Create a Halloween Care Package with a pumpkin theme using these simple directions and recipes. Themed care packages are fun. Decorate with jokes and fill the box with treats, like Pumpkin Brownies and Graham Cookies, to add some pumpkin spice to someone’s life!
About this care package
Pumpkin spice is one of the most popular flavors of the fall season, and this care package is the perfect opportunity to “spice up life” for someone special! Swap the usual Halloween gore, that’s so common this time of year, in favor of silly humor and deliciousness.
I live in St. Louis, where trick-or-treating is taken seriously. When children ring your doorbell, they are expected to do a “trick” in order to get a treat on Halloween.
Most often, the “trick” is telling the goofy kind of joke you would expect from an elementary school kid. Despite the goofiness, those jokes almost always make me smile.
This Halloween care package includes the silly humor and hopefully, the smiles as well. The jokes are definitely better when delivered by an adorable 5 year old, but flip-up pumpkins will have to do.
A little bit of humor and some sweet treats are appreciated by both children and adults. Send some happy Halloween smiles to a service member, college student, friend, or family with this fun gift.
Decorating supplies
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For military care packages, I always use the large flat rate boxes that are free from the post office. This box ships for just under $20 for weights up to 50 pounds. However, any carton can be used.
To save time, I ordered the little pumpkins on Amazon, but you can make your own with card stock or poster board.
Print and cut out the vines, jokes, and “Pumpkin Spice Up Your Life” page. The pdf’s are sized for the box and pumpkins I used. If you use a different box or pumpkin cutout, you may need to adjust the size.
Instructions
The simple decorating uses an easy cut and paste design that is sure to cause smiles, eye rolls, and even some laughter. Start by preparing the flip-up jokes, then decorate the box.
Flip-up pumpkin cutouts
- Print and cut out the jokes and the punch lines.
- Use an extra strength glue stick to paste the jokes and punch lines onto the pumpkin shapes.
- To create the flip-ups, place a pumpkin shape with a punch line face up on a strip of clear packing tape. Put the pumpkin shape with the matching joke, face up on top. Fold the tape over the top. Trim the excess tape from the sides, but leave the tape at the top as a hinge.
- Use the glue stick to paste the back of the flip-up to the decorated flaps.
Box flaps
- Cover the flaps with orange contact paper or paste on orange construction paper. Print and cut out the vines and the Pumpkin Spice Up Your Life page.
- Use the glue stick to add the decorations.
- Open the flip-ups and work around them to cover the bottom pumpkins and flaps with clear packing tape to hold the decorations in place.
- Fill the box!
Contents
General items
- Puzzle books
- Coloring books and colored pencils
- Stuffed animal toy (even in military care packages)
Themed items
- Halloween candy in treat bags
- Pez dispensers
- Paper plates
- Instant coffee packets of Pumpkin Spice Latte
- Cookies and brownies
Tips
- Large flat rate boxes from the US Postal Service are expensive to mail (about $20), however you can fit quite a bit inside and don’t have to worry about weight (up to 50 pounds). Not only are the cartons themselves free, but you can order them online and the postal service will deliver them to your door!
- Covering the inside flaps is like wrapping a gift inside-out. The purpose is to make the box bright and cheerful. Cover flaps with contact paper, construction paper, wrapping paper, scrap book paper, patterned duct tape, or plastic table cloths.
- When sending a short distance care package, taping over the flap decorations probably isn’t necessary. However, military packages have to withstand rough treatment and temperature extremes. Taping thoroughly inside and out, helps keep the package intact.
- Many snacks come in pumpkin shaped and flavored in the fall, and would be great in this themed care package. Look for granola, candy corn, snack cakes, packaged cookies, and poptarts.
- Pumpkin spice is a flavor that is often adored or despised. If shipping this box to an adopted service member and you are unsure of their preference, include both pumpkin spiced and shaped (but not pumpkin flavored) items in the box.
Recipes for this theme
Soft, fudgy Pumpkin Brownies are magically flourless and gluten free!
Graham Cracker Cookie Sandwiches are filled with melted chocolate and covered in sprinkles.
Pumpkin Biscotti are filled with the flavor and aroma of pumpkin spice. Speckled with cranberries, these cookies are the perfect fall treat.
Pumpkin Loaf Cakes are soft little loaf cakes full of pumpkin and butterscotch flavor.
Making Halloween Pretzels is quick, easy, and fun! Halloween chocolate covered pretzels decorated with just a few sprinkles turn into adorable holiday characters.
Ready to create? Join the free membership group to get new recipes and a newsletter delivered to your inbox! You can also stay in touch on Facebook, Pinterest, and Instagram. I’d love to stay in touch!
Halloween Care Package
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Equipment
- scissors
Materials
- 1 large USPS flat rate box
- 1 roll adjustable contact paper orange
- 1 heavy duty glue stick
- 18 3" cardstock pumpkins
- pdf print outs
- 1 roll clear packing tape
Instructions
Pumpkin flip-up jokes
- Print and cutout the pumpkin jokes and the punch lines.
- Use an extra strength glue stick to paste the jokes and punch lines onto the pumpkin shapes.
- To create the flip-ups, place a pumpkin shape with a punch line face up on a strip of clear packing tape. Put the pumpkin shape with the matching joke face up on top. Fold the tape over the top pumpkin shape. Trim the excess tape from the sides but leave the tape at the top as a hinge.
- Use the glue stick to paste the back of the flip-up to the decorated box flap.
Box flaps
- Cover the box flaps with orange contact paper. Print and cut out the vines and the Pumpkin Spice Up Your Life page.
- Use the glue stick to add the decorations to the box flaps.
- Open the flip-up pumpkins and work around them to cover the bottom pumpkins and box flaps with clear packing tape to hold the decorations in place.
- Fill the box!
Notes
- Large flat rate boxes from the US Postal Service are expensive to mail (about $20), however you can fit quite a bit inside and don’t have to worry about weight (up to 50 pounds). Not only are the cartons themselves free, but you can order them online and the postal service will deliver them to your door!
- Covering the inside flaps of a care package is like wrapping a gift inside-out. The purpose is to make the box bright and cheerful. In addition to contact paper, flaps can be covered with construction paper, wrapping paper, scrapbook paper, patterned duct tape, or plastic table cloths.
- When sending a short distance care package, such as a college care package taping over the flap decorations probably isn’t necessary. However, military care packages have to withstand rough treatment and temperature extremes. Taping the box thoroughly inside and out, helps keep the care package intact.
- Many snacks come in pumpkin shapes and pumpkin spice flavor in the fall, and would be great in a pumpkin themed care package. Look for granola, snack cakes, packaged cookies, and poptarts.
- Pumpkin spice is a flavor that is often adored or despised. If shipping this box to an adopted military member and you are unsure of their preference, include both pumpkin spiced and pumpkin shaped (but not pumpkin flavored) items in the box.
- A dollar store is a great resource for filling your box of goodies with Halloween stickers, decorations, and Halloween candies.
- This box is purposely filled with light hearted Halloween fun, however, you could easily include some more spooky ideas like fake spiders, fake spider webs, and scary movies if you think they would be enjoyed.
- A nice touch is to include an unexpected gift hidden at the bottom of the box, like socks, stationary, a Halloween tumbler, or a gift card.
First Published: October 19, 2020. Last Updated: October 1, 2021. Updated for additional information and better reader experience.
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