Samhain, the ancient Celtic festival marking the end of the harvest and the beginning of winter, is one of the most sacred Sabbats on the Wheel of the Year. Often seen as the Pagan New Year, it’s a time to honour ancestors, reflect on the cycles of life and death, and embrace the thinning veil between worlds.
For Pagan parents, learning how to share these concepts with our children in a deep and meaningful, yet also age appropriate, way can sometimes be confusing. Although rooted in lore and history, our Samhain celebrations and traditions are deeply personal, borne of our lived experiences and our perceptions of the world around us. This is what makes parenting, and family dynamic, so utterly unique and individualised.
Samhain is a beautiful opportunity to connect children with these rich traditions through cooking, crafts, nature, and imagination. Whether your child is a toddler or a tween, there are many fun and meaningful ways to celebrate together.
Magical Kitchen Time: Cooking and Baking
Any holiday celebration, for me, begins with food! I love planning the menu, shopping, preparing and sharing recipes with family and friends. And allowing children to participate in this blessed ritual not only teaches life skills but also, builds beautiful memories that last through the ages. Some of my best memories as a child revolve around waking up to cinnamon rolls for breakfast and later, helping to prepare Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner in the kitchen.
Samhain foods are hearty, comforting, and often connected with the harvest and ancestral traditions. Involving children in kitchen activities lets them explore sensory experiences, learn about seasonal ingredients, and contribute to ritual and celebration. Talk to them about the magical properties of the herbs and spices you are using. Let them sprinkle the salt into the dish and whisper the magic incantation:
Sprinkle the salt, so fine and white,
Keep us safe both day and night.
That is magic and kitchen witchery at its finest!
Kid-Friendly Samhain Recipes:
SAMHAIN recipes coming soon:
- Pumpkin Soup or Roasted Pumpkin Seeds: Roast together and discuss the symbolism of pumpkins (protection, abundance). Kids can scoop the seeds, season them, and watch them crisp in the oven.
- Soul Cakes: These small spiced cakes were traditionally offered to spirits or given to the poor in exchange for prayers for the dead. Let children cut them into fun shapes (like moons, stars, or ancestor faces).
- Ancestral Dinner: Prepare a small meal with dishes that honour your family’s heritage. Let your child set a place for the ancestors at the table and explain why it’s done.
- Char-BOO-terie board: If you also enjoy a taste of Halloween spookiness added into your Samhain festivities, then create a grazing platter or charcuterie board filled with fun little tidbits. I make things like meatloaf mummies, white chocolate covered strawberry ghosts, and a brainy cheeseball to add to the fun.
- S’mores: If you have a Samhain bonfire, then roast marshmallows and sandwich them between two chocolate digestives (chocolate side in) for an ooey-gooey campfire treat (if you’re British). If you’re American, I suspect you know the drill! Two graham crackers, a bit of chocolate (I might live in the UK now but I am still partial to a Hershey’s square!) along with your roasted mallow, then you STUFF! 😊
Seasonal Crafts and Keepsakes
Crafting is a hands-on way for children to explore Samhain’s themes of transformation, remembrance, and seasonal change.
Craft Ideas for All Ages:
- Ancestor Lanterns: Use mason jars, tissue paper, and LED candles to create soft-glowing lanterns. Decorate with images of ancestors or symbols that represent them. Explain to your child that this will help guide your ancestors to them, for wisdom and guidance.
- Leaf Spirit Masks: Collect autumn leaves and glue them onto cardboard mask bases (you can cut these out of cereal boxes!). Talk about nature spirits and how we honour them at this time of year.
- Miniature Besoms (Witch Brooms): Craft small brooms using twigs and string. They’re fun to make and can be used in rituals or as home décor.
- Samhain Memory Tree: On a small branch placed in a jar or vase, hang paper leaves inscribed with memories, photos or names of loved ones who have passed. Children can add drawings or kind words.
- Pumpkin Painting: A great alternative to carving for little ones. Use paint, glitter, or natural materials to decorate pumpkins with magical symbols, runes, moon phases, or faces.
Nature-Based Activities
Samhain is a deeply nature-rooted holiday. Even as the earth quietens and prepares for its Winter slumber, there’s magic to be found in the falling leaves, chilly air, and long shadows.
Ideas to Connect Children with Nature at Samhain:
- Nature Walk and Offering: Take a mindful walk to observe the changes of the season. Collect natural items like acorns, feathers, or fallen leaves. Leave an offering (a song, a thank-you, or a biodegradable or wildlife friendly treat) for the land spirits.
