Real Estate Tips |9 min read

23 Expert-Approved Halloween Safety Tips for Northern Virginia

Halloween can get very dangerous very quickly if you don’t follow certain Halloween safety tips. However, it doesn’t have to be so scary. We’ve provided some expert-approved practices Northern Virginia parents should follow. With these, they can make sure they and their children are safe.

 Children dressed in Halloween costumes, including a skeleton, a knight, and a pirate, walking outside a decorated house with pumpkins and fall leaves.

Main Takeaways: Halloween Safety Tips for North Virginia Residents 

  • For optimal Halloween safety, you or another trusted adult should always supervise your child. When doing so, you should set up a buddy system, ensure the child is escorted home, and give them an emergency contact card. Moreover, if you or your child has no choice but to go into a stranger’s home, another trusted adult should accompany them.
  • For safer night walking, you and your children should have flashlights, glowsticks, and reflective tape. Also, as you move around, you should stick to intersections, crosswalks, and sidewalks. Children should not run around or chew on glowsticks because their liquid emits toxic matter.
  • In terms of food safety, check food for allergies, tampering, choking hazards, and a lack of pasteurization or general cooking thoroughness.
  • When it comes to costumes and makeup, use flame-resistant, loose-fitting, and long clothes. Avoid decorative contact lenses. Also, test your makeup 24-48 hours before use and remove any makeup before sleeping.
  • When driving, go slowly in neighborhoods and other areas kids might be. Stay on the lookout for people, especially ones in dark clothing. Also, don’t drive on this holiday if you are an inexperienced driver.

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Why You Can Trust These Halloween Safety Tips

Our property managers in North Virginia have verified the below Halloween safety recommendations to ensure they’re the gold standard.

To bring these Halloween safety tips to you, we researched best practices from public health’s most definitive experts. The information below is certified by sources such as the FDA, CDC, National & American Safety Councils, and National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

So, you can rest assured. You can feel confident you’re relying on the best of the best information available.

 Children dressed in Halloween costumes, including a hotdog, a princess, and an animal, walking outside with pumpkin-shaped candy buckets.Adult Supervision

If you’re not careful, children can easily get themselves into danger on the streets. That’s why it’s so important to watch them like a hawk. Here are a few Halloween safety tips you can use to help them steer clear of trouble:

  1. Always Supervise Children: We’ll reiterate it again: always, always supervise children in trick-or-treating! Or, you should at least have a trusted adult supervise them. Even if your child is traveling in groups, this still holds true. After all, kids simply don’t have the street smarts and ability to protect themselves that adults can provide.
  2. Create a Buddy System: It’s a good idea for groups to use a buddy system. That way, the group’s sub-teams always stick together, even if your broader group gets separated from them.
  3. Prep an Emergency Contact Card: In advance, you should prepare and provide children with emergency contact cards they can use in case they get separated from you.
  4. Safe Home Arrival: If you’re supervising a group of kids, always escort each child home and make sure they’ve reached it safely with your own eyes. Don’t leave their house premises until you see they’ve gone through their home’s entrance. If they have a cell phone, ask them to text you once they’re in and settled.
  5. Stranger Danger: In general, you or your child shouldn’t go into a stranger’s home. However, if any of you absolutely must, you should never enter it alone. In particular, if your child goes into a stranger’s house, an adult should accompany them.

Night Walking

While all the advice in this article is important, this section is especially vital. According to the advocacy group Safe Kids Worldwide, children are over twice as likely to be hit and killed by a car on Halloween than at any other time of the year. So, help avoid this tragedy with the following Halloween safety tips:

  1. Get Flashlights and Glowsticks: To improve visibility during the night, everyone should have a flashlight. In addition to this, you could give children glowsticks to wear around their necks. However, if they chew on it, they could ingest the toxic liquid inside it and experience vomiting and throat/mouth irritation. To avoid this, instruct them not to chew on it.
  2. Apply Reflective Tape: It will be hard for drivers to see you and your children during the nighttime. To combat this, apply reflective tape to your costumes and candy buckets. You can buy reflective tape at a hardware or sporting goods store. In doing this, you can help prevent lethal accidents from occurring.
  3. Cross with Intersections and Crosswalks: If at all possible, you should only cross the street at intersections or crosswalks. As you do this, you should stay actively aware of cars in each direction.
  4. Stay on the Sidewalk: Aside from that, you should stay on the sidewalk or side of the road as much as possible, taking care to walk facing against traffic. Similarly, you should instruct children to never, ever go onto the street because you never know when cars will sneak by.
  5. No Running: Children could trip or fall if they run, and it also makes it harder to keep track of them. Due to this, you should instruct children not to run in your travels.

