We’ve put together some fun ideas to help you and your child create a super scary yet exciting Halloween party. We’ve kept the old time fun and added some new suggestions to update a perennial favorite – the party on Halloween.
1. Decorate Your Den
One of your most important things for your party will be to set the mood. How do you do that? You decorate of course! You can drape lots of black and orange crepe streamers across the ceilings and hang large paper witches and pumpkins. Set out carved jack o’lanterns illuminated with candles for spooky effects on tables.
Having your party during daylight hours for the little ones? No problem! Place dark construction paper over the windows in the area of your home where you plan to have your party. You’ll still get that darkened, nighttime effect even if you have the Halloween event in the middle of the afternoon.
To further add to the ambience of your party, have scary Halloween tunes playing like creepy organ music or the Monster Mash. There are even CDs that offer fun, upbeat Halloween party music.
2. Gross Them Out
What thing do kids love most in the world? They love to tell disgusting stories and to try and gross each other out. Well, get in on the spirit of the season coupled with the fact that children love yucky things and you’ve got your first party idea.
When your young guests arrive, have a myriad of bowls set up for them along with a blindfold. Tie the blindfold (or scarf) around the guest’s head and have them stick their hand each bowl. Trust us, they will scream with horror (or is it delight?) at the wonderfully, disgusting creations you have in the bowls. Let them try and determine what’s in them.
Here are the creepy creations you will have in the bowls available for blindfolded touching:
- Rotting worms (cold, cooked spaghetti).
- Human brains (gelatin).
- Peeled grapes (eyeballs).
- Chopped tomatoes (intestines).
- Tomato paste or juice (blood).
One tip that you won’t want to forget is to have a towel or dishrag handy to wipe off slimy hands!
3. Costume Judging
You’re sure to have plenty of Super Heroes, witches, and little devils show up at your house for the party. Every kid loves to show off his or her costume, so why not allow for judging of the costumes. Have another adult – your spouse, your best friend, your great aunt Sheila – assist you with the tough task of choosing the best and the brightest.
Here’s a tip. Have enough prizes on hand to award one to each child. You’ll easily be able to pick the scariest, the cutest, or the most original. But don’t let any child walk away empty-handed. Dole out prizes for the best “yellow” costume, the sweetest princess, or the most original five-year-old. Be creative and let the kids have fun.
Even if you award every child a small prize, you don’t have to spend a fortune. Try giving out Halloween coloring books, stickers, or tattoos.
4. The Graham Game
Here’s a sticky, messy game that will have the kids hooting with laughter and will definitely let them get creative. Have each child sit down at a table and give the crowd graham crackers and frostings to assemble their own haunted houses. You’ll need gummy worms, plastic spiders, licorice strips, frostings in orange, black, or white (you can dye the frosting with food coloring), and any other candies you think appropriate.
Let your little charges go to town as they decorate their own spooky creations. The scariest house wins a scary prize and everyone gets to take their own little monster mansion home with them.
5. Wrap the Mummy
Head to your bathroom and grab all of your toilet paper! Arrange your charges into groups (three or four will probably work best) and give each group several large rolls of toilet paper. One child in the group will be the “mummy” while the others will have to wrap him or her up. There are some rules though – the mummy’s face must be uncovered. Now, get started. The group with the mummy who is most covered by toilet paper at the end of the game – say, five minutes – wins.
6. Food, Folks, and Fun
What party wouldn’t be complete without tasty food for refreshments? With a kids’ Halloween party, you can go hog wild and create a whole menu full of delicious yet creepy foods to keep your guests happy.
Here are some ideas for food for your party:
- Sugar cookies with orange and black sprinkles or colored frostings.
- Finger cakes (you can use lady fingers or sponge cake cut into finger shapes and decorated with candies for the fingernails).
- Pumpkin pizzas (place tomato sauce on an English muffin and add orange shredded cheese, and triangle-sliced pepperoni to make faces).
- Dirty pudding (add crushed chocolate cookies to chocolate pudding and place gummy worms on top).
- Bloody franks (serve hot dogs with lots of ketchup for dipping).
- Pumpkin muffins (try a little butter with warm muffins for a nutritious snack).
See Our Pumpkin Recipes Here
7. Decorate the Pumpkin
A Halloween party isn’t truly a party unless you have lots of pumpkins on hand as decorations. Stock up on small pumpkins and let your little guests choose their own.
Once they each have a pumpkin, provide magic markers or washable paints and let the kids decorate their orange gourds. They can make happy pumpkins or scary ones, spooky creations or silly.
Get Your Free Pumpkin Carving Patterns Here
Keep a Few Funnies on Hand
So you have a whole roster of activities to keep your little guests happy during this perfectly haunted party, but just in case things get a little hairy, have a couple of kid-friendly videos on hand. For example, you won’t want to show Psycho or Friday the 13th, but Garfield’s Halloween or It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown are great oldies yet goodies. Your charges will still share in the fun of Halloween but without the real ghosts and gore.
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