- Create a Seasonal Altar Together: Invite your child to choose meaningful objects from nature to place on your family altar—acorns, stones, leaves, photos of ancestors, and candles.
- Bonfire or Candle Circle: If it’s safe, a small fire can be a powerful element in your celebration. Let children help write down things they’re ready to let go of (habits, fears) and toss them into the fire or burn them in a ritual cauldron. Make s’mores in the flames to seal the deal!
- Animal Spirit Exploration: Many animals are associated with Samhain (crows, owls, wolves, bats). Read stories or watch age-appropriate documentaries, then do a craft or drawing session based on the animal they feel drawn to.
- Potion making: Set up a potions lab in your garden and spend time with your child collecting herbs, rocks, sticks, feather and leaves to create their own mini apothecary. I used to save my herbs and spices jars for my daughter to collect fabulous and mystical items like dragon scales (which were pieces of a pine cone we had broken apart and glitterised). Word of warning though! Make sure to label, or at least keep track of, your witchling’s potion making ingredients or your husband may find himself liberally sprinkling what he THINKS is cumin into his Sunday pot of chili (not that I’m speaking from a mother’s experience or anything!).
Costume and Dress-Up Ideas
Costumes aren’t just for trick-or-treating—they’re a way to explore magical archetypes and express inner selves. Encourage your child to embody something meaningful. One of my daughter’s favourite costumes was dressing as Buck the dog, from Call of the Wild, when she was about 8 years old, after we had read the book together.
Samhain-Inspired Costume Ideas:
- Nature Spirits or Forest Creatures: Fairies, dryads, green men, or animal spirits. Use leaves, feathers, face paint, and natural textures.
- Mini Witches, Druids, or Healers: Not the scary kind from the shop! Use robes, cloaks, staffs, wands and herb pouches. Teach your child about what these figures represent in folklore and tradition.
- Ancestor Tribute: Help your child create a costume inspired by an ancestor or cultural heritage—perhaps a favourite great-grandparent or a symbolic representation of family roots.
- Sun and Moon Characters: These can represent the turning of the year. One child (or parent) can be the setting sun, the other the rising moon.
- Mythological Beings: Pick from Celtic lore (like Cailleach the Crone, or the Morrigan or Cernunnos), Norse deities, or spirits of the land and sea. Be as creative and whimsical as you like!
A Time to Teach with Compassion
Samhain opens the door to important conversations—about death, remembrance, and spiritual connection. Exploring bereavement with children is a tricky subject and one that needs to be handled with honest sensitivity. Whether you are dealing with the loss of a pet or a loved one, let your child ask questions. Let them explore their own feelings. The questioning isn’t in anyway disrespectful or insensitive. With the innocence of youth, they are trying to make meaning of the loss the same as you. If a child innocently asks a question about the passing of a loved one, and it causes you to cry, explain to the child that it is not their fault, nor is it their question or memory, that has caused your tears. Tell them, in simple terms, that you are very sad and that you miss your loved one, like they do, but that it is okay to talk about them, to remember them, and to share thoughts and memories. Let them see you cry and grieve because then they can understand that their emotions are nothing to be ashamed of, that grief and tears can be cathartic and healing and that death is a part of the cycle of life.
By no means do I seek to gloss over this sentiment or just pay it lip service. Having very recently lost my own father, I struggle with platitudes and with accepting this circle of life. I’m still angry and that is okay, too. Feelings surrounding death are complicated, and they’re messy. The process of grieving can be ugly and it will take as long as it takes. Nobody, including children, grieves in the same way.
Share stories about your loved one, or your ancestors. Create an ancestor altar, light candles, say a blessing or simply say their name. Leave offerings of food and drink they enjoyed, and tokens that remind you of them or carry it with you. I carry one of my dad’s guitar picks in my pocket at all times. I know his fingers touched it and so, when I hold it, it’s like he’s holding my hand. The heart of Samhain isn’t fear—it’s transformation, honour, and the enduring love between generations. It is the certainty that, despite loss or intergenerational trauma, your roots go deep and have contributed to who you are today, and to what you are passing down to your child to carry forward into the future.
Final Thoughts
Celebrating Samhain with children brings fresh energy to ancient practices. Traditions that stretch back over time and history continues to connect us to not only our own bloodline but also, ancestors and spirits of place; those who have walked this path before us. Through cooking, crafting, connecting with nature, and dressing up, you create a foundation for a magical and meaningful spiritual path—one rooted in love, respect for the earth, and reverence for the unseen.
Blessed Samhain to you and your family. May your celebrations be filled with warmth, wonder, and wild magic.
The Illuminated Pathway 