Halloween messages, and riddles to lock them with
Halloween happens on the doorstep, which is hard on anyone who isn’t there. Here’s what to write to them, what the kids can send back, and riddles that make them work to open it.
Halloween happens on the doorstep: the costumes, the pumpkin, the haul tipped out on the living room floor. Anyone who isn’t there misses all of it, and grandparents most of all. Here’s what to write to the kids from far away, what the kids can send back, and riddles that make them work to open it.
Short Halloween messages
For a card, a text, or the first line of a letter.
Happy Halloween. May your bag be heavy and your pumpkin stay upright.
Happy Halloween from the bats. Yes, both of them.
Wishing you a spooky night and a very full bag of sweets.
Happy Halloween. Eat the good chocolate first; nobody has ever finished the raisins.
Boo. That’s the whole message. Happy Halloween.
Happy Halloween. The pumpkin says hello. It’s lost a tooth since you last saw it.
For grandchildren
From a grandparent, an aunt, anyone who’d be on the doorstep if they could. Ask questions: what you want back is the full report.
Happy Halloween, Ivy. I want a full report: who you went as, how far you got, and how many sweets went before Mum noticed.
Dear Max, Grandad is going as a grumpy old man again this year. Nobody ever guesses. Send me a photo of yours so I can have a go.
I wish I could be on the doorstep with you tonight. Knock on one door for me, and say boo twice: once for you and once for me.
When I was your age we went as ghosts, in a sheet, every year, because that’s all there was. I want to see how you’ve done better.
Happy Halloween to my two favourite monsters. Be scary, be careful, and brush your teeth twice.
From the kids
The other direction is the one that gets kept. Let them tell it while you type, and keep the bits a grown-up would cut. What to put in:
- Who they went as, and who else turned up as the same thing.
- How far they got: to the end of the road, round the block, or as far as the house with the smoke machine.
- The best house. The one with the big bars, the scary one, the one with the dog in a costume.
- The haul, counted, and what got swapped.
- The pumpkin, on its first night, before it started to sag.
Dear Nana, I went as a bat. Max also went as a bat, which was NOT the plan.
We got all the way to the postbox and back. A man whose dog was dressed as a pumpkin gave us the big chocolate bars, not the small ones.
Mum says I’m not allowed to tell you how many sweets we had, so I’ll just say more than eleven.
Riddles to lock it with
Give the envelope a passphrase and put a riddle in its hint, and the kids have to solve it to get in. Make the answer one word they can spell; capitals don’t matter. These work from about five upwards.
- I have a face but no head, I sit on the step, and I only glow once a year. (Pumpkin)
- I hang upside down all day and fly all night, but I’m not a bird. (Bat)
- I’m wrapped from head to toe, but I’m not a present. (Mummy)
- I sweep, but I never clean, and a witch rides me home. (Broom)
- I’ve got eight legs and I spin all day, but I never get dizzy. (Spider)
- I’m all bones, and I rattle when I dance. (Skeleton)
- I wear a sheet and I say boo, and you can see right through me. (Ghost)
- I’m round and bright, and the wolves howl at me. (Moon)
For older ones, make the answer something only they’d know: the house that gave out the big bars, or what the pumpkin was meant to be.
What to send with it
- Photos. The costumes on the doorstep before anything gets torn, and the pumpkin on its first night.
- A film. The haul tipped out on the floor, or everyone in costume saying boo to camera. It’s the part they’ll watch twice.
- A riddle, if the envelope’s going to the kids.
When to send it
Halloween is Saturday 31 October this year. The costume photos are best sent that night, after bedtime, while the sweets are still being counted.
An envelope for the kids can go earlier and stay sealed until the day: at dusk on the 31st, say, in their time zone. They’ll see the envelope, and a countdown, until then. A Halloween envelope starts from $1.29 for a letter, and opens on any phone, anywhere, with nothing to install.
Not sending one today?
We’ll remind you before Diwali and Christmas: a few emails a year, a week or so before the days people send envelopes for. Nothing else, and one click stops them.
