Holidays - Bedminster,NJ

Google the Wilton Sugar Cookie recipe and make some roll out Halloween Cookies. Cookie cutters are cheap, and you can re-use them year after year. I tint some vanilla frosting in all different colors for the kids to decorate with. Add some fun sprinkles or colored sugar and its an entire afternoon of fun.

You can BOO your neighbors. Basically make up little baskets, (think Dollar Store to make it cheap) and leave them with the BOO-GRAM poem on your neighbors doorstep, ring the doorbell and RUN! My kids love this. Our neighbors arent very fun, so we drive around and do it to our friends. The kids LOVE it. http://leladavidson.hubpages.com/hub/How-to-Start-the-Hal...

As far as Christmas ....
We do the cookie thing again.

Our kids only receive 2 gifts from Santa, and a small stocking. Santa needs to have enough gifts for all the children of the world, so my kids cannot be greedy. We do the plate of cookies for Santa, a glass of milk and a carrot for Rudolph.

Christmas Eve, when the kids are distracted, an "elf" will ring the door bell. 3 gifts are left on the porch. They are new Christmas PJs for the kids. Signaling its time for bed. And as a bonus, this means that Christmas morning everybody will be in fresh Pjs, perfect for pictures! :)

We give the kids each $10 to spend at Toys R Us to pick out a toy for Toys For Tots. As they get older, we hope to get them involved more in holiday charity.

Santa leaves boot tracks all over the house. Just some flour in a sifter, we shake over a pair of flip flops. The kids LOVE seeing the foot prints all over the house when they wake up on Christmas morning.

We host a huge family breakfast at our house Christmas morning. I love seeing the family together. We emphasize the season, not just presents.

We find crafts and make a few for the holiday. We find and carve a pumpkin (be it from the store or somewhere more interesting). We dress up and go trick or treating. Cookies are always fun and you can put one or two in their lunches. We have an Advent calendar to count down til Christmas (plus our Advent Wreath). This Thanksgiving I plan to have DD help me make paper napkin rings as our cut and glue craft. Her little hand will make a great turkey tail. I don't think holidays need to be overblown to be fun, meaningful, and right for your family.

Oh, and my house also knows "fall is here" when I start making pumpkin pies. I'm no pastry chef. I use Libby's and frozen pie crust, but they're still good.

We have about 2.5 weeks worth of fun fall/halloween activites. We enjoy carving pumpkins together of course. Our son who is 7 now can draw his own jack o lantern face and do some of the carving himself. We enjoy going to a nearby pumpkin patch to do hay rides and pick pumpkins and other fall activities. We also make a halloween treat - like cookies we can decorate or spider cupcakes or a graveyard cake. Our town has something called the "Pumpkin Glow" where you go at night and walk a path lined with hundreds and hundreds of lit up carved pumpkins. Some are very ornate! We also have a little halloween carnival that is fun to go to. Another evening our local horse stables have fall hay rides and each stable has out hot spiced apple cider and treats like cookies. There are bonfires and halloween decorations and since this is after dark it is very exciting for the kids. Our friends every year have a Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) lunch feast that we also go to. My toddler and I went out and gathered fall leaves, flowers etc and we glued them to a paper plate and hung it in the window. And of course there is the trick or treating which our son really enjoys. I am running out of time to tell you Christmas ideas...

I have the kids help me make goody bags for their class for Halloween. They love to help! :)

For Christmas, I let my kids help with the baking. It makes them feel good that family is sharing and enjoying food they help make. Even the mash potatoes. They help decorate the tree and they also help pick out some toys for the charity bin. I explain every year and almost everyday that they are families and kids that have nothing, not even food to eat. This way I hope when they have families of their own they will continue this. I believe my kids are grateful. They feel great knowing on Christmas day children who had nothing is opening gifts they helped buy. :)

We always carve pumpkins - each of us does one (my kids are 12 and 16 now and still love this) and we roast the pumpkin seeds. We do have some small decorations for the house and I always make a pie for Halloween. DH was usually the one in charge of trick or treating, and he'd go out in a costume too.

What's the meaning of Halloween? I have no idea either. But it's a fun way to celebrate fall, so that's what we do. We've been to the pumpkin patch - hay rides, face painting, taking pictures sitting among the punkins. Taken long drives through the trees to see the colors change. We've bought costumes and played dress up with them around the h ouse. We're planning on going to trunk or treat at church and to a fall carnival down the street. We plan to trick or treat in our neighborhood and hand out candy. I think that's plenty of activity for one holiday!