I’m so excited about sharing these DIY Halloween Treat Boxes! We’ve been making these for family, teachers, and neighbors for the past few years and they are always such a hit. I love gifting these to people and just making their day, and baking all the fun homemade Halloween treats is such a fun way to spend a rainy October day. I’ve put them together a bit differently every year, so I’ll just give you ideas and you can design your own!

Here’s How It’s Done

Step 1: Packaging

First, figure out how many treat boxes you’ll be putting together. The general size of the box will depend on how large your treats are, or how much you want to add to each one. These black boxes with edging and a clear window would be so cute to use! You may also want to use tissue paper or crinkle paper to help arrange and secure the treats in the box. Why didn’t I think of using this?! Anyway, you don’t need anything extra, but it does make the boxes feel more professional.

Last year, I had the kids help me gather colorful leaves to tie on top of the boxes with twine, and then we made cards with our fun letter stamps.

Step 2: Gather recipes

Deciding what you want to make is easiest if you first find recipes that use the ingredients you have on hand, so start simple. Honestly, I also like to make something “big” to be sort of the anchor to the box. Cupcakes, muffins, big cookies, scones, or slices of quick bread work great. Then you can “fill in” with smaller cookies and candies. Pick recipes with seasonal flair, like pumpkin spice, apple, and cinnamon.

This year we gifted a ton of boxes, so I made quite a few different things to split up and fill the boxes. We sprinkled in store bought candy corn mix at the end.

Step 3: make a plan

If you’re planning to bake quite a few things, you’ll need to think about how to be efficient with timing and counter space. I’m not so great about this and it always works out, although sometimes every single inch of my counters and tables are covered. (This creates a “snacking lane” for my family as they walk through, ha.) Reading the recipes beforehand and tackling the ones that require chilling or need to cool is helpful. Then, plan to start secondary bakes as there is downtime with others.

Helping to roll the truffles in cocoa powder and a cinnamon-sugar mix, still in PJ’s.

Treat Box ideas

This year we made our Halloween Treat Boxes with sugar cookies, maple spice cookies, pumpkin coffee cake, caramels, cinnamon sugar and cocoa dark chocolate truffles, and white and dark chocolates in Halloween shapes. In the past I’ve done pumpkin muffins with cream cheese frosting and apple cider baked mini doughnuts, apple cinnamon scones with maple frosting, homemade twix bars, and homemade peanut butter cups. So many ideas!

recipe links

Below is a list of 10 recipe ideas for making amazing Halloween Treat Boxes. I don’t yet have all of my own recipes for the above list to share on the site (someday soon!), so I’ll list some of my own as well as recipes from other baking sites that I have actually tried and love:

1. Easy Halloween Sugar Cookies
2. Maple Spice Cookies with Brown Butter Icing
3. Gooey Soft Vanilla Caramels
4. Cream cheese swirled cinnamon pumpkin bread
5. Baked Apple Cider Doughnuts
6. Apple Coffee Cake
7. Chocolate Truffles
8. Boo Bark
9. Chocolate Peanut Butter Bars
10. Use silicone molds in Halloween shapes with melting chocolates

I hope you have so much fun baking and gifting these Halloween Treat Boxes! It’s seriously the best feeling to surprise friends, family, teachers, or neighbors with treats and it really gets everyone into the holiday spirit. If you make these – take a pictures + tag me on Instagram @thebetterhomemade! It would be so fun for me to see.