Great Halloween movies for kids!

I'm a big fan of the "Great Pumpkin" myself. We'll definitely be tuning into that one tonight. Last week on the Disney channel they aired Pooh's Heffalump Halloween movie which was kind of cute for the little ones.

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I know it's traditionally watched at Christmas, but we love to watch The Nightmare Before Christmas around Halloween.

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Some of the old Universal horror films aren't terribly scary. My three year old enjoyed watching "Bride of Frankenstein" with me earlier this week (she liked the monster). Also those movies are short, just over an hour long. I don't think I'd put "Freaks" on the list for young children but they might like some of the others. See if older children recognize Boris Karloff's voice from "How The Grinch Stole Christmas" ;)

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You might want to watch It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown on YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GJRQH5oZV20) before tuning in with your kids. I watched it again recently as I was considering buying it on DVD for my three-year-olds but decided they should wait before seeing it. I counted at least three instances of Lucy calling Linus "stupid" for wanting to wait for the Great Pumpkin instead of trick-or-treating, five instances of calling him a "blockhead", and even threatening him with physical violence ("You'd better cut it out right now or I'll pound you!"). Even Sally goes off on poor Linus when she finds out she missed out on trick-or-treating while waiting with him to see the Great Pumpkin. Granted, if your kids watch Nickelodeon, this is probably pretty tame, but mine don't.

I opted for the Thomas and Friends Halloween video and "Mad Monster Party" (but after watching that one, I decided to keep that one for another year or two before letting them watch it).

I think that in our rush to share our nostalgic experiences with the kids, we sometimes forget that they may not be ready for them yet.

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Stephen, thanks for your comments. We were thinking of letting our two-year-old watch the Great Pumpkin tongiht, but that is mostly driven by our nostalgia. I actually don't want Baby A to add "stupid" and other words to her vocabulary.

I returned a Caillou book to the library after one reading last week because Caillou tells his parents he hates the dinner he was served. No need to arm Baby A with more ammo like "I hate it!"...or "her" or "him" or "you"!

Never thought I'd be such a censor...but I've learned that what goes in her ears soon comes right back out of her mouth!

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Exactly what Jen said. We DVRd the Pooh movie. My little ones (ages 5 and 6) liked that. And we WILL be watching The Great Pumpkin. My husband and I grew up with that movie, ("Stupids" and "Blockeheads" and all) and we still know that it's not nice to call people names.

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We finally found my childhood favorite again last year when my oldest son was really getting into Dr. Seuss.
It's called "Grinch Night" and can be found on the dvd of "Green Eggs and Ham and Other Favorites". It's a trip; very weird and wonderful. When we're having one of *those* nights around here we are known to say, "It's a wonderful night for eyebrows! It's a wonderful night for TEETH!".

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My son (2 1/2) has been enjoying Dora's Halloween DVD quite in preparation for Halloween. The DVD only has one actual Halloween themed episode on it but its entertaining. We also the Halloween Pooh Hefalump movie which he enjoyed. Outside of those two we've just been reading Halloween themed books.

Oh, but for those of you with DVRs... this weekend is Disney Channel's Halloween themed weekend. So shows like, Lola and Charlie, Higglytown Heroes, Jo Jo's Circus, Baby Einstein, etc. will all have halloween themed episodes. I have my DVR set to record them so we can use them as a treat on Halloween.

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Great Pumpkin update: We watched it with our 5 & 6 year olds. The first time someone said, "Stupid", my 5 yo said, "OOOH She said a bad wooooord!" lol

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