Hosting a Halloween party for children can be very stressful.
A hoard of hysterically excited witches, devils and goblins turn up on your doorstep, and you are expected to feed and entertain them for three hours.
Do it badly, without preparation and it will be the longest three hours of your life and you will be scraping food from your walls for the next month.
Excited children need structure, or, be warned, they will rampage through your house in a whirlwind of devastation.
Preparation is the key - organise a structure to your party, plan your games, music and food well in advance, plan your party in 30 minute slots so that you know exactly what is happening and when, only then can you organise everyone else accordingly.
Get it wrong and you will regret it, get it right and you will be a hero!
Below are some suggestions for party games, party music and party food.
Halloween Party Games
Halloween “Stick It” Game
Take the traditional party game of pin the tail on the Donkey and alter it to suit your theme some examples are set out below
- Pin the tail on the black cat
- Pin the tail on the rat
- Pin the nose on the witch
- Pin the tail on the devil
- Pin the alien on the UFO
Draw out your main picture then make the tail, nose or alien out of card. There should be one for each child with their name written on.
Each child should be blindfolded and allowed to stick there card on to the large picture - closest to the correct position wins a prize.
Children will enjoy this party game.
“Mummy Madness”
Buy a bumper pack of economy toilet rolls.
Split your children into teams of two or more.
Each team must nominate “a mummy”. The object of the game is to wrap the mummy as fully as possible with the toilet rolls provided (2 or 3 toilet rolls per team).
Give them a time limit to perform the task - eg the length of a song.
The team with the best “Mummy” wins a prize.
Hilarious fun for all - don't forget your camera!
“Trick or Treat” Pass the Parcel
An old favourite with children, with a slight twist, when you wrap the parcels, insert either a trick (a plastic spider) or a treat (a sweet) between each layer of wrapping paper.
As the parcel goes around the circle, those who find a “trick” are out of the game.
“The Abominable Snowman”
Split your children into teams, each team elects one “abominable snowman”.
Each team should be given 20 cotton wool balls in a dish.
Spread some Vaseline onto the chin of each teams “abominable snowman”. The object of the game is for the “abominable snowman” to get all of their cotton-wool balls from one end of the room to the other (nominate a suitable destination point) - without the use of their hands.
Their team members have to assist their “abominable snowman” and attach the cotton-wool balls to their chin.
The first team to get all 20 cotton-wool balls to the nominated destination point win a prize.
“Humungous Hangman”
Prepare a number of large sheets of paper with a picture of the traditional hangman gallows.
Beneath the gallows of add dashes to represent the letters which spell out a spooky film, for example:-
- Ghostbusters
- The Corpse Bride
- Monster House
- The Nightmare Before Christmas
- The Legend of Sleepy Hollow
Split the children into teams and allow each team to guess the letters. With each incorrect guess, add a body part to the hanging man.
Teams who correctly guess the film title win a prize.
“Mis-Shapes”
Provide each team or child with a small tub of modelling clay, they have the length of time it takes for a song to play, to model an object of your choice, for example:-
- An alien being
- A Bat
- A Rat
- A Snake
When the song finishes, allow the child to present their models, in turn, to an objective adult, who must judge and select the winning model based upon anatomical correctness, imagination, and artistic style of the model.
This is an entertaining game for any age.
Ensure that there is a prize for the winner.
Music
I have picked 50 of the best Halloween songs:
- Monster Mash - Bobby Boris Pickett and the Crypt Kickers
- Thriller - Michael Jackson
- Adams Family Rap - MC Hammer
- The Timewarp - Rocky Horror Show Cast
- Werewolves of London - Warren Zevron
- Ghost in my House - R Dean Taylor
- Voodoo Child - Rogue Traders
- Ghost of You - My Chemical Romance
- The Black Parade - My Chemical Romance
- Miss Murder - AFI
- Ghostbusters - Ray Parker Jnr
- Firestarter - The Prodigy
- Hocus Pocus - Hocus Focus
- Spirit in The Sky - Norman Greenbaum
- Is it a Monster - The Automatic
- Devil Inside - INXS
- People are Strange - The Doors
- Rat in the Kitchen - UB40
- Bat out of Hell - Meatloaf
- Scary Monsters - David Bowie
- Paint it Black - The Rolling Stones
- Li'l Devil - The Cult
- Spiderman - The Cure
- Ghost Town - The Specials
- Psycho Killer - Talking Heads
- Hells Bells - ACDC
- I Put a Spell on You - Bette Midler
- Men in Black - Will Smith
- Black Suits Comin' - Will Smith
- Black Magic Woman - Santana
- Devil in Disguise - Elvis Presley
- Ghost Riders in the Sky - Stan Jones
- Tubular Bells - Mike Oldfield
- Evil Woman - ELO
- Witch Doctor - The Cartoons
- Purple People Eater - Sheb Wooley
- Bark at the Moon - Ozzy Ozbourne
- Mack the Knife - Frank Sinatra
- Died in Your Arms Tonight - Cutting Crew
- Devil - Stereophonics
- Murder on the Dancefloor - Sophie Ellis Bextor
- Black Night - Deep Purple
- Could it be Magic - Take That
- Coming in The Air Tonight - Phil Collins
- Invisible Man - Queen
- Zombie - The Cranberries
- Rock Your Body - Backstreet Boys
- Sandman - Metallica
- Elouise - The Damned
- The Kill - 30 Seconds to Mars
HALLOWEEN PARTY FOOD
For Halloween party food, it can be as interesting as your imagination will allow and even on a tight budget, simple food can take on a Halloween theme if you take some time to make some imaginative labels for your buffet table.
For example - a bowl of curly fries and tomato sauce dip could be labelled “alien maggots with blood”.
Sandwiches of any variety can be cut to Halloween shapes - bats, ghosts or coffins
In the case of the coffin sandwiches, they are served on a bed of lettuce, with chives poking out here and there to look like grass.
The R.I.P can be piped one or two of the sandwiched using mustard or cream-cheese, food colouring can be added to give your preferred colour.
Care taken with the presentation can make even the most basic tray of sandwiches look exciting and spooky.
Many supermarkets sell Halloween cup cakes in every imaginable design which look fantastic on your buffet table.
One simple, special dessert, which looks amazing on your table (particularly with a light shining behind the dishes) is simply small glass bowls of green jelly decorated with a few (cleaned) black plastic spiders. Just ensure your guests are aware that the spiders are not edible.
Above All - Have Fun!
Any other Halloween party suggestions would be welcomed.