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Food Safety

When most people think about Halloween safety, food safety isn’t exactly the first thing they consider. However, it definitely matters on this holiday. So, consult these Halloween tips for safety as you and your kids munch on treats:

  1.  A Halloween-themed bag spilling out candies, toys, and decorations, including gummy worms, a spider, a small pumpkin lantern, and gift boxes with purple ribbons.Food allergies – Parents should always read food labels and avoid food without them. Also, if you have a prescribed EpiPen, you should take it along.
  2. Inspect Any Treats: Children shouldn’t accept or eat any treats that are not commercially wrapped. Even with commercially wrapped food, you should ensure it hasn’t been tampered with. In essence, you can do this by looking for discoloration, small pinholes, wrapper tears, or other abnormal qualities. Then, if anything looks out of place, you should discard the item.
  3. Avoid Choking Hazards: You also should get rid of things that could make a child choke, like small toys, gum, peanuts, or hard candies. In addition, small foods are some of the top substances that are unsafe for pets.
  4. Don’t Consume Raw Goods: It’s dangerous to consume anything unpasteurized or uncooked, like raw cookie dough, cake batter, or juice. So, you should always make sure that goods have been properly prepared. For example, when you buy drinks made on-site at the grocery store, check to see if it’s been pasteurized first before buying.
  5. Store Medicines Away: To children, medicine and candy can look very similar. Don’t give them a chance to find out the truth and get sick. Instead, store your medications and vitamins up high where children can’t reach them.

Costumes and Makeup

The way you prepare your costumes and makeup can protect you from falling or even getting an ulcer (!). Turn to these Halloween safety tips to see how:

  1. Stay Away from Decorative Contact Lenses: Non-prescription decorative lenses can fit you poorly, which can cause the lenses to scratch you on your outer eye layer. Even worse, they could give you an ulcer on your eye.
  2. Choose Flame Resistant Costumes: Only wear costumes with “flame-resistant” labels. Or, if you’re making your own costume, stick with flame-resistant fabrics like nylon or polyester.
  3. Check for Fit: Furthermore, ensure your costumes aren’t too long or loose. Especially at night, when it’s harder to see your surroundings, you could be in danger of falling or tripping.
  4. Test Your Makeup: Always test new makeup before using it. To do this, put it on a small area of your arm and wait 24-48 hours to see if any adverse effects result. If you experience signs of irritation, such as swelling, a rash, or redness, you might be allergic to the makeup.
  5. Remove Makeup Before Sleeping: You should remove your makeup before going to sleep, as sleeping with it can give you an eye infection or skin irritation. Then, follow the manufacturer’s instructions to remove it. Or, if you’re using a significant amount of it, you should shower it off before bed.

Bonus Halloween Safety Tips for Drivers

Now, let’s explore some Halloween safety tips for when you’re the one behind the wheel:

  1. Stay Watchful: Always be on the lookout for children walking on curbs, roads, traffic medians, and other areas. Moreover, you should monitor the area for people in dark, less visible clothing.
  2. Drive Slowly: Drive slowly in neighborhoods, parking lots, and other places where children might show up. Also, you should enter and exit driveways and alleys slowly, being sure to look in all directions for possible passersby.
  3. Stop New Drivers: This isn’t the time for new drivers to practice, because the stakes of making a mistake is just too high. If you know inexperienced drivers, encourage them not to test out the car tonight.

Enhance Your Home Safety in NOVA with BMG

By following these Halloween tips for safety, you can protect the ones you love. Little fixes like reflective tape and emergency contact cards can make a huge difference in Halloween safety. This way, everyone can have a good time without risking their well-being.

A house porch decorated for Halloween with hanging figures and a skull on the door, illuminated by warm lighting.If you want more safety year-round, you should consider living in homes managed by professional property managers. Professional property managers are specially trained to implement the housing industry’s best safety practices. They actively monitor and maintain a rental home’s security for you, so you don’t have to.

To learn more about our property management company’s listings, you can explore our database of rental listings. We offer homes of various price ranges, amenities, and other qualities, so there’s something for everyone!

On the other hand, if you’re a landlord, we can support you, too. We can take the burdens of overseeing a property off your hands. We can take care of:

  • Property Marketing
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Either way, give us a call today to simplify your rental experience!

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