We’ve had our fair share of frights these last few years, so, maybe it takes a bit more than Halloween these days to scare us, but either way we’re embracing this time of year! So, here’s our ultimate guide to surviving – and thriving!! – Halloween 2025, from costumes and decorating, to treats and ways to relax!
Trick or treating sadly wasn’t much of a thing when I was a kid – or maybe it just wasn’t a Howick thing? Who knows, but either way, the one time my friend and I ran around the neighbourhood wearing zombie outfits, it didn’t seem to be appreciated and we netted zero candy. Then there was one other rogue Halloween where my friends and I stayed up late drinking energy drinks (never a good idea at 14) and watched The Craft (also not a good idea if you are 14 with an overactive imagination).
So, it’s come as a bit of a surprise that in the last few years I have leaned into Halloween HARD. Maybe it’s because the world has been a bit scary at times and it’s been a way of reclaiming the fear? Or, it’s likely just the fact that I now have kids to dress up and spook, plus, as soon as we’d bought our house, everyone who knows the area said, ‘oh, the Halloween street?’ and we soon realised that our street goes all out on decorations and we need to put aside a week’s pay to stock up on candy to last us through until nightfall (something we have still not been successful at achieving).
Anyhoo, I’m here to tell you that Halloween is a heck of a lot of fun (especially if you have kids!). Here, I’ve compiled the best of the best out there – whether your idea of a fab Halloween is a glass of wine and a slightly spooky Netflix show, or you need tips on how to makeover your house so that Morticia Adams would be proud.
Here goes!
Note: We handpick everything we recommend. We may receive revenue for sharing this content or when you shop through our links.
First, relax!
Ok, yes, Normally, I would not associate screaming ghouls and vampires with a relaxing good time, but it’s 2025 and after the scary last few years we’ve all had, this is where we’re at. A great way to ease into Halloween is with a little spooky relaxation. Lush, the festive queens, have a range of spooky and fabulous Halloween themed treats this year, including a range of fab bath bombs (my faves): Ghostie Bath Bomb ($12), Alien Egg Farm Shower Jelly ($22), Pumpkin Spice Single Wick Candle ($14.50) and Bewitched Bubble Bar ($15.50).
Get Out There
The Trusts Halloween Spooktacular
Suburbs Rugby Football Club, New Lynn, Auckland, Saturday 1 November 2025 3:00pm – 10:30pm, just bring gold coins to participate in the fundraising games (plus some $ for food trucks!)
The Trusts (Portage and Waitākere Licensing Trusts) are throwing their first-ever Halloween Spooktacular, turning West Auckland into the ultimate spooky season destination, Saturday November 1st, 2025. Aucklanders wanting to celebrate Halloween can join the fun and give back to the local community at this family friendly event, where every gold coin spent goes directly to organisations and initiatives that support West Auckland.
Featuring a Trick or Treat lane, Haunted House, food trucks, face painting, fundraising games, a Bar for the adults and free movie screenings of The Nightmare Before Christmas and Ghostbusters, it’s the place to be this Halloween.
Butterfly Creek Halloween Weekend
Butterfly Creek, Auckland. Adults $32, Kids $16
Join Butterfly Creek for a delightful, not too frightful, fun-filled weekend on Saturday 1st and Sunday 2nd November. There’s prizes for best dressed, and free face painting between 10am to 2pm on both days. Take part in the giant pumpkin hunt to be in to win one of two spooktacular prize packs, and say hello to the entertainers, who will be handing out Halloween treats.
Fright Night
Howick Historical Village, Auckland, Saturday 25 October, $25 for adults $15 for kids
As part of the Festival of Frights 2024, Howick Historical Village presents Fright Night! Explore the grounds after dark, lit up and decorated for All Hallows’ Eve. Beware of fiendish and frightening villagers lurking along the way… Trick-or-treat your way through the streets and follow the ‘Riddle Route’ trail to learn about creepy Victorian Halloween traditions. Make an old-fashioned lollipop, visit the sweet shop or watch a spooky live show by Act One Productions. Enter the costume competition at 7pm for your chance to win incredible prizes. With face-painting, creepy crafts, food trucks and a gelato cart, this will be a spooktacular evening not to be missed! Make sure you book online – there are no door sales!
Halloween Family Trick or Treat
Ferrymead Heritage Park, Christchurch, Friday 31 October, Adults $16, Children $12
A popular evening of entertainment for the whole family to celebrate all things Halloween within a safe environment, appropriate for all ages. Experience all the weird and wonderful Halloween activities, explore the Park and bring your treat bag to collect your Halloween treats from the Lollie Stations situated throughout the whole Park. Follow the map given to you at the entrance to find all the locations of the Lollie Stations. One stop admission ticket price includes admission into the park, lollie station treats, unlimited tram rides, face painting, pony rides and all children’s entertainment.
