Halloween Media: Fun For Free! Apps, Sendables, Playlists, Games

Update Oct. 31, 2016 Appy Halloween?

2016 freebies include a spooktacular JibJab ‘story bot’ to insert and personalize wee ones into Halloween kids’ books…Our friends at Common Sense Media offer a slew of apps with ages and stages reviewed and noted, and a host of Streaming Scary Movies for insta-atmosphere media fun.

For older teens and the selfie crowd, these camera tricks offer special effects for frightening fun and in keeping with the FREE picks, Android selects a ‘top 10’ freebies in haunting ringtones and spooky apps…Enjoy!

Update: Oct. 2014 Fast and easy makeup creations can also contain chemicals too harsh for little kids, so read up on what you’re putting on the wee ones face via Safe Cosmetics first…Here are more pop culture make-up tutorials (even Frozen Elsa, the zombie version?) as well as ultra-spooky ‘real campfire stories’ from the ‘paranormal podcast guy.’

Ready for more Halloween free media fun? Here are more Halloween apps for kids and healthy choices for kids parties like “BOOnanas,” Clementine pumpkins, string cheese/pretzel broomsticks and more…and always fun, the JibJab personalized sendables which keep adding to their collection of “videos starring YOU.” Huge links list at the end to get your party started…as well as original costume ideas galore in our post about media/mythology and ways to “Take Back Halloween” as an imagination station! Enjoy the spirit!

Media Freebies from Trick or Tracker apps to e-Books

Original Post: Oct 2010 Here are 48 prepare to scare Halloween fonts that can make your website spooky, free Edgar Allan Poe ebooks to read aloud, and a gazillion insights for cool ghoul visual ideas for Halloween on Pinterest…As a prequel to our interview with Chris Hulls, CEO of family safety app Life 360 (about the pros/cons of smartphone/GPS apps and kids) here’s a CBS story on a similar app in the parenting/peace of mind category, where media has positioned SecuraFone as a “kids GPS Halloween tracker.” Trick…or treat? You decide.

Many of us power-whine and boo-hoo that Halloween has become too commercial, (or dangerous or sexualized or over-planned, insert poisonous venom of your choice) but it’s still a lot of fun to brew up some FREE finds all over the web to share…

There are other practical, helpful FREE apps like turning a phone into a high beam flashlight, and fun ones like altering voices/sound effects for haunting mood media on the fly…and of course staples like ringtones, games and photo-fiddling (aging/plumping/masking your face) all FREE, as well as plenty of online free games, a favorite here? Haunted Hybrid from Green Halloween.org.

Planning a Halloween party? “They’re creepy and they’re kooky…” Name that tune! Then download the music for FREE to crank up some Halloween atmosphere from movie & TV themes. (even Hitchcock mp3)

Or try Songza, Slacker Radio, Spooky Symphonies in this FREE roundup of 5 Free Playlists rom Mashable.

The Facebook pumpkin above is one of several FREE social media badges to ‘dress up’ for the holiday, (here’s another variation of pumpkin themes by ThreeStyles) and your computer can even ‘wear’ various Firefox holiday personas for the weekend to get you in the spirit too…

For spectacular freebies that enlighten AND entertain, check out “the dark side of chocolate.org” with house parties and screenings featured in the AwareGuide (startup in beta, feature forthcoming on “your guide to life changing media” soon)…You can also ‘rate your trick or treat candy’ (pdf) scorecard to give you a glimpse of what’s really going in your mouth. Ouch. Always a favorite free feel good moment…the annual ‘Sight Night’ collection of prescription eyeglasses for Lyons/Lenscrafters’ community service…

AND my favorite find…having just seen Wicked, the Broadway musical, I recently found out they partnered with BullyBust for FREE and fabulous resources on the ALWAYS scary theme of kids’ relational aggression…

Talk about using the power of media for good, way beyond a Halloween treat!

I was fortunate to snag ‘cancellation’ seats last week in New York City while attending the Spark Summit, and the show was AMAZING! I had no idea that Bullybust and the Wicked Broadway musical partnership with School Climate.org had teamed to offer solutions-based resources and free downloads to help educators AND kids navigate the “witchy” behavior of classmates far outside of just the Halloween tie-in.

So excited to feature Bullybust in the coming weeks (Nov 8-12 to be exact!) when we devote the blog to a ‘parade of positivity’ highlighting organizations, experts and innovators with FREE techno tools and interventions in the anti-bullying sphere. (stay tuned)

On a lighter note of freebie finds for Halloween…

Whole Foods got my (arachnophobic) attention while searching for roasting and toasting pumpkin seeds, when a graphic art spider dropped onto my keyboard in Lil’ Miss Muffett style, tucking away into its corner web when I chased it away with my cursor…Boo to you, too, gang!

There are e-cards galore (free big name commercial cos and nonprofit interactives and critter cards too…sponsor a bat? nocturnal news?) and you can create customizable videos like my Monster Mash silliness to share or crawl around the web to see what else jumps out at you…

Personalize funny videos and birthday eCards at JibJab!

For those still putting together their last minute costumes, I’ll point you back to my prior post of homemades as you’ve got 24 hours left to leave a comment, tweet, or Facebook description of a homemade costume fave to be entered to win a copy of Packaging Girlhood: Rescuing our Daughters from Marketers Schemes by Shaping Youth advisory board member, author, APA Task Force participant on sexualization (don’t miss the Halloween chapter) and lead Spark Summit convener Lyn Mikel Brown Ed.D. —

That’s a long-winded way of saying: Free-n-fab book drawing! Enter to win by leaving a comment about kids’ costumes, how hard is that?

On a personal freebie note, the teen tribe here was STILL futzing about ‘what to be’ for a party this evening as we traipsed from Goodwill to Pet Club trying to stay as ‘close to free’ as we could get (ended up with rawhides to recycle as they decided to go as cave(wo)men)

Couldn’t help but remind that the “Flinstone era shouldn’t look like Snooki” so to adapt their used drape accordingly and stay away from pawing beasties (two AND four-legged kind, lots of critters out for Halloween)

With the Giants in the World Series, there was no end to easy ‘givens’ of Halloween wear in that freebie camp, but every time I suggested a ‘we already have most of it at home’costume (sports gear, lab coats for mad scientists, martians, faux plastic vines for one & garden fencing for another —stem+cell, get it? yah, they didn’t either) I’d get “the look”…

…So I’ll stick to lobbing a few more FREE media/marketing ideas YOUR way instead. Happy Halloween…Here’s to free finds around the web and the free time to use ‘em! Enjoy!