Designing Your Own Halloween Candy Basket
Are you looking to design a Halloween candy basket?
Halloween is almost here! It’s one of the most important days of the year to kids, who are ready and raring to go racing through the neighborhood in search of candy. Which means it’s also one of the most important days of the year for you too, as their parent.
But as important as it is, it does like to sneak up on us. Sandwiched between back-to-school season and the end-of-year holidays, there’s so much going on around this time of year that it’s easy to forget until the day is upon us. Before you know it, October 31 is on your doorstep ringing the bell, and its “lights, camera, action” as your kids go barreling out the door.
You stand back in pride as you watch your little monster run out the door, but then you notice something. You freeze, you frantically chase after them as you remember—they need something to store their Halloween stash in!
Of all the things to slip you by, the candy basket is one of the most crucial! Repurposing or making an original Halloween candy basket is a great craft activity for your kids and their babysitter to do ahead of the big day. Check out some fun ideas for how to make your own basket!
DIY Halloween Candy Basket Using Upcycled Materials
The spirit of Halloween is in getting creative repurposing mundane things into spooky terrors. Why not do the same with the basket? Upcycle materials lying around the house, yard, or garage to craft on original candy basket.
One of the easiest treat containers, for example, is an old paint tin. Make sure you give the tin a thorough scrub to get rid of any old paint. Then allow your kids to decorate their tin with stickers, Halloween-themed pictures, or paint to really personalize it. Stuffing them with glow sticks are also a spooky option that will also help their candy baskets stand out in the dark!
Duct tape is another easy household option for creating a Halloween masterpiece! Crisis crossing strips of duct tape to weave together the perfect-sized goodie bag. Twist together some handles from tape and attach them to the top, and voila! You can, again, have your kids decorate these bags however they want after, for a unique candy basket to match their Halloween costume.
Repurpose Old Fabric for A Trick-or-Treat Tote
Another option for a fun and funky Halloween candy basket is a DIY Halloween Spiderweb tote bag. Using an ordinary white tote drawstring bag, use a marker or pencil to draw spiderweb outlines all over. Then have your kids go over these lines with glitter paint to make the ultimate spooky candy basket! If you really want to take it to the next level, glue some small plastic spiders to the webs.
Tote bags are so easy to decorate, and offer a world of possibilities! For example, cover their bag in giant spooky eyes to make a ferocious guardian to look out for any potential candy thieves. Just pull together a plain black tote bag, black felt, white and black acrylic paint, and half an apple.
Dip the halved apple in the white acrylic paint, and use this to stamp the whites of the eyes all over the bag. Once these dry, glue small, black felt circles in the centers to make the eyes.
Dress Up Basket Buckets to Store Halloween Treats
Maybe you already have a Halloween candy basket for your kids to use, but want to take it up a notch! Dressing up one of those traditional Dollar Store plastic orange pumpkin buckets is relatively easy—all you need is some gold paint and ribbon. Lay out newspaper to keep things clean, and have your kids deck out their buckets in gold paint.
Once dry, you can decorate the handle with some fun curled ribbons. Adding loads of different length ribbons will make it look almost like hair, even! Your kids will love this sparkly upgrade.
Want something a little scarier? Make a mummy bag. Start with a simple beach sand bucket, and round up some gauze, scotch tape, and some googly eyes. Have your kids encase the whole bucket in gauze wrap, like a mummy, and pin down the ends with tape. Glue the googly eyes to the one side of the Halloween candy basket to finish off your candy-gobbling mummy from beyond the grave!While these are all easy to do at the last minute, you can also get a head start on them beforehand.
Decorating a Halloween candy basket is a great craft activity for your kid and their babysitter one day after school. By the time Halloween rolls around, their baskets will be waiting and ready to go by the door!
Designing A Halloween Candy Basket Is Easy and Fun
These are just a ideas for making the perfect DIY candy basket this Halloween, but the truth is you can use just about anything you have lying at home to make a spooky masterpiece. From paper bags and washing line pegs for funky hair, to a hatched papier-maché dinosaur egg, your only real restriction is the extent of your imagination. The point is: when you forget to plan, don’t worry—get creative!
Or, if you’re more of the plan-ahead type, consider prepping a Halloween candy basket project as a fun project for your babysitter to do with the kids in October. Babysitters like those sourced from Call Emmy love to do hands-on crafts with kids. Call Emmy is an easy-to-use babysitting booking app that lets you find sitters and nannies on-demand. Our sitters are all thoroughly vetted, so you can be sure they are going to be a great time with your kids, and that your kids will be in safe hands. Next time you’re looking for a sitter, check out Call Emmy, and be sure to set some Halloween crafts out for them!