Top tips to keep children safe when out for Halloween in Limerick

Halloween is here, and you can barely make it through the shops with all the Halloween decorations vying for space with the Christmas stuff. Sometimes, the ready to go spider webs and garlands of ghosts can be too difficult to resist to make the house look festive in a hurry. Halloween and autumn in general, however, can be a great time to spend time with the children doing simple crafts and activities.

The mid-term break is an opportunity for everyone to take a breath, enjoy the autumn air and focus on staying warm and cosy. There are lots of simple things for families to do together to enjoy this time of year.

READ MORE: What’s on across Limerick for Halloween 2025

A long walk crunching leaves and collecting conkers followed by a hearty bowl of soup can soothe even the most harried soul. Carving and decorating pumpkins and making homemade decorations can be great ways to have fun together and get everyone’s creative juices flowing.

Children will take great pride in knowing that the black spiders that scare the neighbours were made by their very own hands!

A quick internet search will yield lots of activities, but below are a couple of simple ones for even the most craft challenged among us. The best activities are often the simplest as children can really get stuck in. Happy Halloween!

Hand Print Spider

What You Need:

- Black paper

- Wobbly eyes

- Black wool

- Glue

What You Do:

On the black paper, draw around both hands with fingers spread out and thumbs tight against index fingers.

Cut out the hands and glue them together so that the palms form the spider’s body. The fingers will be the spider’s legs.

Glue on the wobbly eyes. Make a small hole through the centre of the body. Thread the wool through the hole and tie into a knot.

Felt Ghost

-White felt

-Needle and black thread

-Toy stuffing, cotton wool or scraps of material.

-Wobbly eyes

Fold your felt in half and cut out two ghost shapes.

Sew the two shapes together using the black thread, but leave a small gap open to stuff your ghost.

Stuff the ghost and then sew up the gap.

Stick on the wobbly eyes.

You could add a ribbon or thread to the top so you can hang up your ghost.

Top tips for staying safe when out on Halloween

-Young children need to be accompanied by an adult

-Children should only call on families they know and trust in their street or area

-Parents should always go through the three ‘Ws’ before older children go out with their friends: Who are they going with? Where are they going? When will they be back? They should always stay with their group

-Children should know they never accept an invitation into a house unless they clearly have their parent’s permission

-Make sure children are wearing light or reflective clothing so that they are visible. Bring a torch to help you see and be seen

-Remind them to be extra careful of cars and crossing the road

-Make sure they have fun but are respectful of others including animals. Some people may find the night and all the noise frightening or just may not be up for visitors.

This article was contributed a member of Parenting Limerick, a network of parenting and family support organisations. For more information on this and other topics go to www.loveparenting.ie.