Baby’s First Halloween: 18 Simple Keepsakes & Traditions You’ll Treasure
These days, there’s just never a dull moment when it comes to my fearless little 10-month-old and the constant stream of new experiences we get to have together. It leaves me with an abundance of joy only a mother would understand. So, now that spooky season is around the corner, I start to think about how I want my baby’s first Halloween to pan out. She won’t remember it, but what are the kind of memories I want to create and what are the new traditions we’ll be excited to practice year after year? One day we’ll excitedly take her trick or treating, but for me she’s just too young to do that this year. So, instead, I began to do some thinking and research and came to the realization that there are quite a few things I can do to celebrate the holiday in fun, memorable, and most importantly, age-appropriate ways. Since this is the perfect chance to slow down, capture keepsakes, and start traditions that will grow with my family for years to come, I’m uncharacteristically excited about the whole thing!
Keepsake & Memory Ideas
1. Handprint Pumpkins
Paint your baby’s tiny hands or feet with non-toxic paint and stamp them on a mini pumpkin. To make it something to keep forever, put the hand or footprints on a fake pumpkin and add the year with a paint pen to make it an instant heirloom.
2. Halloween Handprint Garland
Each year, trace or stamp your child’s hand on cardstock and then cut the cardstock into ghost or pumpkin shapes. String them together to make a growing garland of memories. Keep them stored away in a manila envelope and you can even laminate them at home for added protection through the years.
3. Memory Ornaments
Again, use your baby’s handprint or footprint but this time press those little hands or feet into clay and bake or air-dry them. Hang it each October. Making a designated area of the house for the ornaments is a fun way to watch the little hands grow throughout the years.
4. Spooky Time Capsule
Tuck away their first costume by keeping it in a baggie with a photo and description of the day on the back of the photo. Open it years later for a sweet walk down memory lane.
5. Growth Chart with Pumpkins
Snap a yearly photo of your little one next to a pumpkin that’s “their size.” Watch both your baby and the pumpkins get bigger over time!
Costume Ideas & Traditions
6. Classic Baby Costumes
Pumpkins, bumblebees, and black cats are all timeless, adorable, and perfect for photos. They are nice because costumes like these are relatively easy to find on Amazon or your neighborhood costume store popups.
7. Family-Themed Looks
Coordinate outfits: baby as a pea pod, parents as the “garden,” or baby as a bat with parents as vampires. This is a cute way to get everyone involved. Best part is, when it’s your entire family participating, simple costumes can go a long way.
8. Pajama Tradition
Skip elaborate costumes and start a yearly Halloween pajama photo tradition. It’s comfy, easy, and totally cute. This is fun and classic.
9. Pet & Baby Duos
Got pets? Pair them up with baby for unforgettable photos (think baby as Little Red Riding Hood and dog as the Big Bad Wolf). Two of the cutest things to see in little costumes are babies and animals so let’s put them together!
10. DIY Low-Effort Costumes
If you have a little animal print onesie or a sweet little dress perfect for an angel, then there’s baby’s costume right there! If you have anything laying around that already looks like a costume, all you’d need to get would be accessories like a hat, headband, or cozy blanket backdrop. Dress-up without the stress!
Simple Celebrations at Home
11. Not-So-Spooky Storytime
Don’t you just love bedtime stories? I think building a stack of Halloween board books and reading them together is a gentle way to end any day. Books like Room on the Broom and Little Blue Truck’s Halloween are great starters.
12. Sensory Play
I absolutely love games that involve sensory play as a fun way for toddlers and preschoolers to work on their fine motor skills. My daughter, however, is currently in her put-everything-in-her-mouth era so we’re going to try this sensory bin next year. But if you and your little one want to get in on the fun, some ideas for bin fillers are uncooked beans (not kidney), red lentils, split peas, dried pasta, or even colorful cooked spaghetti which could pass as creepy worms! Other sensory items that could be added are plastic spiders, eyeballs, little cauldrons / jars with a scoop, pipe cleaners, pinecones or little pompoms
13. DIY Fall Photo Booth
I really like the idea of setting up a cute little photo booth. One way to do this is to set up an in-home makeshift studio by ordering props online or bouncing around town to pick up things like hay bales, twinkle lights, and mini pumpkins. Another way to make a photo booth is to take advantage of your surroundings and just use the outdoors around you!!
14. Boo Basket
Like an Easter basket but for Halloween! It’s as easy as filling baskets with fall books, cozy socks, a small toy, or a pumpkin teether!
Family Connection Ideas
15. Baby’s First Trick-or-Treat
Whether or not you’re allowing your kiddo to eat candy this Halloween, you can still allow them to collect goodies! Give them a cute little basket and help them gather stickers, teethers, notes, coupons, or hugs from family members that you’ve invited over!
16. Pumpkin Paint Night
On this night, everyone (even baby) gets to paint a pumpkin! even if it’s just a smudge of finger paint.
17. Annual Halloween Journal
Get a beautiful Journal and dedicate one page each year to Halloween memories: what costume baby wore, where you celebrated, and one special moment.
18. Simmer Pot Tradition
So now that simmer pots are my newest fall obsession, this year I’ll mark Halloween with a cozy seasonal pot with dried orange slices, cinnamon, cloves, and apple slices. Not only will it be fun for your kiddo to help you make it, but it will also be a scent memory they` will associate with home for the rest of her life.
Before You Go…
At the end of the day, we know our littles won’t actually remember their first Halloween . . . but we will. I think it’s important to remember that the keepsakes, photos, and cozy traditions are far less about doing it all and more about what’s meaningful to you. Helping them put a handprint on a pumpkin or letting them drift off to sleep while reading a bedtime story, or even enjoying the laughter from fumbling through their first pumpkin patch photoshoot, I’m sure we can agree that these sweet little moments add up to be memories we’ll cherish every fall.
Have you tried anything from this post?! What kind of Halloween traditions have you started or plan to pass down?
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