Calm Halloween activity for kids 2026: colour in last year's costumes

Why last year's photos

Halloween night itself is busy, with dressing up and knocking on doors. Colouring in last year's costumes is a slower, quieter way to look forward to it. Those photos are already on your phone, so the book can be ready before this year's.

How many photos you need

Each book has 20 colouring pages, one for each photo. You might not have 20 good photos from one Halloween, so add a few from the rest of the autumn, like a trip to the pumpkin patch or a walk in the leaves.

Which Halloween photos work best

A carved pumpkin on its own turns into a page with a few big shapes, which suits a younger child who wants to finish it. A close-up of them in costume has more going on, with the details of the outfit and whatever is behind them, so it gives an older child more to work on. You can put both kinds in one book, so children of different ages can share it.

Photos taken from further away give you a different kind of page. In the doorstep photo below he takes up about a third of the picture, so the street and the front door give the page most of its lines. Once someone is too far from the camera to make out their face, the page is mostly whatever was behind them, so if you want the costume to be the subject, pick a photo where they fill more of the frame.

You see every page before you order, and you can swap any photo you're not happy with. Our guide to the photos that make the best colouring pages goes into more detail.

Choosing a cover

The pages are drawn from your photos, and the Halloween theme comes from the cover. Toodaloo's Halloween covers range from a friendly pumpkin to a haunted house, and you give the book a title of your own, like their name, with a subtitle if you like, such as the year. If you'd rather it felt more autumnal, Pumpkin Pile-Up is a stack of pumpkins and squash with no witches or ghosts on it.

Spreading it over the week

Twenty pages works out at about three a day across the week before Halloween, which keeps it to a short sit-down each afternoon. Younger children don't have to colour every small shape on a busy page. They can do a whole costume in one colour if they'd rather.

At the front there's a page for a message, then a test sheet where they can try their pens first. The pages are 140gsm, thick enough that most felt tips stay on the front even with a heavy hand (more on paper and felt tips).

Other calm ideas for Halloween week

Decorate the bag or bucket they'll use for trick-or-treating with stickers and felt tips, or let them scoop out the pumpkin before you carve it.

If you want something to colour today, print our free pumpkin picking colouring pages. There are four, and no sign-up.

For something autumnal, make leaf rubbings: put a leaf under a sheet of paper and rub over it with the side of a crayon. The RHS has more autumn activities like this.

Ordering in time

Books are dispatched in 2 working days. Delivery time depends on the post, so order early if you want it before Halloween.