Oh fall. I love the fall. Something about the start of a new school year, new lunch boxes and school outfits with pencils sharpened and ready to go. We lived in married student housing at the University of Utah for several years while my husband attended graduate school. I remember waking up on fall Saturday mornings and going for walks outside to hear the band playing in the football stadium nearby. The tailgaters were already lined up in their spots and there was a sort of excitement and anticipation that you could feel. I love how the air changes and everything gets cool and crisp, and the sun begins to darken a little, making all of the colors of the sunsets and the changed leaves on the trees appear more vibrant. Harvesting that last summer fruit. Seeing the pumpkins and Halloween decorations on every door. It really is a magical season.
And its our absolute favorite.
We literally start celebrating Halloween in September and we are STILL devastated when October ends. It is so much more then the costumes and trick-or-treating. Everything about the season is thrilling.
We also LOVE traditions. We have a Lee family book that is full of our favorite traditions, recipes etc. and we add to it every year. Our toddlers get so excited about the holidays they start asking us “When are we going to start celebrating Halloween?” in August.
Here are some of our fun, unique traditions with our toddlers that we have come to cherish throughout the years.
FRUIT PICKING
Grab some baskets and head to a local U-pick farm. They are EVERYWHERE and the kids LOVE picking their own fruit. There is something about being a part of a harvest, that really adds to the season.
CANNING + BOTTLING
Canning reminds me of my mom, it reminds me of home. I remember those first September days of the school season, coming home from off the bus and our whole house smelled like bottled fruit, apple pie filling, or canned salsa. My mom would always save one bottle for us to try, as an after school snack. I will never forget those smells and images that remind me of fall and remind me of home. Plus the kids can and LOVE being apart of the bottling process. This is a great bottled apple cider recipe.
STATE FAIR
Tis the season for fairs. This is more of a recent tradition for us. The kids love looking at the livestock, the giant pumpkin carving competitions, trying new foods and going on the rides.
SPORTS EVENTS
Something about attending sports events in the fall is amazing. Maybe it’s because the air is so cool and comfortable and the crowd is exhilarating. We love attending major sporting events and local high school football games during the fall season. We love having our own tailgate party, cuddling up in blankets with the kiddos, bringing some popcorn and hot chocolate in a thermos and watching the game.
HALLOWEEN BOOKS AT NIGHT WITH A FLASHLIGHT
This is one of the kids favorites. Every week I let the kids choose new Halloween books at the library (they should have a holiday section). Every night through all of October we read a Halloween book in the dark with a flashlight right before bed. The kiddos LOVE it! Sometimes they will build a fort on the floor for us to all huddle under. Stay tuned next week for my favorite Halloween book list!
POE IN THE DARK AND A COOKIE IN THE PARK
Another fun little tradition or date night idea. We love finding a favorite bakery or cookie shop. During the holidays they always have special little holiday baked goods. We love going and trying some of their new ones and then heading to a park full of leaves. We bring stories by Edgar Allen Poe and read them aloud, or we just talk. Love this little date night or toddler tradition.
PIZZA IN THE GRAVEYARD
This was something that was introduced to me through my husband’s family. Every year they would go to an old mining cemetery. My husbands father had a book about some of the old miners who passed away and were buried in the graveyard. They would have a pizza picnic in the cemetery and listen to Grandpa telling them about the history of the area. Loved this idea!
PUMPKIN CARVING COMPETITION
This is so much fun to do with friends or family. After you pick your amazing pumpkins, doing a pumpkin carving competition is a blast. Choose two people to be the judges- and have them create hilarious awards for the people participating. Here are some great free, printable pumpkin carving patterns.
MURDER MYSTERY SPOOKY DINNER
We have loved doing this with our families, if you can’t find a clean murder mystery online then you can always edit. (Something I have done multiple times). Or if the kiddos are to young to really enjoy a murder mystery dinner, just having a spooky dinner is a blast. We like looking up all sorts of recipes and creating something new each year. One year we did a spaghetti skeleton-breadsticks for bones and noodles for the intestines. Get creative! The kiddos love this. Here are some great ideas for spooky Halloween dinner fun!
