I am a big fan of the Christmas Lights scavenger hunt we do every year, and it continues to evolve into both a tradition for our family and a competition.
In the spirit of “more is more,” why not add a scavenger hunt to your trick or treating tradition as well?
The idea is quite simple and even if the kids are too busy running from house to house, filling pillowcases full of candy, the adults will at least have something to do. For starters we’re going to have the scavenger hunt list that itemizes the specific things you’re looking for on your hunt.
Rather than collecting it, you just need to see it in order to check it off your list. You’ll have to use the honour system on this one. Your list can include decorations that you might see on people’s yards, as well as costumes you might see on passing trick or treaters.
A few items to get you started could include orange twinkle lights, Halloween music, a disco ball, a carved Jack-o-lantern, an inflatable ghost, a large spider, white cobwebs, a scarecrow, a trick or treat sign, a lightsabre, a character from Star Wars, a Disney princess, one of the Avengers, a child with a pillowcase for candy, a parent walking with coffee, a parent dressed up, someone wearing glowsticks, a black light, a laser light projected on a house or a child wearing a winter parka.
If you want to make it even more interesting for the adults in your group, you can attach a physical challenge to a certain costume. Two years ago, every time we saw an Elsa, we had to do ten lunges. We did a lot of lunges and burned off the calories we were going to eat from our kid’s candy bags later.
Technically you could do this instead of trick or treating if you want to cut down on the sugar. You can also have your kids trade 75 per cent of their candy the next day for a new toy like we do. We find it’s a great compromise for our kid who still want to trick or treat.
