Enjoy counting down the days with these free printable Halloween games & activities -- one for each day in October!

My kids are telling me that October begins this week (where the heck did September go?!)

Which means it's time to countdown to one of their most favorite holidays -- Halloween!

Dressing up, candy, carving pumpkins, candy, decorating, more candy...

As I'm sure you know from reading some of our Kids in the Kitchen posts, I'm not a big fan of the whole focus-on-the-candy part of the holiday (even though chocolate is a wondeful thing ;)

Instead, I love to surprise them with a fun paper crafts, word games, scavenger hunts and other quick & easy Halloween-themed activities!

31 Free Printable Halloween Games & Activities

I LOVE keeping a basket with paper games & activities near our kitchen table -- it encourages reading, writing, family bonding and (most importantly) some laughs each day.

In addition to all the FREE games & activities, we also love to have a few family favorite items in our seasonal basket (I've included affiliate links in case you'd like to add them to yours):

Halloween Mad Libs (crazy funny!) or if you have younger kids, try the Halloween Mad Libs Jr edition

pages from a Halloween Coloring book (one for both kids & adults so I can join in!)

blank paper with Halloween themed stampers

and of course Halloween-themed pencils

All of the wonderful activities on our list below include FREE printables -- one for each day of October as a treat for you!

Print them off and let your kids choose one each afternoon as a surprise :)

Or include them in a countdown calendar that you can make together.

If you'd like to create a few of your own printables, I use PicMonkey: crazy-awesome photo editing and love them!

You can do some amazing things with it -- turn your kids into zombies -- or make a Halloween banner or party invitations -- PLUS Picmonkey is free (no kidding!) and includes photo editing, holiday overlays & some awesome design features -- like creating your own invitations & cards!

Whichever activities you choose, have a 'haunting' good time this month!

Happy Halloween!

Halloween Countdown Calendar

Halloween Shadow Puppets | One Perfect Day

Halloween Lacing Cards | Tot Schooling

Spooky Candle Wrappers | Mr. Printables

Halloween Mad libs | Classroom Jr.

100 Printable Masks | Itsy Bitsy Fun

Spinning Ghost decoration | One Creative Mommy

Halloween Scavenger Hunt

Conversation Starters for Halloween | 733 Blog

Design Your Own Jack o'lantern | Baby Loving Mama