WITCHES FESTIVAL
This is unfortunately something they only do in Utah at the Gardener Village Witches Festival but there are festivals everywhere. Google search online and attend one. These are always a blast!
FAMILY HIKE IN THE LEAVES
We love the fall leaves, we love driving through them, biking through them, or building fires in the mountains and just sitting in the fall leaves. Every year we like to choose a spot that is full of multi-colored leaves. We pack a picnic and go on a family hike. This is something I have loved doing each year. You can pick the same spot or switch it up!
BREAKFAST IN THE MOUNTAINS
Something we just started last year but we loved it. We packed up the grill and breakfast stuff and we did breakfast up the mountains surrounded by leaves. The kids played in a little stream nearby and it felt like we were camping, without having to camp on the cold autumn nights.
HOMEMADE DONUTS AND HAUNTED HOUSES
Every year we love making a whole bunch of homemade donuts. We pull out our Halloween decorations and costumes and we let the kids make their own “spooky” haunted house. Then we let them invite their friends over to go through the house and at the end we give them donuts. The kiddos love this! They get pretty creative each year. Here’s our favorite homemade donut recipe if you want to try it out!
CEREAL AND HALLOWEEN MOVIE IN A TENT
Count Chocula for dinner, a tent in the living room and your favorite Halloween movie. Can life get any better than that?
HARRY POTTER PARTY
The kiddos are way to young to actually watch Harry Potter but my husband and I love the books and movies so we have decided this year as a NEW Lee tradition to do a Harry Potter party. We are going to make butter beer (non-alcoholic obviously) witches fingers, and we are going to try out some of these other fun Harry Potter party food ideas. After we are going to play our own game of Quidditch in the back yard. Toddlers with brooms between their legs running, I can’t wait.. ha ha! After kiddos go to bed we will choose a favorite Harry Potter movie and have a little movie date.
HAYRIDE AND PUMPKIN PATCH
Check local listings to find a pumpkin patch or hayride near you. We love trying out different ones each year.
SOUP POTLUCK AND TRICK OR TREATING WITH FRIENDS
This is something we started in married student housing and we loved it. We had everybody bring their favorite fall soup and we had a big soup potluck before going out and trick or treating as a group. The kiddos loved running from house to house with their friends and it was a blast to go in a group. Here are a bunch of freezable, healthy fall soup recipes.
CARAMEL APPLE FESTIVAL
Let the kiddos choose the topping and help make the carmel and then go NUTS!! We love all the combinations they come up with. Here’s an easy caramel apple recipe.
DINNER BY PUMPKIN LIGHT
Another fun Halloween date night idea that Jed and I do every year. After we carve pumpkins we have a dinner by pumpkin light. We try a new recipe and when the kiddos go to bed we head outside on the deck with our lit pumpkins and eat dinner and talk by pumpkin-light. So much fun.
CLASSIC SPOOKY STORY WITH HUBBY
Every year for each holiday Jed and I choose a book for that season (a classic usually) and we read it together each night after the kiddos go to bed. So far we have gotten through: Dracula, Frankenstein, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hide, Werewolf, Christmas Carol, Marley, The Mansion and The Christmas Box. We love doing this together because it feels good to accomplish a goal together and always gives us something new to talk about.
FALL VACATIONS
Jed and I love vacationing in the fall because it’s nice and cool. Kids are in school so it’s far less crowded and the prices are amazing because it’s not a popular time to vacation. We have gone to Italy, New York, Boston, Park City and Yellowstone National Park during the fall season and are planning a vacation to the British Columbia this fall. It is our favorite time to travel. The leaves are beautiful, the weather is cool, the price is amazing and it’s never overcrowded. Perfect.
FUTURE: FIRE OUTSIDE AND HOMEMADE HOT CHOCOLATE FOR TRICK OR TREATERS
This is a tradition for the future, but we still love the idea, so I thought I would share. Someone did this in a neighborhood near us and we loved it. They put chairs around a fire pit outside and had apple cider and donut holes. It was so fun to just stop for a minute and talk around the fire and warm up with some hot chocolate.
Hope you have fun trying out all these crazy traditions, I know we have a blast celebrating them each year.
What are some of your favorite fall/ Halloween traditions?