This collection of frightfully fun ideas for a family Halloween-themed movie and craft night is guaranteed to inspire screams of delight!
Hosting a Halloween party? Make a night of it by pairing your Halloween movie & craft with pumpkin decorating, a set of our free printable mini Halloween doodle books for favors, a game of Halloween bingo, and a big bowl of healthy homemade cinnamon apple chips for hungry movie-watchers!
Kids Halloween Movie Craft Ideas
1. Watch Hocus Pocus and Make a Paper Witch Boot Craft
A Halloween kids’ movie that needs no introduction, if ever a craft fit for the Sanderson sisters, it would be these wickedly whimsical witch boots on a broomstick.
2. Watch It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown, and Make Stamped Pumpkin Art
With so many iconic moments, it was nearly impossible to pick just ONE craft to pair with this Snoopy classic, but we thought we’d pay homage to the star of the show, the Great Pumpkin with potato stamp pumpkin prints.
Play with stamps and experiment with new art supplies as you make your own printed patch. You never know what will rise out of your own gallery of gourds on Halloween night…!
As a bonus, take our free printable Halloween nature scavenger hunts to the pumpkin patch and help your little ones get in the Halloween spirit looking high and low for their own spooky outdoor observances.
3. Watch Casper and Make a Ghost Craft for Kids
The friendliest ghost is also the most festive! Make Casper a part of your own friendly family with our ghost family portrait project. Or try an adorably artsy scrap paper ghost craft – a boo-tiful way for little bats & ghouls to celebrate October while practicing a bit of not-so-spooky mark-making.
4. Watch a Classic Halloween Cartoon and Make Playdough Pumpkins
Combine classic animated Halloween shorts like Disney’s “Trick or Treat,” Garfield’s Halloween Adventure, Scooby Doo, Bugs Bunny’s Howl-aween Special, Tom and Jerry Halloween favorites, or The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad with an equally iconic Halloween theme…pumpkins and jacks!
These playdough Jack-O-Lanterns are hands-on fun for the whole family! Or use a set of printable features to make your own upcycled cereal box jack-o-lanterns – a little velcro lets you arrange and re-arrange all October long!
5. Watch Monsters, Inc. and Make Recycled Monster Treat Pails
Boo! Like the movie itself, this monster flick and craft paring is kid-friendly and brimming over with creativity. Curl up on the couch with a bowl of popcorn and make your own upcycled monster treat buckets!
Bonus? These slightly smaller-than-average treat containers are the perfect size for your own little monsters and can double as a kid-safe lantern!
6. Watch Coco and Make a Sugar Skull Craft
These salt dough sugar skulls from Brainy Beginnings Network are the perfect companion craft to Coco!
As an alternative, print out our own BIG paper skeleton costume activity. – recreate their family or make up your very own Coco-inspired skeleton characters.
7. Watch Halloweentown and Make Trick-or-Treat Puppets
When it comes to kids’ Halloween specials, Halloweentown is absolute CANON. The movie features a universe filled with (not-so-scary) witches, warlocks, vampires, werewolves, mummies, ghosts, trolls, zombies, pumpkinheads, and MORE.
So if your little one is just discovering costumes and Halloween characters, pair a viewing with DIY costumed popsicle stick puppets (via hello, Wonderful) for a treat-filled night!
8. Watch Hotel Transylvania and Make Pom Pom Bats
You just never know what you’ll find hanging around in an old hotel..! In this case, it’s a band of silly monster misfits that provides more fun than fright (perfect for little ones). Combine the giggles with a gaggle of these cute pom-pom vampire bats (via Make Film Play) for a bloody good time.
9. Watch Kiki’s Delivery Service and Make a Black Cat Lantern Craft
Celebrate young witch Kiki’s journey into the realm of humans with a paper bag DIY black cat lantern featuring the sweet and sarcastic Jiji in front of a full moon!
10. Watch Frankenweenie and Make a Zombie Pet Plush
It’s alive…it’s ALLIIIIIVE….!! Well…sorta. 😉 Beloved pets return to life in this spookily stylish picture, so can you imagine a better craft to pair with it than a zombie bunny softie?! If you’re amazed such a dreadfully delicious DIY even exists, you’ve never met my uber-creative friend Shannon from Oh Creative Day…!