Coffin Ship
Little Andromeda Christchurch Fringe Theatre, 29 October – 1 November, tickets from $25
A live play could be just the ticket to jump scare you! This Halloween season set sail for damnation: It is the time of famine and empire. Two starving women feed on vengeance while prisoners die chained between black timbers and dark waters. On the Coffin ship, the monster is you. From the team that brought you the bleak future of “I Cannot Give Hugs” and the director of Steven King’s Misery, Ideation, and Titus Andronicus, comes a new theatrical micro-horror.
Get in Costume
Maybe you’ve been invited to a Halloween costume party, maybe you’re heading out trick or treating with the kids, or maybe you just live on a Halloween crazy street where you need to be in theme for when the hordes of trick or treaters descend – whatever the case, don’t worry. There’s loads of easy ways to quickly whip up a costume. If you’ve got a few items of black clothing in your wardrobe and a black eyeliner, you already have what you need for a simple witch outfit! But, if you wanna go a little more elaborate or need some inspo, here’s some fab ideas for this Halloween:
Katy Perry in Space
This year has been a lot. It’s also been one hell of a year for Katy Perry. We’d almost blocked it out… but… remember that space flight?! You simply must go as this for Halloween. Get yourself a blue spacesuit (like this one from Amazon) or a tight fitting longsleeve blue top and and pants (maybe write PERRY on the top) and a long black wig. Extra points if your man will go as Justin Trudeau.
The Coldplay Couple
Yes, yes, 2025 might be the year of Taylor and Travis… but, it also kinda belongs to another duo: The Coldplay Kisscam Megatron couple. This one is SUPER easy to pull off. You may need a wig to really nail it, but it’s just a black tank top and pants for you, teamed with a couple of stacked necklaces and bracelets (bonus points if you can get a Coldplay wristband). Your man just needs a short sleeve button-up blue shirt and pants.
If you don’t already have items in your wardrobes, I’ve done the legwork for you – pictured above, Basic Heart Pendant Necklace – Gold Tone, $5 from Kmart, Shell Necklace $19.99 from North Beach, H&H Women’s Stretch Longline Tank $8 from The Warehouse, Schooltex Men’s Short Sleeve Shirt $39.99 from The Warehouse, H&H Signet Gold Ring Set 3 Pieces $6 from The Warehouse (you NEED wedding bands to complete this look!).
Then, it’s either a lovely blessing or a curse that you must then spend the night in the position in which the couple got sprung.
Taylor and Travis
For all of us who grew up on 90s/early 2000s rom-coms, this little romance has filled our hearts with joy. It’s also kinda easy to pull off. There are so many Eras to choose from when it comes to Taylor – just make sure you pair it with a bold red lip (and try throwing in a sparkling microphone prop!). You can buy Chiefs tops from Amazon, or just go with a red t-shirt and customise it?
Carmy and Syd from The Bear
If you’re going for more of a stressy vibe this year, why not go as this iconic duo? For Carmy, the fellas just need his signature white tee, some tattoos, messy hair, a white apron and a fully stressed attitude to match.
Gals, for Syd, don an apron and a ‘I am sick of this man’s shit’ attitude (certainly not that difficult to muster this year, no?). You can pick up this apron, above, from Spotlight for $31.
Elphaba and Glinda from Wicked
Are you feeling pink, or green? Either head out as Glinda or Elphaba, or enlist a girlfriend to go as a duo with you. Elphaba is pretty easy if you’re daring enough – just wear a black dress – a black cape if you can find one (those cheap vampire ones will do the job!) and a black witches hat.
Here’s where it stops being so straight forward though – you’re going to need to coat yourself in green (we cannot stress enough how important it is to patch test anything you put on your skin for this. Thankfully, Halloween is on a Friday so you do have the weekend to work out how to get back to your human coloured skin before work on Monday). BodyFX sells green facepaint for $14 that has good reviews! Otherwise, you can buy this whole outfit from Amazon.
Want more? We’ve got five more here!
Whip Up A Treat…
Halloween is the perfect excuse to indulge in large quantities of sugar – and these brownies taste FAB and are right on theme. They’re even ghoul and gluten-free! For best results try making them in a Lodge Cast Iron Loaf Pan.
