little_witchNow that you have your costume, pumpkins are cared, candy purchased and the house is decorated, there is not much left to do but count down the days until Halloween (fortunately there aren’t many left.

So why not keep those idle hands busy with a little holiday-themed iOS entertainment…

Keeping the kids happy…
First lets start with some recently released Halloween book apps that your younger ones might enjoy.

The prequel to SlimCricket’s ‘The Witch with No Name‘, The Little Witch at School is a delightful interactive follows a witch as she attends Chickenwich Elementary School and takes her first witchery and wizardry examination. We also get to find out how she lost her name. A fun story and loads of interactivity make this a fun choice for kids aged 4 to 10.

Another title that might appeal to your slightly younger ones is StoryToys’ Haunted House 3D Pop-Up Activity Book, which uses the studio’s engine to create a neat interactive story and mini-game experience where your child can ride a Ghost train, dress up a Jack O’Lantern and more.

Mickey’s Spooky Night Puzzle Book was released a while back, but my daughters still like to return to it, in fact it never left the iPad from last year. It has a fun, not-so-scary story featuring Mickey Mouse, who’s throwing a Halloween Party, but the rest of the gang gets spooked by the strange noises and ghosts they see in the house. The app features the characters’ actual voices and some puzzles, games and more.


Gotta keep’em updated…
To get some great Halloween entertainment, you don’t always need to look for new apps, in fact, quite a number of apps you may already own may have actually been updated with Halloween content, so make sure you update them. Often times the icon will be updated for the new content so it should be easy to spot them. For instance, Disney just updated Sofia the First: Story Theater with some Halloween-themed costumes, characters, props, backgrounds and more and Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Paint and Play (iPhone | iPad) has been updated with some Halloween decorations for Mickey’s Clubhouse.


Everything old is new again…
Keeping on the old-is-new theme, you might want to check out these classic spooky iOS titles, all of which hold up fairly well (some better than others) despite some of them being released as far back as 2009. Whether its Eyegore’s Eye Blast’s frantic marble popping, Zombie Pizza’s stomach churning time management, Monster Mayhem and MonsterKill’s (sometimes a bit bloody) cartoon defense chaos or the color-bending puzzles of Helsing’s Fire these can be some fun titles to revisit around this time of year. While they may not have all the latest features or cutting edge graphics, these titles have stood the test of time and offer a fun holiday appropriate escape. If you don’t already own these, most of them have free versions available to try them out.