11. Watch Lemony Snicket’s Series of Unfortunate Events and Make Disguises
Those poor Baudelaire children are constantly having to outrun the murderous Count Olaf – a master of disguises. Create your own set of simple but clever DIY paper disguises with a free printable set (from Red Ted Art).
12. Watch The Haunted Mansion and Make a Hatbox Box Craft
From “Grim Grinning Ghosts,” to the actual ride, to the movie re-creation – The Haunted Mansion is a Halloween classic around here. I was absolutely doubled over with cackles of joy when I found this clever DIY for a hatbox ghost from All for the Boys.
I can easily see a collection of these, lit with flameless tealights tucked into the corners of a kids’ bookshelf or on a Halloween table.
13. Watch the Gravity Falls Series and Make A Mystery Spell Book Craft
Though not technically a Halloween series, the premise of Gravity Falls is perfect for October streaming, and the entire series is INCREDIBLY fun for both kids and parents to watch. Keep a third eye out for our DIY spell book craft coming soon!
14. Watch Monster House and Make a Paper Haunted House Craft
Here’s another slightly spooky streaming favorite in our household. Little haunted house enthusiasts will scream for Monster House while designing 2D haunted houses all their own made from our custom-made printable pieces.
15. Watch Paranorman and Make Mystery Playdough
A new stop-motion Halloween favorite of mine, Paranorman has us in [Frankenstein] stitches every Halloween. It’s a little bit strange, a pinch scary, and a tad snarky, making it a great choice for kids who are dying for a Halloween movie that’s more creepy than cute. Add some zombie-inspired jet-black mystery playdough (from Left Brain Craft Brain) for an eye-poppingly eerie project & picture combo.
16. Watch 100% Wolf and Make DIY Werewolf Art
A sweet, somewhat overlooked movie with a lovely message, 100% Wolf is a great October watch for little howlers. And our adorable torn paper werewolf craft makes the perfect artful compliment project.
17. Watch Nightmare Before Christmas and Make a Jack Skellington Wreath
What’s this, what’s this..?! It’s a Nightmare Before Christmas extravaganza fit for the King of Halloween Town himself! Make a decorative tribute to Jack Skellington (via Red Ted Art) to deck your halls while you watch the movie that turned stop-motion horror into kid-friendly movie magic and made Tim Burton a household name.
18. Watch Over the Garden Wall and Make October Landscape Nature Art
Our October landscape nature craft is the perfect moody fall project to pair with Over the Garden Wall – not a Halloween series per se, but the vibes are definitely October-ish!
19. Watch Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory and Make Candy Mandalas
If you’re planning a family movie + craft night, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory is basically the golden ticket. (Sorry, couldn’t resist.)
While the kids are marveling at the trippy scenery and Oompa-Loompa dance breaks, set out bowls of candy or snacks so they can make their own edible mandalas. It’s a perfect way to channel that sugar-charged energy into something creative.
20. Watch The Witches and Make an Egg Carton Witch Craft
The first scary movie I can remember watching was The Witches and it STILL gives me the creeps as an adult – moving oil paintings…chilling!
Should you dare to watch this Roald Dahl Halloween classic, upcycled egg carton witches (via ART CAMP) are a perfect way to shake off the hair-raising vibes. Be sure to save up a few cartons so you can create your own creepy coven come October…!
21. Watch Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone and Make DIY Revelio Charms
Though the first Harry Potter movie premiered just in time for Christmas, the spirit of the full HP movie catalog screams Halloween to me!
To add a little mystery and magic to your own movie-watching experience, try this intriguing science-based DIY magic charm (from Anna at Babble Dabble Do)!
Conjure the series’ imaginative creatures, ghosts, goblins & warlocks with your own magic spells – a trick AND a treat. Add our DIY paint potions lab for even MORE wizarding fun!
22. Watch The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad and Make Suspended Pumpkin Lanterns
A classic that I, myself remember watching as a kid way back in the 80s, Disney’s telling of Ichabod Crane features that lovely old-school animation style with storytelling that kids of all ages will find a little silly and a little spooky.
After watching, create your own floating jack-o-lantern (a bit like the horseman’s head, no?).
Halloween Movies and Crafts for Older Kids
Due to themes that may be a bit more “mature,” a little adult humor, or a scarier scene or two, these Halloween family flicks *may* be best suited to pre-teens and above. But give them a preview and use your own judgment (these classics are fun for parents to watch again and AGAIN).
