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How to Make Bats for Halloween
We hope you’re as excited as we are about this post. No other decor idea is easier, less expensive or more dramatic than Halloween bats! What could be more fun than that? You can make them yourself or buy them so inexpensively. If you’re at all crafty you’ll love this. You can’t make a mistake. We promise. And if you weren’t excited before, then it’s time to get excited.
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Halloween Bat Decorations
We love to use Halloween bats in all kinds of ways to decorate around the house. They literally look good everywhere. Swelling in the kitchen, bathroom, laundry room, entryway, hallway, front porch. You name it, there’s no place they aren’t super fun.
We like to use them because they’re:
- budget-friendly
- mistake-proof
- versatile
- an easy DIY
- a chance to be playful & creative
- dramatic
Why are Bats Associated with Halloween?
There are several reasons why bats are associated with Halloween:
Folklore has long had an association between nocturnal animals and death and the underworld.
Bram Stroker’s Dracula, the 1897 novel where vampires turned into bats at will, created an everlasting influence over public imagination regarding bats.
Bats are the only flying mammal, and some cultures consider them a “liminal” animal — not quite a bird, not quite a mammal. Something else liminal? Halloween itself.
“One of the main themes of Halloween is liminality — the in-between-ness. It’s between one state and another state; between growth and death; between fall and winter, the beginning of the new year. There are all sorts of symbols of that in-between-ness,” Steve Siporin, a history professor and folklorist at Utah State University, told Popular Science.
The original early Halloween celebrations were bonfires which attracted bugs. Because bats are nocturnal and eat bugs, these bonfires attracted a lot of bats, so the association between Halloween and bats was inevitable.
How to Draw Halloween Bats
Be brave.
It’s not hard at all to draw your own bat template freehand.
Jodie and I are no artists. But this is one challenge even we are up for.
Take a look at our template and copy it as closely as you want.
Give yourself a couple tries.
Remember, in nature bats come in all shapes and sizes, so you don’t need to go for perfection.
Also, you can draw half the bat and fold in half if that makes it easier.
Step 1.
Print out the template or draw your 1/2 bat silhouette free-hand if you prefer.
Step 2.
Copy the template or hand-drawn bat in several smaller or larger sizes using your copy machine to increase or decrease the size of the copy as desired.
Note: You only need one copy of each size to use as a tracing template.
Step 3.
Choose your paper. Fold it in half and place your template along the folded inside line to trace.
Step 4.
Cut out your bats.
Other Halloween Creatures to Make and Decorate
Halloween bats aren’t the only spooky creatures/symbols that lend themselves to creative decor for Halloween.
Here’s our list to get you thinking:
- spiders
- witches
- hats
- ghosts
- brooms
- pumpkins
- jack-o-lanterns
- skulls
- skeletons
What material should you use for your bats?
Paper bats are fine if you’re using inside. But they don’t tend to last more than one season.
If you want to use your bats outside like I did, you should choose a plastic waterproof craft paper, otherwise simple black construction paper will work.
Where to buy your bats?
We love these bats. They’re inexpensive, durable plastic and reusable.
How should you hang your bats?
There’s no right or wrong way. Hang them like they fly in nature…we are imitating a swarm. Again, it is an imperfect science. Have fun with it. Follow our examples here. And there are many fun examples all over Instagram as well.
What do you use to make the bats stick?
It depends on your surface. Some kits like ours listed come with double sided tape. Some surfaces work easily, others are tough. Just be careful whatever you use isn’t going to harm your surface or remove paint.
Looking for more craft ideas?
Halloween bats are enormous fun to use in our Halloween decor. It’s incredibly easy to make impressive, spooky displays.
Whether you choose to draw your own, use a template, or buy them, they are inexpensive and irresistibly delightful.
Happy decorating!
