DIY Kid’s Halloween Milk Carton Ghosts

For a busy parent, Halloween can sometimes seem like a monster task. You’ve made the costumes, bought the sweets, and now it’s time for doorstep Halloween decorations – but the shops are just as out of pumpkins as you are of ideas… Fear not, we’re here to stop you from crying over spilt milk. Instead, take the empty carton and make our quick, easy and fun DIY light-up milk carton ghosts.

Blue green and yellow light up milk cartons with spooky faces.

What you'll need:

1 x Empty Milk Carton

1 x String Battery Fairy Lights (great for popping in Halloween party bags)

1 x Small Blob Of Blu-tack

1 x Pair Of Scissors

1 x Ballpoint Pen

1 x Black Marker Pen

Step 1 - Cut a hole in the base

Picture of a milk carton, marker pen, pen, scissors, fairy lights and blue tack.

Simple steps to make a milk carton ghost....

Step 1 - Cut a hole in the base

This step is for grown-up monsters only…

Having taken off the label and washed out the milk carton, create a hole in the base. Pierce the centre using a ballpoint pen to give you an entry point for the scissor blades and cut a cross shape.

Fold back the flaps of plastic, snipping them off to create a hole large enough to comfortably thread through the fairy lights later. The hole will be hidden, so don’t worry about making it neat.

Person drawing on the bottom of the milk carton.

Person cutting the milk carton with scissors.

Person continuing to cut the milk carton with scissors.

Step 2 - Decorate

Now it’s over to the little monsters to draw faces onto the cartons using a black marker pen. The more spooky milk carton ghosts you design, the better, as the ghouls look great lined up to illuminate your path or doorway to greet the trick-or-treaters. (If you’re planning to leave them out for a while, you may want to use Halloween lights that are for outdoor).

Person drawing faces on milk carton with marker pen.

Person putting fairy lights in the the milk carton.

Person using blue tack to attach lights on to the lid of the milk carton.

Step 3 - Illuminate

Time to light-up these scary dairy ghosts…

We used our cute blue & white fairy lights for a ghostly glow, but any of our 10 LED battery lights work just as well – try our green lights to recreate Frankenstein’s monster or our warm white lights for a friendly glow Casper would be proud of.

Thread the end of your chosen fairy lights through the base and out of the carton’s spout (leaving the battery pack and clear lead out of the base). To ensure your ghost glows from top to bottom, use Blu-tack to secure the LED at the end of the string to the carton lid, and pop the lid back on.

Now all that’s left to do is find a dark room and switch-on the lights to see the ghostly glow of your milk carton creations. We’d love to see what you come up with, so be sure to share your ‘It’s aliiive!’ moments with us on Facebook , Twitter or Instagram .