Decorating on a Budget – Pine Cone Bats!

My five year old is a bit hesitant about Halloween this year. In previous years she seemed oblivious to the spooky costumes and decorations and was solely focused on the candy… now we can’t walk into a store without Halloween on display front and center and a breakdown from my munchkin. Perhaps it’s completely age appropriate but no matter the case, I had to figure out how to make this holiday less scary for her. It’s not about zombies chasing you down the road trying to eat you, vampires lurking in dark corners waiting to jump out at you, or mummies wanting to wrap you up in their cloths so you can’t breathe (all stories I have heard from her!!) It’s about dressing up silly, pretending to be someone else, and walking through the neighborhood to get TREATS!!

I kept all of our spider webs and skeletons in storage this year and just brought out the cutesy pumpkins and goofy looking witches. My daughter was excited to help apply our fun window stickers and then it occurred to me… she should help make our OWN Halloween decorations. Something fun that she’d approve of to put the joy back into the holiday and help relieve the stress of it. And that’s how our pine cone bats were born!

Now, talk about decorating on a dime! If you have any conifer pine trees nearby, you can throw this together in a hot second! Besides (free) pine cones, all you need is construction paper and a few googly eyes!

Grab these things:

• Pine cones
• Black and white construction paper
• Googly eyes
• Scissors and glue

Step 1) Free hand a bat shape like in the photo below on black paper. Fold your paper over to cut multiple bat shapes out at the same time. Kill a few birds (err, bats?) with one stone.

Step 2) Fit the bat wings into the grooves of your pine cones. They will stay in place, but you can add a dab of glue if you’d like to secure them.

Step 3) Glue the googly eyes down and cut triangles to make fangs out of the white paper. Glue them below the eyes and you’re all done!!

Set in a fun spot for everyone to admire!!

May your Halloween be filled with laughter and happiness… and lots of chocolate. 🙂

Just in case you have a little one that may be afraid of the goons and goblins that will be making an appearance at the end of October… check out this DIY Monster-Be-Gone spray!

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