Thread: How to tame a haunt for the little ones?

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Our Halloween night backyard haunt has gotten more elaborate over the years with creepy clowns, zombies, vampires, mosters and the regular kinds of frights you might expect at a place designed to scare.

My question: Anyone have a good idea for the real "little ones" that we might be able to set up off to the side so they can still have fun and feel like they were part of it? Granted they are out trick or treating with Mom or Dad so that's fun. But last year we yelled out a specific word designated to ease it back a notch when a little one was in the group and it took away from what we were doing for the older kids in the same group. This year the frights aren't so easy to hold back on as they are more " performance" orientated.

Hmm-- what to do so everyone has fun???

Give the little ones a special flash light (have several from like a dollarstore and paint them with florescent colors so you can identify them at the end and collect them) and have a person at the front hand them to the little ones and tell them it is a magic monster killing flashlight - if they get scared, they can shine it on the bad stuff and it will knock them out. Tell the actors to act really scared or drop dead when the kids shine the light on them - and no triggering any of the mechanical props at all when the kids go through. You can have someone on the end collect the flashlights and run them back around.

You really can't do big scares if it's a mixed age group. I'd advise the bigger kids to come through without the little ones if possible so they get the full effect of your haunt, but otherwise I don't have any ideas.

good idea frankies girl

I've heard of people doing the same thing with glowsticks, saying they're a magic amulet that protects you from monsters. They can't attack the person holding it, and shaking it at them will drive it away. You could even attach a rattle to the bottom of it (if you're feeling ambitious and have extra free time -- yeah, right) so it makes noise when they drive the monster away. Or if you do it with glow bracelets you can afford to just let them keep it as a ToT goodie.

You can also put up signs for the parents, parents appreciate a warning, or have a ghost or something that says, "You must be this tall to enter". Kids understand that, they get it at carnivals all of the time for rides and such.

Then give them a special treat like a small jar of bubbles or even the glow stick. I have one that is 6 and he is still very leery. I can't go really scary or gruesome yet. He's especially terrified of Frankenstein, calls him Franken Ein Stein lol.

You really can't go wrong with a bubble machine if you want to keep them entertained to the side for awhile, and there are some really cheap ones out there that run on batteries. We have a Santa one and a Buzz Lightyear somewhere around here.

We actually offer them a "no scare guarantee", turn the house lights on, & personally escort them through it ourselves.

If you have time to advertise you can set up certain times for scary and non-scary. say 6-7 non scary and the rest is full on scary. It would give parents a choice. If you dont have that kind of time I really like Frankies idea with the monster repelling light.

Thanks everyone. Some REALLY good suggestions. We're already given out glow sticks to everyone that can used as a "ward off the monster device". But I was thinking of something to do INSTEAD of them going through the walk due to the performance aspect of what we're doing this year. Last year we had greeters at the start of the walk that actually told the young TOTs that it was scary. Some younger kids still went through with the parents anyway though and when we pulled back onthe scrares, the older kids didn't enjoy it. A spooky mini maze with bubbles or a fog machine seems plaucible.

Thanks again!

Last year we added a kiddie section to entertain the little ones. We used one of those pond inserts for your yard and put a small piece of dry ice in, filled it with water and added halloween rubber ducks ( purchased at a card and party store here ) We stirred it for them (like a cauldron ) while they chose a duck. They had the option to go in or not. And of course we had candy up front so they didn't have to go in and get it. This year we may add a bubble machine