How to Make Halloween Fun For a Highly Sensitive Child

Halloween is for many a highly sensitive child a source of stress. With planning and insight, you can help make Halloween fun for a highly sensitive child too.

Here are 5 things for parents of highly sensitive children to consider as Halloween approaches.

1. Dressing Up

The fact is that whilst many young children like dressing up in costumes some children simply don’t. Being highly sensitive often has an impact on how a child feels about dressing up.

To make it worse, young children are often unable to express exactly why a costume feels uncomfortable and come across as being fussy or stubborn. That can lead to frustration on both sides.

The fabric of a costume may feel scratchy and rough to a highly sensitive child.

The idea of dressing up and standing out can be uncomfortable. A child in a costume draws attention, and for a highly sensitive child this is often unwanted.

Add to that the fact that Halloween costumes often involve hats and face paint and many highly sensitive children just can’t get on board with it all.

Accept a child’s refusal to dress up, or resistance to wearing specific items. Trust that there is probably a good reason for their reaction! Keep costumes low key.

2. Trick or Treating

The idea of knocking on doors and speaking to people they don’t know well is a horrendous idea for many highly sensitive children. It can certainly cause a highly sensitive child anxiety. Candy may be the reward but there’s an uncomfortable price to pay for it!

Bear in mind that they may be too anxious to say thank you, and come across as ungrateful or rude. A reaction from the giver can make a highly sensitive child (and you) feel uneasy.

You may also need to factor in that it’s dark when children are trick or treating, and that can be scary for some children.

• If you can, go trick or treating before the sun goes down to help a highly sensitive child feel more comfortable.
• Knock only on doors of people you know, or those who have prior warning that your child is anxious about the experience.
• Accept that you may find yourself doing all the talking when you knock on doors.

Reading Tip: There are some great tips over on Wunder-Mom for Halloween trick or treating with a highly sensitive child.

3. Change of Routine

Days like Halloween throw a highly sensitive child off kilter. Their usual routine is disrupted and the day brings much more external stimuli with it than a regular day. Decorations everywhere, people dressed up, party atmosphere, noise. The list goes on.

In short, Halloween is bucket filling fodder and a highly sensitive child that usually experiences meltdowns as a result of overwhelm will almost certainly struggle with Halloween activities. Knowing this in advance helps you.

• Agree the length of time you will go trick or treating for in advance and stick to it.
• Keep the days leading up to and after Halloween unscheduled.
• Take regular time out from Halloween activities and have a quiet space prepared for them to retreat to when they need it.

4. The Scare Factor

At the end of the day Halloween is a scary celebration. The costumes and masks are scary. It’s dark. HSCs are on their guard and are easily startled by everything going on around them.

Their imagination runs away with them, as their deep thinking nature kicks in. They don’t just see someone dressed as a monster, but recall everything they know about monsters and contemplate the danger.

Their bodies switch to fight-or-flight mode – flight being dominant.

Anxiety fills a highly sensitive child’s bucket quickly.

And none of that is fun!

• Acknowledge your child’s feelings.
• Keep it low key.
• Prepare your child for other costumes they will see. Help them with what they can expect at Halloween should you go out.

5. Do Your Own Thing on Halloween

You don’t have to leave your home on Halloween. You don’t have to conform to what everyone else is doing on the 31st October.

Have a party at home and keep it tame and simple. My kids have enjoyed doing something as a family on Halloween.

We play games: throwing ghosts they made (paper wrapped in tissue paper with eyes drawn on with marker) into a cauldron (something we had from a Harry Potter party); a dice game building a skeleton; apple bobbing.

We carve pumpkins.

I make treats (witches fingers, spider pizzas) and we just have lots of fun – all without leaving the house.

Or do nothing.

You know your child better than anyone else and know what your HSC can handle. Your child doesn’t have to participate in an activity if it causes fear and anxiety in order to fit in and do what others are doing! Right?

Over to You

How do you mark Halloween? Does your highly sensitive child cope well with Halloween? What adjustments have you made so your highly sensitive child has fun on Halloween?