each player gets a piece of paper and pencil. Have an adult yell out a letter and have kids write down a person in the Bible whose name starts with that letter. The person with the most names written at the end wins.
- Tower of Babel
- Using legos, duplo blocks, or any stacking blocks, have players build the tower of Babel as high as they can make it without it falling over. The highest tower at the end of one minute wins.
- Fishers of Men
- This carnival style game uses magnets attached to fishing poles and fish. Players try to “catch” as many fish as they can in one minute. The player with the most fish wins. Try this pre-made magnetic fishing toy game or make your own with wooden fish toys, magnets, and poles with string and magnet attached.
- Feed the Crowds
- Using the same fish from the Fishers of Men game or something similar to these plastic fish toys, have children attempt to throw these fish into baskets, just like when Jesus fed the multitude and there were 12 wicker baskets of leftover fish and bread.
Trunk or Treat
Opting for Trunk or Treat this year instead of traditional trick or treating? Try one of these 12 Fun Trunk or Treat Ideas from ChurchLeaders.
For those not familiar, Trunk or Treat is where you set up your cars as stations, complete with Halloween decorations and themes. My kids’ school offered this safe activity for little ones, and it was always a big success. The best part is picking a theme for your vehicle, and the adults get to join in on the fun too!
To really make this a Christian-based holiday, try decorating each vehicle with a story from the Bible, such as the story of creation, the 12 tribes of Israel, the nativity, or the 12 apostles.
Decorations With Spirit
Who says Halloween has to be scary? Take the fear out of this holiday with some uplifting decor that will inspire trick or treaters instead of scaring them.
Oriental Trading has these adorable Christian Pumpkin Cutouts for a Christian centered Halloween.
They also have a bunch of other adorable faith-based decorations, such as this Life is Scary Without Jesus Halloween sign craft kit.
Decorating for Halloween at school? Try this Fall in Love With Jesus Bulletin Board to inspire little ones with messages of hope and love.
Take the Halloween love outside with some cute yard signs. Make tombstones with scriptures, crosses, or “Holy Ghosts” to incorporate faith and fun. If you’re not feeling crafty, purchase these religious Halloween mini yard signs.
Turn on the cuteness with fun religious Halloween Monster yard signs.
No matter how you choose to celebrate Halloween, including some of these faithfully fun ideas is a great way to make this holiday inspirational.
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