5 Tips to Help Your Child Manage Halloween Fears
While many kids and teens eagerly embrace the thrill of Halloween—spooky decorations, haunted houses, scary movies, and creepy costumes—others may find the holiday to be a source of anxiety and stress.
For young children, especially those who have trouble distinguishing between fantasy and reality, Spooky Season can be unsettling. And let’s face it, Halloween comes with plenty of potential triggers that may heighten anxiety. Some common triggers include:
Unfamiliar faces in masks
Jump scares
Creepy decorations in familiar, safe places (e.g., grocery stores, Home Depot, neighborhood homes)
Changes to normal routines and rules
Wearing scary costumes
Playing with toy weapons
Walking around at night
Taking candy from strangers
The good news is that there are ways to help your anxious child feel more comfortable during Spooky Season. Here are our top three tips for taking the "trick" out of Halloween.
1. Learn About Your Child’s Fears
The first step in supporting your child around Halloween anxiety is getting a better understanding of their fears. Start an open conversation with your child about how they feel about Halloween. Allow them to identify emotions they feel during spooky activities. Notice they might feel scared, uncomfortable, anxious, and even excited. Validate that all of their feelings are allowed to exist.
Then let them share the parts of Halloween that they specifically feel worried about. Some kids might have more fear around trick-or-treating at night. Others might be worried about people in costumes. More might be fearful of interacting with foreign adults. Once you get a better understanding of the specific fears of your child, you’ll be better able to support them for a successful Spooky Season.
2. Help Your Child Feel Prepared
Once you have an understanding of the specific fears of your child, you use some tools to help them build more comfort. If your child has a sensitivity to scary imagery, it might be helpful to talk to your child about the types of images they might see during this time of year. You can even show them pictures of common Halloween decorations ahead of time to help normalize what they might see out in the world. This will allow them to start to become more comfortable with these images before they are faced with them in the real world. You can also reassure your child that they don’t have to engage with any images that feel too scary. They are always welcome to close their eyes or walk away.
If your child is more concerned about the trick-or-treating process, play can also be a great tool to help your child prepare for Spooky Season. Allow them to play trick-or-treating in the house. Have them dress up and practice ringing the door to get candy and even practice giving out their own candy. Children learn about the world through play, so this gives them an opportunity to build understanding and comfortability.
3. Make Trick-or-Treating Kid Friendly
If your child has some fears around Halloween, try making the trick-or-treating process more kid friendly. Start by looking for family friendly trick-or-treat events in your community. These events are becoming more common and offer a more relaxed, fun environment. They also tend to take place in daytime hours and eliminate fears of the dark.
You could also explore some local "trunk-or-treat" gatherings, often hosted by schools or community centers. These events allow children to dress up and collect candy from the trucks of cars and they tend to have a festive, non-scary atmosphere, and feature fun costumes rather than frightening ones.
You could also make traditional trick-or-treating feel more familiar by stopping by houses of friends and family. This will allow your child to feel more comfortable with a familiar environment.
4. Engage in Lighthearted Halloween Activities
Your child might enjoy certain aspects of Halloween, so it can be fun to engage in appropriate seasonal material. For age-appropriate Halloween movies, check out Common Sense Media. This online resource helps parents choose safe and enjoyable films and TV shows for kids. They provide valuable insight into both the age-appropriateness and educational value of media. They even have a whole list of Scary (But Not TOO Scary) Halloween Movies!
Creative Halloween activities can also be a great way to ease anxiety and get into the holiday spirit. Simple crafts, like making paper plate jack-o'-lanterns, ghost handprints, or construction paper bats, are fun and non-threatening ways to celebrate. Check out Pinterest for even more fun Halloween activities.
5. Connect With Professional Supports
If Halloween triggers intense fears or phobias in your child, it may be time to consult a therapist. Specific phobias—like a fear of masks, clowns, or the dark—often become more pronounced during this season. If these fears start interfering with daily life, cause distress, increase avoidance of activities, or cause symptoms like trouble sleeping or panic attacks, professional support can help. A therapist can work with your child to identify the root of these fears and develop coping strategies to manage and reduce anxiety.
Written by Emily Earley, LCSW and Therapist at Calm Mind Therapy
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Calm Mind Therapy is a boutique mental health practice located in Ardmore, PA, specializing in the care of children, adolescents, and adults. Our mission is to provide the Main Line with high-quality mental health services for all ages. Our goal is to help our clients achieve emotional well-being and build a life worth living. Serving clients in Ardmore, Bryn Mawr, Wynnewood, Narberth, Radnor, Lower Merion, Haverford, Villanova, Swarthmore, Devon, Berwyn, Malvern, Bala Cynwyd, and more.
