13 spooky, creepy children’s Halloween poems add to the fun for a Halloween themed party or sleepover the weekend before Halloween…with links to more Halloween party ideas below.

Children are already excited about the spookiest holiday celebration and the thrill of wearing their Halloween costume, whether it be ghoulish or glamorous, or something in between. Children’s Halloween parties are fun and a great opportunity to involve children in the creative planning. The anticipation of surprising their friends is half the fun!

12 Children’s Halloween Poems

When your children have friends over for a Halloween themed party or sleepover the weekend before Halloween, have them choose from these 12 children’s Halloween poems to read by flashlight casting shadows to help set the eery, scary mood!

Children’s Halloween Poems #1:

Pumpkins

October’s dark end will soon be here,
a night of much anticipated fear,
when pumpkins serve as beacons of fright
with yellow lights shining boldly bright
to guide young goblins to our door
in attempts to frighten us even more!

© Barbara R Johnson

Children’s Halloween Poems #2:

Pumpkin Faces

Pumpkin faces are happy and sad.
Pumpkin faces make me glad…
Except when pumpkins are scary,
then I feel all teary.
~  by my granddaughers, Emily and Kaitlin

© Barbara R. Johnson 

Children’s Halloween Poems #3:

Young children are often scared of what they might see when you open the door on Halloween night. Here is an original Halloween poem to help them learn that the ghosts, witches, and even a shrew are all children really just like them on Halloween…very, very sweet.

Don’t Be Scared on Halloween

Halloween is October thirty-one
If you see witches, goblins, and maybe a shrew
You don’t have to run
For they are children just like you
When they come to the door
Don’t you run, remember it’s Halloween
You may hear screams and roars
From what you are about to see
Do not be scared from behind the door
It’s candy they like to eat
Don’t be surprised, they may be back for more
For they are really very, very sweet

© Barbara R. Johnson 

Children’s Halloween Poems #4:

Halloween

Three little ghosts are anxious ’cause it’s nearly Spookin’ Day
and they can hardly wait till scary goblins come their way.
They’ll welcome every frightful ghoul who comes for trick or treatin’
and hand out lots of boos and sweets to every one they’re meetin’.

By Jane-Ann Heitmueller

Children’s Halloween Poems #5:

Witches Come On Halloween

Witches come on Halloween, Here’s a witch with a tall black hat,
Heh-heh, Heh-heh! Here are the whiskers of her cat,
Watch out now or you might scream,
Here is a jack-o-lantern looking at me,
Heh, heh, heh, heh, heh! Here is a goblin, hee, hee, hee….
Pumpkins shining bright,
With their candlelight.
Bats and goblins coming too,
Watching out for you- BOO!

~ Author Unknown

Children’s Halloween Poems #6:

Three Black Cats

Three black cats, three black cats,
In black hats, in black hats.
They all jumped into the Halloween brew,
They teased the ghosts and the goblins too.
Did you ever hear such a hullabaloo
On Halloween?

~ Author Unknown

Children’s Halloween Poems #7:

Day After Halloween 

Skeletons, spirits and haunts,
Skeletons, spirits and haunts.
It’s a Halloween sale:
A nickel a pail
For skeletons, spirits and haunts.

Skeletons, spirits and haunts,
More than most anyone wants.
Will you pay for a shock,
‘Cause we’re quite overstocked
On skeletons, spirits and haunts

~ by Shel Silverstein

Children’s Halloween Poems #8:

On A Dark, Dark Night

On a dark, dark, night
In a dark, dark wood
In a dark, dark house
In a dark, dark room
In a dark, dark cupboard
On a dark, dark shelf
In a dark, dark box
There was a GHOST!

~ Author Unknown

Children’s Halloween Poems #9:

Pumpkin

We bought a fat orange pumpkin,
The plumpest sort they sell.
We neatly scooped the inside out
And only left the shell.
We carved a funny funny-face
Of silly shape and size,
A pointy nose,
A jagged mouth and two enormous eyes.
We set it in a window
And we put a candle in,
Then lit it up
For all to see Our jack-o-lantern grin.

~ Author Unknown

Children’s Halloween Poems #10:

Advice on How To Sleep on Halloween Night

The thing to remember, when you go to bed
Is hang strings of garlic, high over your head,
So werewolves and vampires won’t come to call.

In fact,
You won’t get many callers at all
‘Cause garlic is smelly.
Besides,
its success with magical creatures
Who visit distress on humans who read scary stories at night,
And sleep in their bedrooms, without a night-light.

The thing to remember, when you go to bed
Is putting a cross, at your foot and your head,
‘Cause witches and vampire bats are religious
And touching a sign like a cross gives them hideous
Goosebumps and warts,
Hives, the welts and the itches,
Which nobody likes, even vampire bats and witches.
But try not to toss or to turn in your bed.
If you kick off the crosses you’re gonna wake the dead.

The thing to remember, when you go to bed
Is watch out for goblins, who’ll munch on your head.
What stops them is water, so ask for a glass,
Then pour it around, so the goblins can’t pass.
Or else make a run
for the bathroom and turn on the hot and cold faucets
and watch goblins squirm.
As a last chance,
since goblins all fear running streams,
If you don’t own a bathroom, dream water-filled dreams.

So, that’s my advice.
Now, just turn off the light.
Hope you sleep well the next Halloween Night!

~ Author Unknown

Children’s Halloween Poems #11:

Song of the Witches

Double, double toil and trouble;
Fire burn and caldron bubble.
Fillet of a fenny snake,
In the caldron boil and bake;
Eye of newt and toe of frog,
Wool of bat and tongue of dog,
Adder’s fork and bling-worms sting,
Lizard’s leg and howlet’s wing,
For a charm of powerful trouble,
Like a hell-broth boil and bubble.
Double, double toil and trouble;
Fire burn and caldron bubble.
Cool it with a baboon’s blood,
Then the charm is firm and good.

~ by Shakespeare (Macbeth)

Children’s Halloween Poems #12:

Haunted House

There’s a house upon the hilltop
We will not go inside,
For that is where the witches live,
Where ghosts and goblins hide.
Tonight they have their party,
All the lights are burning bright,
But oh we will not go inside
The haunted house tonight.
The demons there are whirling
And the spirits swirl about.
They sing their songs to Halloween.
“Come join the fun,” they shout.
But we do not want to go there,
So we run with all our might
And oh we will not go inside
The haunted house tonight.

~ Author Unknown

Children’s Halloween Poems #13:

It’s Halloween

It’s Halloween! It’s Halloween!
The moon is full and bright
And we shall see what can’t be seen
on any other night:

Skeletons and ghosts and ghouls,
Grinning goblins fighting duels,
Werewolves rising from their tombs,
Witches on their magic brooms.

~ Author Unknown

and…for another fun original children’s Halloween poem… Goblins in the Night, a Trick or Treating Poem.

Children’s Halloween Party Ideas

Halloween party ideas (NanasCorner.com)