Do the kids want to visit a haunted house this Halloween? If they're still a little too young, or it just isn't your thing, you can always set up this haunted house invitation to play instead. In this post I'll show you how to set up a fun, interactive haunted house small world for the kids that's slightly spooky, but not too scary...
My girls love small world play so it made sense to create a haunted house small world and our magic wood treehouse was the perfect neutral backdrop to dress up as a haunted house {we've also used it before to create a fairy village}. All I had to do was add some spooky props and flashing lights to create the perfect kid friendly haunted house. You can easily create one too if you have a treehouse or dolls house at home.
>> Please note that some items included in this small world can pose a choking risk for small children. The items depicted are intended for children over 3yrs of age and to be used under strict adult supervision. <<
SUGGESTED SUPPLIES FOR A HAUNTED HOUSE SMALL WORLD
- Tree house or dolls house
- Sonny angels or peg people
- Flashing Halloween necklace
- Spiders, skeletons & pumpkins
- Mini witches cauldron
- Coloured rice {optional}
- Halloween tape
- Fake spiderwebs
- Rats & bats
Halloween props usually start showing up in stores from about September and most items needed to set up a haunted house you can buy for a few dollars each. We keep all of our small world props and reuse them for future years so we already had everything on hand, however Halloween tape, creepy crawlies and mini cauldrons are usually available each year from supermarkets and dollar stores. The Halloween sonny angel we used was from a few years ago and they aren't as readily available, but you could easily use any peg people including Grapat mates or Grimms friends.
HOW TO SET UP A HAUNTED HOUSE SMALL WORLD
To set up our haunted house I started with our empty treehouse {you can also use a doll house} and added fake spiderwebs and spiders into a few corners of the house. On our treehouse the bark held the spider web in place, however you may need some blu tack to secure them.
I then added a mini pumpkin necklace around the top as Halloween lights {you can get similar pumpkin string lights on Amazon here}. They work really well as they can be set onto different flashing options that make the house feel extra spooky. I also added a flickering led candle at the back of the treehouse set to orange, which made an ominous glow through the house {it looks really impressive at night, see the video below}.
I wrapped the bottom of layers of the treehouse with Keep Out Halloween tape. It would also look great with Do Not Enter, Enter If You Dare, Enter At Own Risk, Caution or Danger Halloween tape. I also added quite a few mini pumpkins and a pumpkin pail because they're just so cute! I know cute and haunted house shouldn't really go together, but I find them way more cute than creepy.
I also added a heaped sprinkling of mini spiders on each level, because all abandoned haunted houses are going to have lots of spiders lurking in every corner. We've also set up haunted house with our DIY toilet paper roll mummies as a whole shelfie which you can see here.
At the top of our haunted house I put our ghost witch sonny angel with a bubbling cauldron. I didn't want to put anything wet in the cauldron so I used our orange sensory rice as a pretend potion. If you think your kids will throw rice around though just leave it empty or you could scrunch up some coloured tissue paper inside. Add a few extra creepy crawlies and your haunted house is done.
Our haunted house is set up on top of our kallax shelves as a small world shelf so it can be left out until Halloween and the girls can play with it as they wish each day. If you love decorating inside for Halloween this haunted house is not only a great invitation to play, but also makes a striking Halloween display.
MORE HALLOWEEN ACTIVITIES
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