23. Watch Ghostbusters and Make Ecto-Cooler
What goes better with an iconic eighties family horror movie than a technicolor beverage served up in a squeezable pack? If you were a kid of the ’80s, you’ll instantly recognize this healthier DIY Ecto-Cooler recipe, poured into a Capri-Sun-like reusable pouch – we even recreated the classic Slimer Ecto-Cooler design!
Sip and stream this “supernatural spectacular” for a trip back to the Halloweens of your youth.
As an alternative (or addition!), make monstrously fun light-up ghostly terrariums.
24. Watch The Addams Family and Make a Wednesday Softie
Beware snugglers…cuddle this sarcastic softie at your own risk! By pairing some adult sewing help with kid-painted features & clothing, this DIY Wednesday Addams doll is a spooky little sewing project that the whole family can participate in.
25. Watch E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial and Make an Alien
Okay, fellow 80’s kids – pull on your sweatshirts and grab your bikes, we’re going to need to revisit this movie. Even though I rarely see it listed among Halloween movies, it is an absolute October must-watch for me – and a viewing just wouldn’t be complete without a DIY alien of your very own (and maybe a box of tissues, because I still tear up every time!).
26. Watch Beetlejuice and Make a 3D Haunted House
If you haven’t watched Beetlejuice in a while, you may have forgotten that the beautifully quirky house played a starring role! Make your own black & white (Beetlejuice-styled!) haunted house while you watch – just beware of the Beetlejuice curse…you never know what will happen in your adorable new abode when you invite Beetlejuice in…!
27. Watch Practical Magic and Make a Taste-Safe Love Potion or Tarot Cards
Forget sticking to the Halloween season – when I was in junior high I watched the spooky sisters of Practical Magic on repeat all year long. So when I ran across this “love spell” taste-safe magic
Combine it with our DIY tarot card-making activity and spend the rest of the evening predicting futures like you’re one of the Owens’.
28. Watch Batman and Make A Paper Bat Craft
There is no shortage of Batman entertainment to pick from these days, but for my money, nothing beats the iconic duo of Keaton and Nicholson’s Batman and Joker.
If you have older kids who can appreciate the quirkiness of late ’80s movies (and a Prince jam for the ages!) stream this Tim Burton classic while making your own colony of bendable mixed media bats.
29. Watch Are You Afraid of the Dark? and Make DIY Camp Lanterns
Gather ’round the fire, friends as I tell you about a dark and stormy night, waaaay back in the early ’90s when Nickelodeon’s SNICK ruled the pre-teen TV lineup and scary stories were the best way to spend a Saturday night.
If you’ve never caught an episode of “Are You Afraid of the Dark” you can find a classic throwback (watch for a young Ryan Gosling!) or stream the new version. And submitted for the approval of the midnight society: a craft to keep those campfire vibes burning – our own DIY recycled camp lantern.
30. Watch The House With a Clock in Its Walls and Make a Skeleton Key
A movie that had just fallen off my radar, I happened across The House With a Clock in Its Walls one chilly October Sunday and LOVED the imaginative spirit.
Watch for our new clay Skeleton Key kids art project coming this October as a companion craft!
31. Watch Edward Scissorhands and Make Paper Topiary Art
Here’s a favorite that I revisit EVERY single Halloween (and yet another Tim Burton movie to add to the list!). With lots of fantastical scenery, an endlessly imaginative story, and loads of heart, this flick never gets old.
A few years ago I made a paper topiary art project inspired by the film, so grab a set of cookie cutters and design your own Edward-inspired landscape while you fall in love with the quirky tale.
More Easy Kids Halloween Entertainment Ideas
Add a movie night to a longer list of October countdown activities – we have lots of inspiration for you in our collection of creative family Halloween bucket list ideas!
For a break from screentime, fire up our Halloween playlist over on Spotify for spooky tunes suitable for bats and ghouls of all ages, then find a good read with our BIG collection of Halloween books for kids.
GETTING READY TO TRY this?
I love seeing all the ways people make these ideas their own! If you're sharing the results of one of our projects, mention or tag me with @barleyandbirch, or share it in the comments of one of our Pinterest project pins.
