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Ten Top Tricks For Halloween
Halloween is not just about the sweets. It is the one night a year you can give someone a proper fright and call it tradition. Here are ten of our favourite Halloween tricks and pranks, from gentle to genuinely startling. Keep them good-natured, keep them safe, and never scare anyone who would not enjoy it.
1. Freeze on the front lawn
Decorate the front of the house, then dress up in something eerie, a skeleton costume is perfect, and pose among the decorations like part of the display. Stay dead still until someone walks close, then move. The slow reveal gets a bigger scream than any jump.
2. The hay bale scarecrow
Same idea, softer landing. Dress as a scarecrow and slump onto a hay bale by the door like a prop. When the doorbell goes and the trick-or-treaters lean in, sit up. Works every year and it is gentle enough for younger visitors.
3. The mirror message
Breathe on a bathroom mirror and write something like "I'm watching you" with your finger, then let it dry. It stays invisible until the next hot shower steams the glass up, and whoever's in there gets the fright hours later. Harmless and very effective.
4. The cling-film surprise
Stretch a layer of cling film tightly across a doorway at head height, or over a bowl of "sweets" so nobody can get in. Keep it obvious enough to be a laugh rather than a hazard, and take it down once the joke has landed.
5. Ladder at the door
If you would rather skip trick-or-treaters altogether, lean a ladder against the front door. The superstitious will not walk under it, and the rest will assume you are mid-repair. A polite way to keep the doorbell quiet.
6. The Halloween Valentine
Post a spooky Valentine's card on the 31st, signed from Dracula or a mystery admirer. The wrong holiday and the odd signature will keep the recipient guessing for weeks. Best aimed at someone with a sense of humour.
7. Reverse trick-or-treat
Flip the whole thing. Go door to door and hand out a treat instead of asking for one. The back-to-front logic leaves everyone baffled, and it is a genuinely nice way to prank the street.
8. Change all the clocks
Add an hour to every clock, phone and device in the house. Watching the family sit down for the ten o'clock news at nine is a slow-burn prank that takes ages to unravel. Change them back before bedtime.
9. Howl at the moon
When the doorbell rings, start howling and scratching gently at the door before you open it. Most trick-or-treaters will be giggling nervously by the time you appear. Commit to it fully or not at all.
10. The slow werewolf
The long game. On the morning of the 31st, tell the family you feel a bit off. Through the day, add pale face powder, dark shadows under the eyes, the odd growl. Pop in a set of fangs by evening and howl on the lawn after dark. A costume and a bit of acting sell it completely.
Tricks for younger kids
Half of these work for children with the scare dialled down: the scarecrow freeze, the reverse trick-or-treat and the mirror message are all gentle fun. Pair them with a costume from our kids Halloween range and let them do the scaring for once.
Kit out the pranks
- Scary Halloween costumes for the adults doing the frightening.
- Kids Halloween costumes for the trick-or-treaters.
- All Halloween suits and costumes across adults and kids.
