Halloween party suggestions

[DebMcDonald]

We're in a brand new house this year and I'd love to throw a halloween party for my kids. All girls ages 4, 6, and 13. I'd probably have two different start times for the little ones vs. the big ones, but can anyone give me suggestions on what would make a great party. I'll also let parents stay as I'd like it to be more of a family party especially for the little age group. I figure if I start now I can look for sales, etc.

Thanks!!!!

 

[left210]

We have been doing a pumpkin party for our DS since he was 3. This year will be our 4th year doing it. We would have pumpkins for each child to paint since they were younger and then do games. I would have a station for each game and have prizes after each game. The games have changed from year to year but here are some examples. Pin the nose on the witch and use bubble gum as the nose, spider stomp which is putting a plastic spider in a balloon and saying go and they all try to stomp the balloon, we have done different versions of toss - one year we did toss into a pumpkin and lined 5 of them in a row further from each other, one year we used rubber bats and tossed them in large baskets, and last year we laid out a table cloth and put different candies and prizes on it and whatever your ring went around you got to keep it. Other games were sack races, we did a maze last year with bales of hay, ghost bowling where you take 2 liters and put white cloth over them and we used a gourd to knock them down, put your hand in spaghetti with oil on it and pull something out, and last year we had several boxes they had to put there hand in to figure out what it was. Mostly food but it felt gross like body parts. The first year is the most expensive because you are starting from scratch but each year after that you can buy lots of stuff after halloween and then be ready for the next year. We have never had it as a dress up party so that is why we always called it a pumpkin party. This year we are going to still do pumpkins but give them the option to carve one vs. paint as long as they have a parent to assist. We are also going to do a scary woods trail for them to walk on since the kids will be 6-7 this year.

 

[summerrluvv]

Fun! We have had many halloween parties with DS and his friends. Here are some ideas:

Games:
Pass the pumpkin - get a halloween cd or d/l songs from the internet. Children sit in circle and pass the pumpkin to each other around the circle. Whoever has the pumpkin when the music stops is out.

Eyeball spoon race - separate into 2 teams and form 2 lines. Each child gets their own plastic spoon. They put the spoon in the mouth with a fake eyeball (or play doh made to look like one) and race to a certain point and back, then they next person in line does the same thing. First team to finish wins.

Toilet paper mummy game - break up into pairs. One person from each pair gets a roll of TP and wraps up their partner. Then they switch. Not really a game, but cute!

Halloween Pinata

Pin the nose on the pumpkin
Or
Pin the Spider on the Web

Freeze Dance

I get clear plastic gloves (dollar tree sells them 100 for 1.00) and fill them with popcorn. Or they have gloves for this specific purpose at the party stores with funky witch hand prints on them. I put them on the party table on each place setting. Last year we had an awesome party with TONS of goodies and decorations since I had stocked up on sooo much at Target's 90% off sale the year before.

 

[gemjoy]

DD is having her first Halloween Party this year ~ so I'm watching this thread for ideas!!!! Some great ones so far!

 

[LisaInNc]

I am hoping to have a Halloween Party this year also. I found that the weekend before Halloween at the Party Store all the Halloween stuff was half off I picked up some extra items like a fog machine.

 

[writersblock42]

I also have thought about a Halloween party for the kids. I was thinking doing apple bobbing, pumpkin decorating, having a small bonfire to roast marshmellows and hotdogs. Other ideas could be finding things in a pile of hay, flashlight tag...for food I do something called mummy fingers. You take little weiners and wrap one end with a half of a cresant roll then dip them in ketchup for some blood.

 

[mrsbornkuntry]

Another game I haven't seen mentioned is tying sugar cookies or donuts on a string and the kids have to try to eat them without using their hands.

We also played ring around a pumpkin: have 3 pumpkins and try to throw a hula hoop around them.

 

[DebMcDonald]

Bumping in case anyone else is thinking of halloween. Thanks for the great suggestions thus far.