Cobweb brownies by Alex Haslop (@alexskitchenstory)
Ingredients:
- 200g dark chocolate
- 200g butter
- 200g sugar
- 3 eggs
- 120g ground almonds
- 10 white marshmallows
- 1 pack (125g) m&ms
- Dash vanilla essence
Method:
Pre heat oven to 180 degrees C. Melt butter and chocolate in a large pot over the stove on a low heat, as it melts, stir continuously. Once melted and combined, pour in the sugar and stir until melted in. Remove from the heat and add the vanilla essence. Crack in the eggs and beat with a hand beater until combined, then pour in the almonds and continue beating. Grease a baking tin and pour in the mixture. Separate out the green and orange m&ms and scatter on top. Place in the oven for 25 minutes. Once cooked, remove and leave to cool for 1 hour. After the hour, put the white marshmallows and place in a small pot on a low heat, continuously stir until melted and without lumps. With a fork, take some of the mixture and drizzle over the brownies. Slice and serve
…Or Leave The Treats to the Experts
If you’d rather leave the baking to an expert, hand over the hard work to someone else and pick up some treats! Here’s a few suggestions:
- Grab a Pumpkin Spiced Lattes from Starbucks nationwide
- Couplands – with stores nationwide – have two special Halloween donuts available for $3 a pop, in either bright green or orange, with a Halloween character face, they’re filled with a gooey custard.
- Pick up a pack of mini cupcakes – all with a unique Halloween design – from Petal Cupcakes ($48 for 12 mini, $79 for 12 regular or $98 for 24 mini).
- In Forest Hill, Delish Cupcakes have boxes of six spookily themed cupcakes for sale ($42)
- Grab a Jack o Lantern or Jack Skellington Smash Cake from Hello Smash Cake ($75)
- Girl on a Swing in Hamilton has cute but spooky cupcakes for $6 a pop (they also do allergen friendly options!)
Get Your Place Looking Spooooooooky
During the depths of lockdown I made a $100 order online and bought giant cobwebs, spiders with glow-in-the-dark eyes, bats, a pumpkin that glows, a terrifying skeleton and a grave stone to emerge from the front garden. I don’t really know what came over me (do many of our lockdown purchases make sense) but, now, I still feel like it was a terrific purchase.
Because every year since, we’ve brought them all out again (ironically after clearing the cobwebs off them), and each year we’ve added a new decoration or two. It’s become a favourite tradition and one that the kids ARE INTO. I couldn’t recommend it more!
You don’t have to spend a lot to make the outside or inside of your place spooky – and, you’ll be able to use the decorations again and again.
Pictured above are a few options – from Left, Scarehouse Pumpkin Ceramic Mug $6 from The Warehouse, Animated Hanging Light Up Girl 1.3m, $33 from LookSharp, Party Inc Balloons 25cm Black 25 Pack, $2, from The Warehouse, Animated Black Spider, $42 from Kmart, Jack-O-Lantern Pumpkin, $9 from Kmart, Animated Misting Cauldron, $32 from Kmart, Animated Giant Faceless Reaper, $55 from Kmart, Seasons Life Size Poseable Skeleton 152cm, $59, from The Warehouse, Scarehouse Spider Pack Decoration 36 Piece, $3 from The Warehouse.
Do Some DIY (with the Kids!)
Although we now have a stash of decorations, my favourites are actually the ones that we make each year. Every October when there is a rainy weekend (there is always at least one) we have a Halloween craft afternoon. My absolute favourites over the years have been these toilet paper roll freaksters, some puffy ghosts and some painted jar Halloween Luminaries.
Tune into some Terrifying (or not-so!) TV…
It’s the perfect time to watch something a little bit spooky or a lot scary, but how do you know what’s a fun thrilling time, or going to haunt you for the next six months, if you’re someone who is admittedly, a bit of a horror wuss?
Fear not, thankfully Capsule’s Emma has made a scaredy-cat guide to Halloween viewing, which includes some recommendations, as well as a list that lets you know what is genuinely scary and not (including a helpful breakdown of gore ratings, whether you’re likely to scream out loud, and whether animals and children are safe in each movie – something that we find too disturbing to sit through!).
Here’s a taste:
Haunting of Hill House
I have already written ad nauseam about how this Netflix series is one of my top five TV series of all time (yes, I’ve seen The Wire, so please know this is an INFORMED ranking) but it’s one of the most moving depictions of the ‘ghosts’ that come with grief and trauma as it is about the actual things that go bump in the night. A young family move into a house that turns out to be haunted and after a tragic death, the impact of the house and that summer are still felt by the now grown-up siblings two decades later.
Will I scream out loud? 100% yes. Oooh boy are you in for some jump scares.
Is it gory? No.
Are animals and children safe in this movie? Mostly yes, but there’s a creepy kitten scene which is… unforgettable.
