Dec 30, 2020
Entertain and Decorate with the Hershey Halloween Squad’s Amy E. Goodman
Halloween will undoubtedly look different this year, so Hershey is guaranteeing Halloween fun no matter how you choose to celebrate. The first-ever Hershey Halloween Squad, a cadre of industry experts, hold the keys to an inventive and fun Halloween 2020 season.
Entertainment and decor expert, Amy E. Goodman teamed up with Hershey to share the season’s best tips to keep families creativity sharp, and their home filled with fun.
“One thing I adore about Halloween? Chilling, creepy CREATIVITY! From costumes to décor and crafts, this holiday is frightfully fun when you cast a spell with your imagination! For this unconventional Halloween, I’ve planned enchanting activities for the whole month—from delicious sweets to pop-up treats—that support safe entertaining and celebrations for kids, family and friends alike! Rather than a traditional Halloween of exchanging goodies on just one day, build excitement throughout the month by creating a festive Candy Bar of continuous treats.
In advance of the holiday, have your kids flex their ingenuity by challenging friends and neighbors to a Halloween Tree decorating contest. To promote continual moments of joy, craft a Pop-Up DIY Candy Monster that ends up unexpectedly around the house filled with treats. Here’s a Frankenstein Craft that will leave them howling for its sweet finish. This holiday goes hand-in-hand with wearing costumes and showing them off—so let a kid have her moment by scheduling a Virtual Costume Party using video conferencing! Wishing everyone a wonderfully wicked and super safe Halloween month!
CREATE A FANG-TASTIC CANDY BAR!
Using an entry table, buffet or side table, deck out with Halloween decor: a cobweb tablecloth, fabric and felt pumpkins and battery-operated candles. Using wall safe tape and clear string, hang hair-raising spiders (fake of course!) from the ceiling at varying heights for visual depth and scare factor! Make use of containers you likely already own for the Candy Bar like tall glass vases, canisters, wooden bowls (or a cauldron if you have it!), and separate like types of wrapped candy into each one.
Hershey’s new Halloween treats are perfect for the task including KIT KAT® Witch’s Brew Bars, REESE'S Franken-Cups, HERSHEY'S COOKIES ‘N’ CREME Fangs and HERSHEY'S KISSES Vampire Chocolates with bat-printed foil!
HALLOWEEN TREE DECORATING CHALLENGE!
A Halloween Tree can be made on a small artificial tree or branches collected from the yard and placed in a tall vase (or even on a small, living tree you might have in your yard)! Decorate with anything that gives it a Halloween flair from Styrofoam eyeballs, orange and green bows, gnarly branches painted black, ghost and black cat stickers and assorted Hershey Halloween candy.
On a given date, have everyone place their Halloween tree on their porch! Schedule a neighborhood walk or vehicle drive-thru past each porch, and have an impartial judge determine the winner!
POP-UP! DIY MONSTER SURPRISE
First craft a DIY Candy Monster from a Frumkin (fake pumpkin). Take a hollow artificial pumpkin: carefully carve out a creepy, wide-open mouth. Use large googly eyes from the craft store, cut out eyebrows and a nose from construction paper. Repurpose shredded brown packing material or any filler to line the inside bottom of the pumpkin. Attach a faux black crow atop to pumpkin stem!
Second, place in unexpected spots in your home—bathroom, study, game room, and move it around every couple of days, switching up the treats (Halloween-themed pencils, wrapped candies, notepads or erasers) every so often to keep your little ghouls guessing as to what and where it’s popping up next!
SCARE ‘EM, FRANKEN-STYLE!
I love spending time crafting with my kids to make Halloween art that we can display as décor! Here’s an easy and eerie Frankenstein activity with a sweet finish:
What you’ll need:
- Eight flat craft sticks
- Green & Black Paint
- Paint Brush
- Hot glue gun
- Black Pen
- White Glue
- Scissors
- White & Black Construction Paper
- Dinner Knife
- 2 REESE'S Franken-Cups
- HERSHEY'S COOKIES ‘N’ CREME Fangs
Paint six craft sticks ¾ green and ¼ black; paint another stick all green: allow to dry. Lining up the six dual painted sticks evenly with the black paint on top, hot glue the green stick along the painted border: where the green and black meet.
Flip sticks over. Take the plain stick, hot glue towards the bottom. Flip right-side-up. Use a black marker to draw two black dots on the plain stick that protrudes.
Take two, unwrapped REESE'S Franken-Cups and use a dinner knife to even-out the top edges; use white glue to attach as eyes and construction paper to complete the look! Again use white glue to secure HERSHEY'S COOKIES ‘N’ CREME Fangs—after taking a bite—for the mouth!
VIRTUAL COSTUME PARTY!
This holiday goes hand-in-hand with wearing costumes and showing them off—so let a kid have her moment! Schedule a Virtual Costume Party using video conferencing and give each child the opportunity to explain his costume during the video party, then take a Halloween-themed music and sweet treat candy break and encourage dancing while listening to Halloween-inspired playlist. Then, watch a family-friendly Halloween movie all together via any one of the streaming services shared viewing options, which would enable everyone to watch one movie and communicate together from a safe, virtual distance!
