Hallowe’en. It is the marmite holiday of our time and people seem to either love it or hate it. Personally I love it as for me, it signifies the start of my favourite time of year. These magical few months

It’s always been a big deal in my house and I have so many memories of Hallowe’ens filled with fun and friends and all things spooky. As a young child we lived in a cul de sac which just oozed community spirit. Everyone knew everyone, and there would be Hallowe’en parties where everyone was welcome and pretty much all of the kids would turn up donning bin bags, tights with holes cut out and faces full of green facepaint.

As the years went by and we moved house, Hallowe’en was still a big highlight of our year. We have always decorated the front of the house for trick or treaters and my Mum always made a point of making sure it was a holiday full of fun. And of course, as I grew into adulthood we even announced my pregnancy with Florence on Hallowe’en with a pumpkin themed photo.

So it comes as no surprise really that I want to pass on the magic of Hallowe’en on to my children. I think Sean thinks I am a little mad the way I make such a big deal of it but honestly, some of my happiest memories are centered around this time of year.

This year was quite a special one for me, as it was the first Hallowe’en Florence could really get involved. As she’s still quite young and I didn’t want it to be too much of a scary introduction to the holiday, I decided to go with a Room on the Broom theme for our celebrations.  We kicked off the festivities with our annual visit to Pumpkin Moon in Maidstone to pick out our own pumpkins. While our trip was far from blissful (toddler tantrums take to a whole new level these days) and it was extremely muddy because of all of the rain we’d had in the weeks leading up to our trip but we picked out 5 different pumpkins for each of the characters from the book. 

As well as our pumpkin picking, I put together a bunch of Hallowe’en themed activities at home including potion making with vinegar & baking powder, a pumpkin pouring water play tray, we made a pumpkin percussion band, as well as some of these Room on the Broom play activities I shared earlier in the week.

Florence decided she would like to dress up as The Witch and that William should be the frog so I put together a little costume for her and Sean made this extremely cute frog hat for William to wear. Yep. He taught himself how to crochet purely so he could make the hat!

We decorated the house with bats and set out our Room on the Broom Pumpkin characters ready for our trick or treaters to arrive. I think Florence’s favourite thing about the whole day was opening the door and handing out the sweets to all the children who dressed up and calling out ‘Happy Hallowe’en’ to them as they left. When it was our turn to head out on her first Trick or Treat adventure she insisted on taking the bucket of sweets from our house with her to ‘give to the children’ and at the first few houses gave a sweet from her bucket back to the people at the door. So cute. I had explained to her that we only knock on doors that have pumpkins outside and whose lights were on and we had so much fun together searching for the pumpkins and looking at everyone elses decorations. One of the houses in the next street had gone all out and put together a whole display with spooky music, skeletons and such in their driveway and Florence spent ages there watching them and talking to them. There was even a skeleton dog!

We had such a lovely Hallowe’en and it was the perfect way to start this season of sparkle & magic with my little people. I hope you did too! 

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We are huge fans of Julia Donaldson tales here and Florence’s absolute favourite book is Room on the Broom. As we enter the season of magic and with Hallowe’en coming up I’m busy planning a host of spooky toddler friendly activities to keep Florence & William entertained  throughout the next few weeks.

Today I’m sharing some really fun Room on the Broom inspired snack ideas which I think would be perfect additions to your Hallowe’en feast! What’s more they are mostly healthy and eaten together make up 3 of your toddler’s 5 – a  – day.

As well as cute snacks they could each be combined as a meal or even be served up as party food – if you’re planning a Hallowee’en do I’ve no doubt these will go down a treat with your younger guests!

Each of the five super simple treats represent a different character in the film — aside from the witch herself so if anyone has any ideas on how to serve witch & chips I’d be really excited to hear them! And of course, not forgetting the all important broom!

The witch’s broom stick

This is pretty much as simple as it gets.  I just used a cheese string and peeled back sections about a third of the way down to make a broom end.

The Cat

Peel & Half a satsuma, draw on some green eyes within writing icing, add a pink mini marshmallow for a nose and some little yellow cheese triangles for ears. I totally forgot them, but you could add whiskers too!

The Dog

Oh, this was my favourite one to make! Probably because out of all of them it’s the one I considered more of a treat. I placed giant chocolate buttons on a scotch pancake to make the dog’s spots. Blueberry eyes & a marshmallow nose. 

The Bird

This could not be more simple – take a slice of cucumber, place a blueberry on top for the eye and a little triangle of cheese for the beak.

and the Frog

For the frog, Half & core an apple and place flat side down on a plate. Using cream cheese stick two cucumber half slices on top for eyes, blueberries for pupils & a ham tongue. Easy peasy.

Not only were these really fun and surprising quick to make, Florence absolutely loved them too. We read the Room on the Broom story while she ate and then made a broomstick from a wrapping paper tube. I love theming her food to coincide with our play and am really looking forward to a month of spooky snacks!