Halloween Activities for Kids in Wilmington, NC: Crafts + Museum Fun

The costume is decided, Halloween is still weeks away, and your five-year-old has asked how many days are left four times before lunch.

October is a long, happy runway for seasonal fun, and the best Halloween activities for kids in Wilmington do not require a trip to the craft store. A paper towel tube, a stack of old magazines, and a walk around the block can carry a whole rainy afternoon. When you are ready to hand off the glue sticks, four floors of hands-on play are waiting downtown.

Here are four not-too-spooky crafts you can make with what is already in the house, what October looks like at The Children's Museum of Wilmington, and how to plan for the Eek! Week Festival on October 31. Our daily programs add seasonal hands-on fun to every visit, and we handle the setup and the cleanup.

Quick Answer: What Are the Best Halloween Activities for Kids in Wilmington?

You can fill most of October with a mix of simple crafts at home and seasonal play downtown. Good options for children ages 0 to 10 include:

• Costume self-portraits, fall collages, cardboard tube bats, and fall play dough at home

• Seasonal art projects in the art room at The Children's Museum of Wilmington

• Halloween-themed daily programs throughout October, included with admission

• Toddler Time on October 9 for pumpkin painting and October 16 for jack-o'-lantern suncatchers

• The Eek! Week Festival on Saturday, October 31, from 9am to 12pm, with costumes encouraged

The crafts cost next to nothing, and the museum days come with someone else doing the cleanup.

Four Halloween Crafts You Can Make With What Is Already in the House

None of these need a special trip or a perfect result. The fun is in the making, and a wobbly bat is still a bat.

Costume Self-Portraits

Invite your child to draw themselves wearing this year's costume. It makes a sweet keepsake, and it is also great practice at picturing something that has not happened yet. Ask what they will be doing in the picture, whether that is trick-or-treating, flying over the rooftops, or roaring at the neighbors.

Fall Collage

Flip through old magazines together and cut out anything that reminds you of fall: orange things, cozy sweaters, apples, and pumpkins. Then head outside for a nature walk to collect leaves, acorns, and sticks. A short loop around the neighborhood or a stroll along the Riverwalk becomes a treasure hunt, and the finished collage becomes a record of the day.

Cardboard Tube Bats

Grab a toilet paper tube, or cut a paper towel tube in half. Fold the top edges down toward the middle to make two pointy ears. Cut wing shapes from black paper, glue them to the back, and add eyes with a marker or a pair of googly eyes. Little ones can paint the tube, and older kids can design their own wing shapes.

Fall Play Dough With Halloween Cookie Cutters

Mix up a batch of our favorite play dough recipe and add a shake of cinnamon for a warm fall smell. Pull out the Halloween cookie cutters, a rolling pin, and a few plastic knives, and let the bakery open for business.

Cutting, folding, squishing, and gluing quietly build hand strength, planning, and problem-solving. When a child decides their bat needs three wings, that is design and imagination in play. Let them lead, and resist the urge to fix it. The National Association for the Education of Young Children calls play the child's lab, the place where learning comes to life through doing.

Seasonal Art in the Art Room

When you are ready to let someone else own the glitter, the art room at The Children's Museum of Wilmington changes with the season. This month we are making Halloween finger puppets, ghost collages, spooky silhouettes, and more, all in a bright, open space designed to spark creativity.

The Studio pairs an art space with a reading nook and a puppet theatre, and that combination is where the magic happens. Finger puppets tend to turn into a show, a show turns into a story, and storytelling is one of the building blocks of early literacy. Nobody has to call it that for it to count.

You can see The Studio and the rest of the museum on our current exhibits page, then come see what is on the table when you visit.

October Daily Programs, Setup and Cleanup Included

Daily programs run Tuesday through Friday at 10am and 3:30pm, and a special Saturday program beginning at 12pm. Admission to these programs are included with admission on a first come, first served basis. Each weekday has its own flavor, from Crafty Kids on Wednesday afternoons to Story Cooks on Thursday mornings and Sci Fri to close out the week. October's lineup leans seasonal, and two Toddler Time sessions are worth circling for little ones ages 1 to 3:

• Friday, October 9 at 10am: pumpkin painting

• Friday, October 16 at 10am: jack-o'-lantern suncatchers

Programs like these are about more than filling a morning. Painting a pumpkin means choosing colors, working carefully, and waiting your turn for the orange, which is a lot of practice packed into one small project. The American Academy of Pediatrics notes that play can improve children's abilities to plan, organize, get along with others, and regulate emotions.

The best part for grown-ups is that the paint stays at the museum. You get the fun part, watching your kiddo work, and we take care of the rest.

Save the Date for the Eek! Week Festival

October wraps up with the Eek! Week Festival on Saturday, October 31, from 9am to 12pm. Expect a spooky and kooky morning of treats, crafts, and experiments, and yes, wear the costume. Tickets are $5 for members and $15 for general admission, and you can grab them and see the latest details on our Eek! Week page.

Free daily programming also runs all week leading up to the festival, so a weekday visit that week comes with a little extra Halloween fun, included with admission. That is a nice fit for younger children who do better in a calmer room, or for families whose Saturday is already spoken for.

A few small choices make festival morning smoother:

• Pick a costume your child can climb, crawl, and craft in, and skip masks that slip

• Arrive close to 9am if your crew does best before the busiest stretch

• Buy tickets online ahead of time, and remember that members need a ticket for event days

• Plan a stop in the toddler wing so the littlest siblings have a space their size

  
  

Halloween Fun for the Whole Crew

October is a busy month for visiting family in Wilmington, and a museum morning is an easy way to bring grandparents into the fun. Everything is indoors, so the forecast does not get a vote, and the elevator and ramps reach every level for strollers and grandparents alike. A costume morning downtown is the kind of outing that works for a toddler, a ten-year-old, and a grandparent at the same time.

Make It a Hands-On October

Between a kitchen table covered in construction paper and a morning of seasonal play downtown, October has room for both. Bring the costume, bring the questions, and we will bring the pumpkins.