How many days until Halloween? This Halloween Countdown Calendar is the perfect way for your kids to track the days 'til trick or treats!

I looked at the calendar today and realized that October begins next week.

Yikes!

Because as soon as the calendar switches over to October, my kids begin to plan for their biggest Fall holiday -- Halloween.

They plan their costumes.

They plan who to "Boo!"

They plan their trick or treat route.

They ask me for fun Halloween activities they can do while we count down to the big day.

They start to bug me about whether I'll be handing out candy this year or pretzels AGAIN (really, I only had non-candy treats one year and they were even pumpkin shaped pretzels that I thought were adorable :)

And I will very frequently hear "How many more days until I can wear my costume?"

Can you relate?

So, I thought a little pre-emptive planning on my part would be a good thing (cue the spooky music and creepy, squeaking door...)

Halloween Countdown Calendar for Kids

This year, we are totally prepared for the countdown -- your kids can do this on their own while practicing a little math (hee hee, trick them into a little learning ;) I'm including the free printable below along with affiliate links for items we used for the project.

Similar to a Christmas or Advent Countdown, the Halloween Countdown gives your kids something to do each day PLUS a way that they can track how many more days until trick or treats too.

The goal is to create a soft & fuzzy ghost by Halloween night!

I used the PicMonkey: crazy-awesome photo editing online program to create our ghost printables and love it!

You can do some amazing things with the editor -- make a Halloween banner or party invitations -- PLUS Picmonkey is free (seriously, free means you gotta try it!) for all their basic photo editing which includes some of their awesome holiday templates & graphics!

Just print off our ghost-themed Countdown to Halloween sheet, grab a bag of cotton balls and you're all set!

Each day in October, have your kids search for the date on the ghost and glue a cotton ball over that day.

Number recognition, sensory fun and a holiday calendar all wrapped up in one!

I modeled the idea after the Santa's beard countdown that I remember doing as a child -- it was so much fun to see the flat paper turn into a fluffy, white beard for dear old St. Nick.

We printed the Gray ghost template, cut it out and glued it onto a piece of black construction paper.

I've included some titling on the printable in case you'd like to just print it and hang as is instead of cutting it out.

And if you want to avoid arguments, just print off one copy for each child and they can each make their own ghost.

I like to name our ghosts -- oddly enough, we named him Frank last year :)

And because I think ghosts get tired of only being portrayed as white or gray figures, I thought I would also create an orange ghost countdown (print it here) -- because sometimes ya gotta be different, right!

Hang the ghost on your fridge or a door and then keep the cottonballs & glue close by -- I keep our cottonballs & glue stick in a cute Halloween themed tote that hangs on the doorknob near the calendar.

And then each time your kids ask "How many more days?" -- you can just point to the calendar :)

Get ready -- the Countdown is almost on!

More Halloween Crafts & Activities

12 Perfect Pumpkin Books for Kids

Halloween Salt-dough Garland

31 Printable Halloween Activities

Wait! There's more --



Fall Family BINGO

