Just because trick-or-treat isn't happening for your deployed service member doesn't mean Halloween shouldn't. Here's our guide to the perfect Halloween care package, filled with delicious candy and spooky treats!
You'll Need:
A USPS large flat rate box
Sharpie
Packing tape (we used decorative duct tape acquired on sale at Michael's)
Decorative spider web
Halloween-themed paper (tissue, wrapping, scrapbooking, etc)
Halloween stickers and fun pictures to decorate the box
Dipped chocolate ghost s'mores
Witches hats cookies in spooky stamped bags
Candy corn stuffed witch brooms
Step One: Get the box ready
Gather your supplies so you're ready to decorate the box. Using your sharpie, draw some simple Halloween designs on the exterior of the box (careful to not interfere with places that you need to put the address or return). I drew easy spider webs.
Step Two: Line the box for Halloween
Service members love to open their boxes and see the insides decorated, so we used Halloween tissue paper to line the inside of the box with spider webs. You could draw spider webs on regular paper and use that, or use wrapping paper... scrapbooking paper is also really good here!
Step Three: Decorate the inside of the box
This part is so much fun! I used Printstagram to print some of our Instagrams of our son to decorate the inside of the box. (You can also get stickers made!) I then wrote out silly captions (they're completely ridiculous, honestly, but there's not much you can do with a picture of a three month baby that's Halloween-centric) and added stickers for some ghostly pizzaz.
Step Four: Pack the box with your goodies!
We got to pack our box with the candy corn stuffed witches brooms we made, along with a brownie graveyard, witches hats cookies in spooky stamped bags (made with a potato stamp - cheap and easy!), and chocolate-dipped ghost s'mores.
I also found a really cute black cat banner at Michael's for a few dollars, and because I'm like an addict in a shady dark ally when it comes to Michael's, I clearly bought it. Show more restraint than I did, please.
But it IS really cute.
Step Five: Box it up!
If you're like me, and you're paranoid about things breaking in shipment or bugs getting in, ziplocks reinforced with some packing tape is the right choice for you along with some trusty bubble wrap along the bottom and edges of the box. But for the top of the box, you'll want to pad with something special: fake spider webs!
I added some spider stickers to the spider web so that it's a spooky trick (since the rest is treats!) when the box is opened up.
That's it! A super spooky care package that's perfect for Halloween... and really, really easy. What do you usually put in your Halloween care packages? Do you do other fall-themed boxes? Tell us your tips!
