I’m sure this comes as no surprise, but I LOVE holidays and Halloween is special for so many different reasons…one of which is that it has the awesome job of kicking off the entire holiday season that starts October 1 and doesn’t end until January 2. So I’ve gotten into the habit of celebrating the start of this extended season with a Halloween gift basket for my kids!

This special “Boo Basket” doesn’t need to be something elaborate or expensive.

In fact it can be made almost entirely from Halloween goodies of years past…this is just a great time to pull everything out and start to get everyone in the Halloween spirit!

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This Halloween gift basket idea is so easy to put together and will be so much fun for your family! And everything in it is non-candy!

Why It’s Great to Start Halloween Early with a Fun Boo Basket

Aside from starting the Grand Holiday Season off early, embracing Halloween is a lot of fun because there are so many different activities that will pull your family together and out of the house to experience the beautiful new Fall weather.

Your Halloween Basket doesn’t necessarily need to incorporate these activities or even have anything to do with them…it’s just a great way to get everyone excited about the month ahead!

So what exactly should you be getting excited about? Here are a few of the big items you should have on your October bucket list:

Hay ride
Carving pumpkins
Decorating the outside of the house
Decorating the inside of the house
Halloween crafts (this is where your decoration can come from!)
Sending Halloween letters
Reading Halloween books
Watching Halloween movies
Picking out costumes
Trick-or-Treating

What to Put in Your Halloween Gift Basket

Like I said before, the best thing about this Halloween basket is that you definitely don’t need to splurge on a ton of expensive items. I typically buy one or two new things and then just pull out some of our fun Halloween items from the last year.

So what kind of (non-candy) items should you consider adding to your Halloween basket?

Here’s where I love to start:

Matching Halloween Pajamas

Matching Halloween pajamas are my absolute favorite item to include!

My kids love pajamas – and especially matching ones – so it’s a no brainer for me.

They get a ton of use and are SO cute and festive.

There are a lot of cute Halloween pajamas to choose from, but if you’re looking for gender-neutral ones (for matching purposes!), I’ve used these and they were great (and inexpensive).

Halloween Books

Halloween Books are one of the best items you can add to your Halloween gift and with these, you definitely can take advantage of the Halloween books you already have in your collection!

I usually add one new Halloween book and then pull out the ones we have from last year…that way there’s some excitement of something new, but also a lot of other books to keep the season festive and fun (some of these books are their all-time favorites anyway)!

Here are some of the best Halloween books for kids to get you started:

Halloween Paint by Stickers

If you have a preschooler or young grade schooler at home, then this paint by stickers book is such a great Halloween activity for them to have…and it will take the whole month to complete!

And these books are addictive!

They’re based off of the paint by numbers concept…except instead of paint, they use stickers!

The result is a really cool looking picture and they’ll have a lot of fun putting it together.

Halloween Crafts

One of the absolute best ways to really make the most of the season is to incorporate some fun Halloween craft activities.

There are lots of things you can do on your own, but you can also get a Halloween craft kit, which is such an easy solution because they come with everything you need.

This one is really cute and comes with 4 different crafts to do!

Halloween Trick-or-Treating Bucket

A Halloween bucket is key, especially since you can use it for Trick-or-Treating, BUT this is another item that you probably still have from last year!

So if you’ve got it, pull it out and reuse it!

If not, this will come in handy at the end of the month anyway.

Halloween Stickers

Halloween stickers are one of the best items to include in your Halloween gift basket.

We are big letter writers in our house, so seasonal stickers get a lot of use.

But even if your kids don’t write letters, they’ll have a lot of fun with stickers!

You could also use this as an opportunity to try out writing letters for fun…Happy Halloween pictures for all of your family and friends! 😉

Mask & Cape

I got my kids these masks and capes years ago for Halloween and they get a ridiculous amount of use in our house.

This is definitely one of those items that I pull out from the past and reuse because I know they’ll get excited when they see them.

So if you don’t already have some of these, it’s a great addition to your Halloween Boo Basket!

I hope you’re able to put together a great Halloween gift basket this year! It’s such a fun way to start the holiday season and really get into the Halloween spirit! Enjoy your Fall!

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