If you live in Northwest Ohio or Southeast Michigan, you may not consider a swimming pool party for your Halloween gathering, but depending on the weather and depending on whether you have a swimming pool heater, you might just be able to pull it off.
Regardless of whether you will have a pool party, we want to offer you these hints and tips to make Halloween as much fun and as safe as it can be.
- If the children go door to door trick or treating, make sure they have costumes that are short enough that they don’t trip. Don’t let them wear masks that obstruct their vision.
- Everyone should trick or treat in pairs or in groups.
- Carry flashlights and put some reflective tape on the trick or treat bags and costumes.
- Make sure your kids don’t eat any treats until they get home and you have had a chance to inspect them.
- Look both ways before crossing the street. Use crosswalks and walk on the sidewalks.
- If possible, trick or treat with the youngsters before the sun sets.
- Visit locations that offer Trunk-or-treat options as these are generally safer options.
If you’re hosting a party or will be handing out treats here are some safety items to address before Halloween:
- Offer healthy snack alternatives like boxed raisins, string cheese or other lower calorie treats – the parents will thank you.
- Make sure there are no lighted candles on the stairs the children will be using to get to your front door. Also, clear off any other debris or trip hazards from stairs, sidewalks and your porch.
- Keep your front porch light on so that the trick or treat-ers know they can come to your home and to make it safer for them to get up the stairs.
- Don’t overload electrical outlets with Halloween decorations and make sure there are no cords in the walkways.
- Use floating luminaries on your swimming pool to light up the area. Avoid using candles – use battery operated LED lights instead.
- If your pool is still open and your guests will be using it during the Halloween party, make sure the area is well lit and that your pool is lighted. There should be an adult who is responsible for checking on the pool and keeping track of those using it.
Don’t forget the costumes:
Shark Costume
- Grey Hooded Sweatshirt with matching Sweatpants
- An extra pair of Sweatpants in the same color (get the largest size you can for this extra pair, to give yourself plenty of extra fabric)
- A piece of Plastic Canvas (I think the sheets come in 12 x 18 inches)
- White felt
- Small circles of black felt
- Batting
Jellyfish
Find a clear umbrella and attach long strands of lace and sheer fabric. Be sure not to let the strands touch the ground in order to prevent trips and falls. Add white or pastel tights and a leotard and float through the festivities.
Scuba Diver
Using a black sweat suit, a plastic soda bottle, goggles and some spray paint, you can create a scuba costume that is lightweight, warm, and super fun.
No Halloween party is complete without decorations. Here’s a few we found:
Glowing jack o lantern buckets
This one is a great project for you and your children. In fact, it may easily be the best Halloween pool party idea yet. Glowing jack o lantern buckets are fun to make, safe, and take no longer than 5 minutes. All you need is a few cheap Halloween buckets and some glowsticks. Just crack the glowstick, match the color to the bucket, and drop it in. And what’s cool about these is that they float, so you can leave them to casually glide across the pool surface, or just place a few around deck.
Floating pumpkins
Gather a few hollowed-out pumpkins and toss them into the pool. Although they won’t stand out as much as the floating jack o lanterns, they will still provide a festive atmosphere. It’s not often you see floating pumpkins.
Colored LED lights
You can buy LED lights that come is many colors, but for Halloween, red, purple, orange and black are great choices. Most strands can be programmed to change from color to color or fade in and out. You can add to the feel by switching out some of your patio lighting with a variety of fun colors, too.
Misty swamp
Of all the ideas, this one will probably be the coolest, if done correctly. You can turn your swimming pool into the scene of a dark, misty swamp. For this, you’ll need two things: good lighting and fog. With the LED lights ready to go, you have two options for creating the fog. You can rent a fog machine and hide it behind a planter or in another inconspicuous area on your patio and trigger the fog when desired. The other option is to use dry ice. Although the science behind dry ice is intriguing, we encourage you to use caution when handling it. Always wear thick leather gloves or a towel to pick it up. Once you’ve found a safe way to move the ice, grab a bucket and fill it halfway with hot water. To create the fog effect, drop chunks of the dry ice into the water. It will begin to melt immediately, emitting white vapors creating an effect similar to a fog machine. To keep the fog rolling across your swamp, you’ll have to keep replacing the water once it’s cold.
There’s so much to do, and ways to be creative for Halloween, and at Hawaiian Pool Builders, we are sure that you can come up with even more ideas and tunes than we listed here. Check out our Halloween Pinterest board for even more ideas.