 

[cinderella73]

Your kids are the same ages as mine except your 4 is my 5. I do one every year. We do a Indiana Jones type scavenger treasure hunt. I have it so that its a mix of visual clues for the little ones and riddles for the bigger ones. We have no gore or anything to scary. It has snakes , spiders , and rats of course. We hang sheets from the ceiling to make a maze of walls. We also use acrylic glow in the dark paint to draw symbols on the sheets that the little kids can shine their flashlights on to make glow. Also a black light shows that stuff up well. We also use a fog machine Indiana Jones soundtrack music and various props. When its warm we incorporate outside. I have shown my kids the movie but dad removed the to scary stuff so the little ones could watch it without being bothered . They all loved it. We used brown paper grocery bags torn up for old looking clues. Even burned the edges of them then used a wet qtip to remove the black residue. It took us 2 days to set up. But the kids loved it and all wanted to do it again as soon as they finished. Oh we had a archaelogists camp site set up for all the kids to sit around at eat at after. Dollar store sells and still had them last I checked the silver divided plates like they used to use. For goody bags we gave out backpacks also from the dollar store with flashlights .Or you can have glowsticks and put one older child in charge of a flashlight and not have it to dark. And then we also had magnifying glasses and paintbrushes for brushing off relics along with chocolate bars . Plus they had the jewels and necklaces and candy they found. Oh also what we do is buy the 3 dollar flat sheets at walmart and draw designs on them . Like egyptian ones and have clues written in heiroglyphics for the kids to decipher. Its amazingly easy to free hand some of the egyptian figures.

 

[bear74]

great ideas

 

[gemjoy]

Just bumping to see if anyone else has halloween party ideas!

 

[Siouxstone]

Ooooh, what a great thread! I'm a Halloween baby, so this is reminding me of my birthday parties when I was a kid! (I was really let down when I grew older and realized all the hoopla wasn't just for me! ) Anyway, we used to play a game called Ride the Witches Broomstick which came off an old record of Halloween music. We played it long after the record was gone. Anyway, you play spooky music and pass the broomstick. Whoever has the broom when the music stops has to ride it around the circle and you start over again. We also made Eyeball punch. It was lime sherbert, orange sherbert and Shasta or 7Up. The colors of the sherbert mix together and the soda foams it all up. We would drop in peeled grapes for eyeballs. One year, we made the front yard into a bit of a Haunted house. On the sidewalk, we put dried macaroni so it crunched as you walked up to the front door.

My all time favorite thing for a Halloween party is The Great Pumpkin. You buy one of those giant pumpkins, carve it up and put a speaker in it. Someone hides nearby where they can hear/see and talks to the kids. We used my Ronco microphone and a transistor radio back then, but a baby monitor would work. However, those big puppies are seriously expensive and you need a saw to carve them.

 

[DebMcDonald]

Last night I picked up a great book at the grocery store with ideas for baked goodies It was by Better Homes and Gardens and it the smaller magazine, maybe 4 x 6, but the treats look great and give very detailed instructions.

 

[gemjoy]

Ooooh, what a great thread! I'm a Halloween baby, so this is reminding me of my birthday parties when I was a kid! (I was really let down when I grew older and realized all the hoopla wasn't just for me! ) Anyway, we used to play a game called Ride the Witches Broomstick which came off an old record of Halloween music. We played it long after the record was gone. Anyway, you play spooky music and pass the broomstick. Whoever has the broom when the music stops has to ride it around the circle and you start over again. We also made Eyeball punch. It was lime sherbert, orange sherbert and Shasta or 7Up. The colors of the sherbert mix together and the soda foams it all up. We would drop in peeled grapes for eyeballs. One year, we made the front yard into a bit of a Haunted house. On the sidewalk, we put dried macaroni so it crunched as you walked up to the front door.

Love this game idea!!! Thanks!

 

[cajunpeach]

Love this thread....

We transform the garage into Halloween central for the kids. We have various games like mentioned above. We also have a "cake walk". My DD makes the numbers out of construction paper with Halloween shapes like pumpkins and bats. We play halloween music and call a number and give out inexpensive treats & candy for prizes. We have a "hay ride" too. My brother has a Rhino (a golf cart on steroids ) and he pulls a trailer (with adult supervision) behind it. no actually hay but the kids have a great time riding through the neighborhood all dressed up around dusk.

We have our party the weeked before halloween so the kids get to wear their costumes twice.

We make it a family affair, kids in the garage, adults inside eating, drinking and being merry

Just have fun with it!

 

[MousekaMaddi]

great ideas, keep em coming!

