Mom Ashlee Nicholas is going viral on TikTok for a genius tip that is helping parents plan the perfect Halloween. Of course, some people will always be bummed for the lack of trick-or-treating this year, but the Bay Area mom’s “Ghost Hunt” tutorial is easy enough that any parent can whip it together in an afternoon and more importantly, it will keep your kids socially distanced.
Nicholas, who is also a Special Education teacher, was looking for a safe way for her students and 3-year-old son Alexander to celebrate the season.
Speaking with CafeMom, she tells us that she even had a conversation with her class and asked them “what the kids would like to do [for Halloween] and someone mentioned the candy ghosts that their aunt makes every year.”
The next day, Nicholas was browsing Pinterest when she saw something that got her thinking.
It was a photo of a candy hunt and “one of the many things included was candy ghosts. I instantly felt the urge to make a video about it to share some safe ideas for keeping the Halloween spirit alive.”
All you need is some candy, tissue paper, and some ribbon and voila! Candy ghosts.
Just place your candy inside the tissue paper, cinch, and bind. Add a ghost face on the outside of your parcel and then hide them around the room and set your kids free to collect as many as they can.
Nicholas even shared her personal tweaks on the project — in case you need options.
You can add glow sticks to your ghosts if you want to have a glow-in-the-dark ghost hunt at night. And for grown-ups, Nicholas cleverly suggests wrapping up mini bottles of “adult beverages” instead of candy.
It’s perfect for families who are quarantining inside a social distancing “bubble.”
The mom tells us that she’s decided to invite her parents over for a glow-in-the-dark ghost hunt “and I’m thinking of also doing trick-or-treating at the different doors inside the house,” she says.
“Someone in our family can be behind the doors, Alex can knock and say 'trick-or-treat,' and they can open the door and give him treats,” she continued. It’s “indoor trick-or-treating!”
She tells us that Alexander will be going as a shark this year and she and her husband will be wearing squid hats “so we can make it a family thing.”
Nicholas’ video has since been viewed almost 4 million times on TikTok.
Embedded content: https://www.tiktok.com/@specialstuffco/video/6883205489052650758
And people are going crazy over the video she posted on October 13.
“I was just gonna hide candy like I did for Easter but making them little ghosts is GREAT!” one commenter wrote on her video.
“I love this,” added someone else. “No trick-or-treating this year for my kiddo. He is sad. I’ve been looking for ideas.”
While a third commenter wrote that they’ve “been trying to think of creative ways to put candy around my backyard for my son and his friend to find candy! This is perfect.”
She now says she never imagined the hack would be so popular.
“It just totally and unexpectedly blew up,” she says. “I wasn’t expecting this to happen at all, but I am so incredibly thankful that it did because I see from all the comments and DMs, that it’s giving people hope, happiness, and keeping the spirit alive"
"We need those things more than ever right now,” she adds.
