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Ideas to celebrate Halloween at home

A Halloween Countdown Calendar is a fun and unique way to spread out the spooky fun of Halloween for more than a day.

Originally posted Sept 2021, Updated Aug 2024

Why create a Halloween calendar?

Halloween is becoming a bigger and bigger event here in the UK. Whether you like it Spooky and full of chills or ‘Spoopy‘ and full of cute, Halloween is a great way to perk up the dark evenings of Autumn.

As a family we love decorating and celebrating Halloween especially with cute decorations and lots of lights! I personally really struggle as the evenings roll in. I’m a summer baby through and through. So I appreciate the new selections of Halloween and non-Christmas fairy lights.

Much like the fun of Christmas is stretched across December and into January I thought that the fun of Halloween should be stretched across the whole Autumn season. This brought me to the idea of a countdown calendar.

Back in October 2020 I spent ages looking for a calendar online but couldn’t find anything suitable to purchase so I decided to make my own.

Halloween Calendar Blanks

I wanted to create a calendar which could be used and reused so I thought wooden was a good choice. Obviously, shapes are generally aimed at Christmas events however I found a few options which could be adapted such as a Christmas train to a spooky train or, the option I went for, a house.

Looking online now for example at Hobbycraft there are some great new options this year like a castle! (Unfortunately, the castle doesn’t seem to be available this year but there are other new options like mini houses you could turn into houses of horror etc)

Remember to check how many days the calendar offers-mine just had 25 so takes us from the 7th to the 31st but you can get some blanks with 31 days.

How to create your own calendar

1. First I bought a wooden advent calendar. I bought mine from Hobbycraft.
2. Next I painted it with poster paint. I started out with white and black for a spooky effect and added silver accents.
3. I then left this to dry completely. It may need a couple of coats.
4. When dry I took a pencil and assigned dates. I assigned the dates randomly to the doors but you could also put them in order.
5. I then thought of prompts to do with Halloween and assigned each to a day. I also used the prompts from an Instagram challenge to inspire the 18th till 30th. If you need help thinking what to put on your doors check out my post on Halloween themes and images! If required I did a quick, light pencil sketch on the door.
6. Then I painted the designs using acrylic paint.
7. As a finishing touch I put lights in the empty attic space and added cobwebs on top! 
8. Behind each door I popped a little present like a chocolate or a battery-powered tealight! 

There we are. A Halloween Countdown Calendar

What designs would go for on your own calendar? And what would you hide behind the doors? Let us know in the comments!

Custom Calendars Created to Order

And if you don’t feel like creating your own calendars we now create custom calendars to order. Whether it is for Halloween, Christmas or another countdown. Check out our infomation page here and get in touch!