Halloween 2020: Trick-or-Treating the COVID-Friendly Way
Not to burst your bubble, but the Center for Disease Control and Prevention has flagged traditional Halloween activities as high-risk for spreading viruses. But if there is anything 2020 has shown us, it is that things do not have to be done traditionally to still make it happen. I mean, we’ve had weddings on Zoom, for Pete’s sake. Setting up your Halloween activities, especially trick-or-treating, to be COVID-Friendly is the best way to reduce the spread of the virus.
A safer bet will be to not go trick-or-treating at all. Although the first wave of panic caused by the Coronavirus has passed, the virus is still very active. And like they say, prevention is better than cure. But if you must go trick-or-treating by all means, then here are some safer non-traditional ways to make it happen this Halloween!!
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Create a Goodie Bag Station
This is a very simple way to ensure you hand out candy in a socially distant way. You can set up a ‘treat-table’ in your yard and have the kids move from table to table, picking out treats that catch their fancy. You could also create individually bagged treats and place them on these tables. You can go all out to decorate the tables with spooky lights and creepy signs…to give it a very Halloween-y vibe. Get your neighbors in on it too and create a new pandemic-inspired tradition.
2. Build a Candy-Slide
Create a slide, just for candy! You can have it attached to your outdoor railings, and whenever the trick-or-treaters come, you simply put a piece of candy and they wait at the bottom of the candy slide to receive it. Ensure the slide is at least 6 feet long, so you maintain a safe distance.
3. Create a Candy-Line
Another socially distant idea for handing out candy…is hanging them to dry. Well, not exactly. You can clip your goodie bags or big candy bars to your clothesline. All the kids will have to do is tug the treats from the line, without touching anything else but the treats itself. It’s genius!
4. Get Your Witchy Cauldron
There’s no better time to be a witch than Halloween. You can get into character with your beautiful witch costume and cauldron and be the neighborhood witch for a day. Fill your cauldron with treats of different kinds and hand them out with a freakishly long ladle. Genius, right? If you can’t find a long cauldron, you can always improvise. Get a stick, attach it to a real ladle with tape, and spray-paint it!
Here’s How to Make the Halloween Process Safer:
- Ensure you do not have direct contact with the trick-or-treaters. Bodily contact remains one of the fastest ways to contract the virus.
- To reduce the risks, make sure you’re doing all the exchange outdoors and not in your home.
- Like some of the alternatives to physically handing out candy bags explained above, you can set up bagged treats for the kids to take.
- Do not forget to wash your hands when handling treats. And keep your hands away from your face!
- Masks have not gone out of fashion. If you must step outside your door, do wear a mask. You can even make it a part of your costume.
- If for some reason, you have to be in the same space with a trick-or-treater or just a random neighbor, do not forget to stay 6 feet apart.
- Also, have your hand sanitizer ready for whenever you touch the treats or other people (please, try not to touch other people).
- Don’t forget to wash your hands THOROUGHLY before devouring your treats.
If you can’t go trick-or-treating, don’t beat yourself up about it. There are a lot of other fun Halloween activities you could try with your family…indoors. You could watch spooky horror movies, bake pumpkin pies, and take really beautiful pictures of your costumes.
Whatever you decide to do, you’re going to be doing a lot of improvising. So, make sure you enjoy yourself while at it, and who knows, you might just be creating a beautiful new Halloween tradition.
Have a spooky holiday!
All pictures are from Pexels and no attribution is required.
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