Quick and Easy Homemade Halloween Trick or Treat Bags

Before Halloween arrives, kids (and many adults) put a lot of thought into putting together the perfect Halloween costume, complete with mask or face paint, wigs, and accessories. The thought of the trick or treat bag usually comes second.

Here are some tips for making a quick and easy homemade Halloween trick or treat bag that is sure to be a hit.

* Sew up a simple trick or treat bad by using some Halloween-themed fabric. You can whip one up in no time with a sewing machine, or they can easily be sewn by hand if you don't have one.

* Find a plain, solid-colored canvas tote bag to dress up. You can decorate it to your liking by sewing or gluing on embellishments, or by using fabric paint.

* A plain brown paper shopping bag, or an inexpensive gift bag can be decorated simply with markers, crayons, paint or more elaborately with embellishments and glue. Trace a Halloween coloring page onto the bag and let your children paint or color the picture.

* Try a bucket instead of a bag. Look in the toy aisle at the store for a beach or sand box bucket. They are very easy to embellish.

* Match up your trick or treat bag and your Halloween costume. This applies not only to color, but also to the theme of the bag. If it's to go with a witch costume, for example, you could make a black cat face on it, a broom, a full moon, etc...

* To add a nice spooky touch and increase safety when trick or treating, add some glow in the dark accents. Some options include fabric paint, foam decals and stickers.

Here are 4 Halloween trick or treat bag ideas to help you get you started:

* Jack-o-lantern bag -

1 orange gift bag
Black construction paper
Glue
Cut three triangles out of black construction paper for the eyes and nose, and cut out a smiling mouth. Glue them on for a quick and whimsical trick or treat tote.

* Princess bag -

1 Pink gift bag or canvas tote bag
Stick-on or glue on gems
Glitter glue
Satin ribbon
For girls who are getting all dolled up for Halloween, a bag fit for royalty is in order. You can make one in short order by putting stick-on gems (or using a Bedazzler) on a pink canvas tote bag. Add glitter glue for accents. Use satin ribbon to make some pretty bows to stitch on.

* Spider web fabric bag -

Halloween themed spiderweb fabric
Needle and Thread
Glow in the dark paint
Glow in the dark spiders
Find some fabric with a spider web pattern to use to sew a tote bag. Paint over the web pattern with glow in the dark fabric paint, and embellish with plastic glow in the dark spiders.

* Monster bag -

Plain grocery bag or gift bag
Construction paper
Wiggley eyes
Paint or markers
Glue
Decorate a plain grocery or gift bag to look like Frankenstein, Dracula, or another favorite villain. Use construction paper, markers, googly eyes, and whatever else strikes your fancy.

All it takes is a little imagination and a few supplies to make a homemade Halloween trick or treating bag that your children (or you yourself) will love!
Recommended:

Over 90 Homemade Costumes Ideas and Instructions

Halloween Themed Party Foods

When it comes to Halloween Themed Party Foods, the world is your oyster. It's relatively simple to turn anything you might serve into a creepy, crawly Halloween treat.

Here are a few simple ideas:

Rice Cereal Halloween Treats

The regular, run of the mill rice cereal treat can be turned into a sweet and unique Halloween treat by adding a few drops of orange food coloring (or a combination of red and yellow) into the marshmallow/butter mixture as it melts. When you cut the treats into squares, add one candy corn to the top of each square.

Marshmallow Haystacks

Here's a great variation to the rice cereal treat recipe. Replace the rice cereal with corn flake cereal. Follow the instructions combining the cereal, melted marshmallow and butter mixture. Mold the cereal mixture into the shape of haystacks. Add an orange candy corn pumpkin to the top of each haystack.

Candy Corn Ice Cream Sundae

Into one cup of partially thawed vanilla ice cream, mix in one tablespoon of candy corn (coarsely chopped) and one tablespoon of dry roasted peanuts (coarsely chopped). Scoop into ice cream bowl. Freeze until firm. When ready to serve, drizzle caramel ice cream topping over the ice cream mixture, a dollop of whipped cream and some additional candy corn and peanuts.

Halloween Napoleons

Thaw one sheet of frozen puffed pastry. Divide the puff pastry into three equal sections and bake according to package directions. Crush enough Oreo cookies to make 1-½ cups. Set aside.

Prepare one package of vanilla pudding only add a few drops of orange (or combination of red and yellow) food coloring. Set pudding aside. Whip one small carton of whipping cream until stiff. While whipping, add two teaspoons vanilla and one teaspoon sugar.

To build the napoleon, lay one sheet of baked puff pastry on serving tray. Spread ½ of the pudding mixture on the puff pastry. Sprinkle 1/3 of the crushed cookies on top of the pudding. Spoon dollops of whipped cream on top of the cookies and follow by a second layer of puff pastry. Continue layering pudding, cookies and whipped cream.

Once the third and last layer of puff pastry is set on top, spoon three small dollops of whipped cream (do not spread) and top with some additional crushed Oreos. Slice and serve.

A Fun Halloween Breakfast

Breakfast is many times an overlooked meal when celebrating the holidays. The simple addition of orange food coloring (or a combination of red and yellow) into a glass of milk will give your kids a surprise on Halloween morning.

For some spooktacular Halloween pancakes, melt ¼ cup of chocolate chips in a microwave safe container. When melting chocolate, melt at 30-second intervals and stir each time. Pour or spoon melted chocolate into a heavy-duty plastic zip top bag. Press all the chocolate into one corner of the bag and with a scissor, cut a tiny corner off the edge of the bag. Make pancakes and with the melted chocolate, pipe a jack-o-lantern face on the pancakes.

Recommended: 
New! Halloween Recipes Ebook. Over 50 Recipes With Photos.
Plus 3 Bonus Ebooks - Halloween Crafts, Halloween Drawing and Halloween Printable Games!