 

[GC&S]

Weve done a halloween party for the past three years (dd is now 5) and used many of the games suggested. The younger kids are thrilled with anything so keep the games simple and short (kind of like their attention span!!).

I made ghost cookies last year that were a huge hit. You take nutter butter cookies, dip half of them in melted white chocolate and then use two mini chocolate chips for eyes. They were easy (make them the day before so the icing gets firms) and the kids loved them.

I also made oreo spider cookies. You need oreo cookies (or generic ones), black string licorice (but I used red as I couldn't find black) and gel icing. Cut the string licorice for legs. Take apart the oreo and push 2-3 "legs" into the icing on each side, then place the cookie top back on. Don't press too hard or you will break the cookie. Then use gel icing (you can also add a redhot candy to the icing) for eyes. I just colored some of the leftover white chocolate and used that for eyes.

Also, if you make crafts that call for glue - buy glue dots. They come in several different sizes and are so much easier for small kids to use. Plus, there's no drying time (or spilled glue on your floor). We make a lot of crafts using foam and the glue dots worked fine.

 

[hrh_disney_queen]

We have been going to our friends' HP for past three years, the first time the kids were about 4-5 years old. The mom does a great job, very organinzed but with a laid back feeling. Here is what she does for the kids...

1) cupcake decorating. She bakes cupcakes, spreads out a blanket in her back yard, and puts out sprinkles, candy corn, canned frostings, etc. She spreads the frosting, and let's the kids have at it.

2) some kind of craft. She buys from Oriental Trading, and one year it was Halloween beads on a string, last year it was a foam bat..really cute, easy with a little help. (Yes, GC&S-glue dots are the way to go!)

3) Ghost pinata. nuff said...

4) Hay ride. The dad breaks up a bale of hay on the garden trailer and pulls it around the yard with the riding lawn mower-four or five kids at a time.

5) Treasure hunt. She divides the kids into teams, writes easy instructions on pieces of paper and puts them around the yard....ex. Jump up and down ten times, then run to the swingset for your next instruction. The end of the line is a large plastic cauldron with lots of prizes in it...enough for each child to get one of each...again-Oriental Trading Company /Sam's

6)She puts out a fun spread of Halloween Treats...Pizza for everyone, a Pudding topped cake with tombstones (Pepperidge Farm Milano cookies) and Cool Whip ghosts

She gets either empty gift bags or last year she got little Halloween themed Chinese carry out boxes to put all their stuff in as they accumulate it.

Also alot of the time is spent just letting the kids run around in the backyard..

She also makes these really cute "suckers" that she puts out for the kids to take home. She takes a Moon Pie and shoves a stick into the side of it like a sucker. Then she uses frosting as glue and puts different cake decorations on it, candy corn, sprinkles. Then she wraps it in a clear cellophane candy bag and arranges them in a vase w/styrofoam like a bouquet of flowers.

This is the highlight of our Halloween season, we have a ball. takes about 3 hours...

And someone made the most delicious adult punch last year that made it especially fun for the adults.

At my DSs' cubscout party they had a long boxlike structure (about 8 feet long, 1 foot high, 1 foot long-could have been several boxes) covered with blankets/towels. There were holes cut into the sides and they kids would reach in the holes into a bowl of "stuff" they couldn't see, and have to guess what it was. They had "eyeballs" (peeled grapes) "entrails" (spagetti) "brain" (cauliflower) "hair" (wig) and the last one had a real hand that belonged to someone sitting under the table!!

Edited to add...we do the creepy hands w/popcorn, too. You use "food Service" gloves, the thin clear ones, and put a candy corn pointed outward into each finger..that is the fingernail. Fill with white popped popcorn till full, tie off with a ribbon. put one of those spider rings on the ring finger.. The kids love these..

 

[gemjoy]

we do the creepy hands w/popcorn, too. You use "food Service" gloves, the thin clear ones, and put a candy corn pointed outward into each finger..that is the fingernail. Fill with white popped popcorn till full, tie off with a ribbon. put one of those spider rings on the ring finger.. The kids love these..

I've collected some good ideas for dd's party.... and I'm adding this one to the list! ThAnKs!

 

[princesserinsmom]

I love all of the ideas. Any other food ideas? My kids love worms with dirt. I put chocolate pudding in a cup and top it with crushed oreos and stick gummie worms in it. The kids love it