With guidance changing all the time and cases on the rise, my husband and I went back and forth on whether or how to hand out Halloween candy safely during Covid. It’s our first year in our new neighborhood and we didn’t want to be that house that doesn’t have candy (though really, everyone gets a pass this year!). At the same time, we are still socially distancing, staying home, and generally being as cautious as possible. Having kids ring the doorbell is out of the question this year as far as we’re concerned.
I know everyone has their own, widely-ranging opinions on what is okay or not okay to do during this pandemic, but I wanted to provide a safe way to hand out candy if you choose to do so. This follows CDC guidelines for how to make trick-or-treating safer (according to their guidance as of October 9). Please do what’s right for your family though!
Without further ado, let’s get started on an easy way to transform your garage door into a way to safely hand out Halloween candy during Covid while maintaining distance from the neighborhood kiddos. (Note: You can also do this on a wall or by your front door.) I’ve seen a few versions of this floating around the internet, but I thought I’d take the time to figure out all the details and make it easy for you to copy if you’d like to do something similar. Post contains some affiliate links.
Supplies:
- 1 spool curling ribbon
- 2.5″ wire-edged ribbon
- paper or plastic treat bags
- candy or small toys
- clothespins
Instructions:
Here’s what your finished garage door will look like:
Start by buying or putting together a Halloween banner. I used this free, printable one from lovelyplanner.com! If you’d prefer to buy one already made, there’s still time to get one from Amazon. My favorites are this one, this one, or this one. If you’re making your own, string it on some basic curling ribbon and make sure to leave a lot of extra ribbon! I had some black and white patterned ribbon, but I linked some black you can get if you don’t have any.
Then pre-fill your treat bags with candy or small treats. I found these cute paper bags in the dollar section at Target, but here are some black patterned ones that you can order and have delivered on time. (Also, sorry about the dirty garage door–yuck! I’ve never gotten this up close and personal with the garage door before. Lol)
You’ll want to use wide ribbon strips to hang the treat bags on. I used some fall leaf ribbon I already had, but I think this orange and black ribbon would look great too!
There should be a thick, sturdy, metal bar running across the back of your garage door. Open the garage door just an inch or two. Then have someone stand outside the garage and feed the ribbon up through the top of the door and into the garage. The person in the garage should grab the end and tie it tightly to the beam. Do the same thing with the ends of the banner. Once everything is tied securely, lower the door back down. (Obviously, you will not be able to open your door fully once this is in place, so plan accordingly 🙂 )
Clip the treat bags to the ribbon with clothespins. We put five miniature candies per bag and the clothespins had no problem holding that amount of weight. Alternate the side of the ribbon you’re clipping the bags to so the ribbon will hang straight down.
Here’s another view of the full garage door:
I taped the ribbon to the back of each letter of the banner once I had the letters spaced out the way I wanted them. If it’s windy where you live, roll some tape (or use double-sided tape) and secure each letter to the garage.
And that’s all there is to it! A relatively quick and easy way to safely hand out Halloween candy during Covid. If you try this out, send me a picture of your door! I hope you all have a safe and fun Halloween next weekend 🙂
