Halloween with little kids?

Our Approach to Halloween in the Early Years

As a super-fan of the Autumn season, I have to admit that I get frustrated by the Halloween takeover. It starts earlier and earlier every single year with poor Autumn getting nudged aside.

I am unapologetic about the fact that I do love a pumpkin spice latte, wearing thick jumpers and cosying up to read. Autumn is an introverts dream season.

Whilst we’ve always done something Halloween related each year, it’s never been at the forefront of my mind. But not so this year as my daughter - Miss 6 - has become obsessed.

I feel like this has a lot to do with her international school rather than our location. Many of her teachers are from the United States and the annual Halloween extravaganza is the talk of the school. In Vienna itself, Halloween is pretty low-key (in comparison to the UK and USA). Not to mention the fact that apartment living makes trick-or-treating hard.

But one of the main issues of Halloween with very young children is the fact that they cannot tell the difference between what is real and what is pretend.

Research shows that children start to distinguish between reality and the imaginary world between the ages of 3 and 5.

source: The University of Texas at Austin.

So whilst a 6 -year-old child is likely to understand that a person dressed up as a ghost is playing pretend, a 3 -year-old child might not be able to understand. One only has to look at the recent case in Mississippi where a group of day-care workers terrified the children they were supposed to be taking care of to understand that what might be a practical joke to adults is extremely frightening to young children.

Here’s how we approach Halloween:

• By follow and honouring the child

• Cute not creepy decorations and costumes

• Open-ended play invitations

• Borrowing or buying themed books