Creepy, Crawly Haunted House Ideas for Kids

Turn your house into a creepy, crawly, eerie haunted house that gets kids screeching in surprise and giggling afterwards this Halloween. Aim for awe based on your child's age group, with more frightening haunts for older children. For younger children, keep the colors bright and the haunting fun and a bit playful. Here are some spooky ideas from us at Pottery Barn Kids to get you inspired.

Age Appropriate Spookiness

Have a place with a table and chairs set aside for nervous children to sit, play or color while waiting on others, or offer a run through the spooky setting with the lights on first so kids get to see the ghosts are really just towels or sheets hanging on the wall. Even if a child has gone through with the lights on, it will still be a joy for them to go through the darkened haunted house with friends.

Scary Tunnel Entryway

Set up a tunnel made from large boxes or tables covered with heavy blankets that lead to the house. Put some items with strange textures in the dark tunnel for kids to touch and wonder about on the way in. Silky faux spider webs or plastic bugs glued along the wall are fun choices. Add a dim light to be sure the horrors show up, but not too well. For example, you can fill gallon freezer bags with some red gelatin and hang them from the inner walls of the box tunnel. Add lights shining through the bags to cast a red glow, and install them where they're just out of reach of curious hands.

Harmless but Scary Halloween Haunted House Ideas

Hang some wet yarn from the places where the boxes meet to make it feel like cold worms. Put a layer of thick plastic over some wet towels so the ground under the boxes feels squishy, but doesn't get kids dirty. Finally, use sewing thread or dental floss to make a cobweb curtain suspended from hooks at the end of the tunnel as one last thing to pass through. Sprinkle the cobweb with iridescent glitter or glow-in-the-dark paint to make sure the kids see it when crawling into the house.  

Touchable Halloween Haunted House Decorations

Have the lights fairly dim inside the house when the kids come out of the tunnel. You can have a spouse or older child waiting dressed as a witch or zombie to greet the kids and to act as a tour guide. This helps keep the energy level up and gets things moving quickly. This is also the perfect time to engage the kids with a fun sensory experiment before proceeding. Offer guests a treat, on the condition of wearing a blindfold. Then, present the brave, blindfolded kids a bowl of peeled grapes and let them think they're touching eyes. Or, use lukewarm rice pudding and let them guess what it is. Have a damp cloth and towel ready for cleaning hands afterwards.

Helpful Haunted House Ideas for Kids

Put up boldly colored arrow signs that direct kids through the house and point out the bathroom. Make sure all the kids see the arrows before you go into the spookier parts of the haunted house, in case anyone gets scared or needs a break. If anyone gets separated, it's easy to find the way through the course and back to everyone else. Make dimly lit halls a little spookier by hanging black balloons from black streamers. The black balloons fade into the shadows until someone walks into them, and then the balloons start moving almost as if trying to catch the person passing by.

Lighting for a Kids' Haunted House

Use dim lighting to make normal things around the house look eerie. Let the shadows be part of the decor by positioning lights behind and under things. Make sure you're using cool LED bulbs or battery-operated candles if you place lights close to anything flammable for extra safety. A flickering light coming from under a chair makes the top of the chair look mysterious and spooky. Put a mannequin in the chair or have someone in a costume sit there without moving. Then, as the kids pass, have the person jump out of the shadowy chair start whispering or talking.

Simply Scary Snacks

Thank guests for coming through your haunted house. Make it a party by adding some yummy, scary snacks and bright red punch at the end of the tour. Serve lady finger sandwiches or cookies that are made to look like real fingers; use almond slivers painted with red frosting as fingernails. Offer cupcakes decorated with black icing, cobwebs and spiders. Or, help young kids relax after walking through the house by inviting everyone to sit down on the rug for a fun board game. Older kids might like to tell scary ghost stories to keep the spooky fun going.