Edible Halloween Crafts Kids Can Make (and Eat)
Edible Halloween crafts are food projects that children build, decorate and then eat: banana ghosts, clementine pumpkins, cracker spiders and pretzel broomsticks are four of the easiest. They need no oven, very little cutting and only a few everyday ingredients, which makes them perfect for a class party, a playdate or a rainy October afternoon.
Below are eight edible crafts that work for children from about age three upwards, with what you need, how to make each one, and the safety and allergy points that are worth sorting out before anyone starts licking their fingers.
What You Need
- Clean hands, a wipeable table and a tray or plate for each child
- Bananas, clementines or small oranges, apples and grapes
- Round crackers, rice cakes, pretzel sticks and breadsticks
- Cream cheese or another soft spread
- String cheese or cheese slices
- Raisins, chocolate chips or candy eyes for faces
- A blunt butter knife, small spoons and a piping bag or sandwich bag with the corner snipped off
- Paper plates, napkins and a few cookie cutters
Before You Start: Food Safety and Allergies
Check every child's allergies before the session and read the labels of crackers, spreads and chocolate, which often contain milk, wheat, soy or traces of nuts. If you are hosting a group, it is simplest to leave nut butters out entirely and use cream cheese or a seed spread instead.
For young children, cut grapes lengthways into quarters and avoid whole nuts, popcorn and hard sweets, which are choking hazards. Do any slicing with a sharp knife yourself and give children a blunt butter knife for spreading. Wash hands before and after, and keep a damp cloth on the table.
1. Banana Ghosts
Banana ghosts are the quickest edible craft there is: half a banana with a face. Peel a banana and cut it in half across the middle. Stand each half on its cut end on a plate. Press two chocolate chips into the rounded top for eyes and a third, upside down or a raisin, for a surprised "boo" mouth.
- Peel and halve the banana (an adult job for younger children).
- Stand the halves upright on the cut end.
- Add chocolate chip or raisin eyes and a mouth.
- Eat soon, before the banana starts to brown.
2. Clementine Pumpkins
A peeled clementine already looks like a tiny pumpkin; it just needs a stem. Peel the clementine, keeping the segments together, and push a short piece of celery, a mint leaf or a pretzel stick into the hole at the top. Older children can draw a jack-o'-lantern face on an unpeeled clementine with a food-safe marker instead.
3. Cracker Spiders
Cracker spiders turn a snack plate into a creepy-crawly one. Spread cream cheese on one round cracker, press four short pretzel sticks into each side for legs, then put a second cracker on top. Two dots of cream cheese with a raisin in the middle make the eyes.
- Break pretzel sticks in half to make eight legs per spider.
- Spread one cracker with cream cheese.
- Lay four legs on each side, then sandwich with a second cracker.
- Add the eyes with a dab of cream cheese and two raisins or candy eyes.
If you like spiders, the chocolate spider web is a sweeter project for older children with an adult melting the chocolate.
4. Pretzel Broomsticks
Pretzel broomsticks are a witchy snack that children love to assemble. Cut a stick of string cheese into three short pieces. Snip or pull each piece into thin strips from one end, leaving about a third uncut. Push a pretzel stick into the uncut end for the handle. Tie a chive around the top of the bristles if you have one, which makes them look even more like a real broom.
They pair well with a full-size DIY witch broom prop if you are planning a witch-themed party.
5. Apple Monster Mouths
Cut an apple into thick wedges and cut a smaller wedge out of the skin side of each one to make an open mouth. Children spread the inside with cream cheese or a seed spread and press in mini marshmallows or slivers of white chocolate for teeth. A strawberry slice makes a tongue and a candy eye on top finishes the monster. An adult should do the cutting, and you can brush the apple with a little lemon juice to stop it browning.
6. Rice Cake Jack-o'-Lanterns
Rice cakes are a sturdy, flat base for faces. Spread one with orange-colored cream cheese (stir in a drop of food coloring) or a thin layer of jam. Children then make a face with triangle-shaped pieces of cheese, raisins, blueberries or chocolate chips. A short piece of pretzel or a slice of grape makes the stem.
7. Mummy Crackers
Spread a rectangular cracker or a slice of bread with cream cheese. Lay thin strips of cheese across it at slightly different angles, leaving a gap near the top. Add two candy eyes or blueberries in the gap, peeking out between the "bandages". If you have a toaster oven and an adult to help, mummy pizzas on English muffins work the same way with mozzarella strips.
8. Graveyard Pudding Cups
This is a great finale for a party. Fill small clear cups with chocolate pudding or yogurt, crush a few chocolate cookies in a sandwich bag with a rolling pin and sprinkle the crumbs on top as "dirt". Push a rectangle cookie or a piece of graham cracker into each one as a tombstone and pipe "RIP" on it with a little icing. A gummy worm half buried in the dirt is optional but always popular.
Tip: set out each craft as a station with a sample on a plate. Children can see what they are making, and you can keep the more fiddly ones, like apple mouths, for the older kids while the little ones decorate banana ghosts.
Troubleshooting
- Things keep sliding off. Cream cheese is the best edible glue. A little more of it holds eyes, legs and bandages in place better than jam or butter.
- The fruit turns brown. Make banana and apple crafts last, or brush cut apple with lemon juice. Clementines, crackers and cheese can be made first.
- Everything is getting eaten before it is finished. Completely normal. Put out a separate small bowl of "testing" ingredients so the crafting pieces last a little longer.
- Too much mess. Give each child their own tray and a small pot of each topping, rather than shared bowls in the middle of the table.
Variations for Different Ages
Toddlers and preschoolers do best with one or two steps: decorating a banana ghost, adding a stem to a clementine or sprinkling cookie dirt. School-age children can manage cracker spiders, broomsticks and mummy crackers on their own. Older children and teens can take on piping, apple mouths and a full graveyard dessert, or invent their own monster snacks and give them names.
For a whole afternoon of activities, combine a few of these with the ideas in our guide to hosting a Halloween craft party for kids.
Edible Halloween Crafts FAQ
What are edible Halloween crafts?
Edible Halloween crafts are simple food projects that children assemble and decorate, then eat. Instead of glue and paper they use fruit, crackers, cheese and spreads to make ghosts, spiders, pumpkins and mummies. Most need no cooking, so they suit classrooms and parties.
Which edible crafts are best for toddlers?
Banana ghosts, clementine pumpkins and rice cake faces are the easiest because they have one or two steps and soft ingredients. Cut grapes into quarters, skip whole nuts, popcorn and hard sweets, and stay with toddlers while they eat.
Can I make these edible crafts ahead of time?
Crackers, cheese broomsticks and pudding cups can be prepared an hour or two ahead and kept in the fridge, although crackers soften over time. Banana and apple crafts are best made just before eating because the fruit browns.
Are there nut-free edible Halloween crafts?
Yes. Every craft on this page can be made nut-free by using cream cheese or a seed spread instead of peanut butter and checking that crackers, cookies and chocolate are made without nuts. Always read labels for "may contain" warnings.
Edible crafts are a lovely way to bring the whole family into Halloween, and children are far more willing to try fruit when it has a face. If you have a sweet tooth in the house, try hairy feet cookies or a jello brain; for grown-up party food, see our savory Halloween snacks; and if you want printable signs and labels for the table, our free printable Halloween crafts roundup has them all in one place. Find more ideas in the Halloween food category.
