Kid Halloween party idea please???? A major challenge...

[PRINCESS VIJA]

Anyone throw a halloween kid party? My DS will be 8 and for his birthday party he wants a halloween party.

I have a few problems

1. We live in a small place (VERY SMALL) and so there isn't much room if any for games that require alot of running around. (unless it is nice outside, we have a big yard we can use.

2. We don't have much extra $ so this will have to be on a shoe string budget.

3. age ranges of kids.
5 boys that are 8 (school friends)
1 boy that is 4 (neighbors)
1 girl that is 10 or 11
1 girl that is 4 (DD)

4. Would like to decorate "spooky" but yet again not alot of $ to work with.


Anyone up to the challenge to help me? Thanks a bunch!

 

[preb]

Do your have a dollar store nearby? My girlfriend is having a "budget halloween party" for her 4 kids and 20 of their friends. She got plates, napkins, cups, treat bags, balloons and streamers there today for a grand total of $12.00! I know one of the games she mentioned was that you put a gummy worm in the bottom of a cereal bowl and cover it with whipped cream sprayed from a can. The kids each have their own bowl and, when you say go - with their hands behind their back they must retrieve the worm with their teeth (imagine the faces covered with whipped cream). I think she's planning bobbing for apples (pretty cheap) a pinata, and decorating "Haunted Houses" (like gingerbread houses, but you make the structure ahead of time with graham crackers and let the kids decorate them with halloween candy and frosting).

Sorry this is so long, but we were just talking about this party last night and making plans!

 

[wovenwonder]

Hang Marshmellows from the ceiling with a string -- at the level of the childs neck. They hold their hands behind their back -- and you can even blindfold them while they try to catch the ghosts. WARNING though -- marshmellows can be a choking hazard -- do not allow them to 'catch' more than one at a time.

Pin the face on the pumpkin...... make a pumpkin out of construction paper and have them attach the eye's nose and mouth in 'pin the tail on the donkey' fashion.

Remember to play some 'scary' music during the party!

Do a search for kids halloween parties on the web and you will come up with alot! These are some fun one's....

http://www.halloween.com/
http://www.kraftfoods.com/html/features/halloween/index.html
http://www.night.net/halloween/
http://www.stretcher.com/stories/971013a.cfm
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/6478/halloween.html
http://www.qvc.com/col1031.html

 

[#1 Disney Fan]

If you can find small pumpkins really inexpensively, I was going to suggest a pumpin carving contest, but with the ages of the kids, I'm going to switch and suggest a pumpin painting contest instead (painting the faces onto the pumpins and maybe having some extras like wool for hair and stuff like that).

How about a candy hunt? Buy a bunch of inexpensive little wrapped candies and hide them throughout either a portion of the house, or even better, if it's nice outside... outside. Give each child a tiny paper bag and let them go for it!

A variation on this that I *loved* as a kid was the string hunt!!! Get a roll of string or yarn (in halloween colors?) and cut tons and tons of pieces. Some short, a bunch medium length, and a few long ones. All random sizes. This works best outside... drape the strings everywhere. In the lawn, in trees, hide them in the fence behind fence posts, along the edges of the yard, hide them in lawn furniture... everywhere. Have the kids go outside and have them collect as fast as they can as many strings as possible. Then after enough time has passed that they aren't finding any more strings, have them each lay out their strings end to end on a big piece of cement or flat yard and whoever's is the longest wins a prize, second longest may win something smaller and so on.

Thought of one more... mummy wrap! Pair off kids, or groups of 3... one is the mummy... the others have to wrap them in toilet paper and make the best mummy! Winner is the one that after the time is over (you call it) looks the best, is the most covered!

Have fun!

 

[danacara]

Go to a craft store and get chocolate molds in the shape of haunted houses (they're cheap and in stock right now). Make the panels before the party starts. Let the kids use icing, candy corn, and misc. candy to assemble and decorate their chocolate haunted houses. It's a huge hit.

 

[bananiem]

Try family.go.com. It's the site for Family Fun magazine and they always have cute ideas in there.

 

[pixiedust218]

Had a Halloween party last year for DS 13 and DD 9 (at the time). The kids ranged from 4 to 14. For this game we put the kids in age groups. Get a wooden pole (or broom) and put about 4 rolls of toilet paper on it. Have an adult on each end of the pole. When you say start, the kids pull the toilet paper as fast as they can and whoever pulls all of theirs off first wins a "prize". We bought little things at the dollar store. Another one we did, was how ever many kids you have at the party, that is how many prizes. Have them sit on the floor in a circle and hand them each a prize...they CAN'T open it. Start the music, and when it stops they unwrap (one layer of the paper). I save all the scrap paper through the year for this one (I even do this in school, I am a class mother) Start the music again, and continue until they reach the prize. I usually wrap each "little" gift about 10 times. The kids get such a kick out of this game. You can use a pack of gum, "holiday" pencils, anything small and cheap. I hope these come in handy for you and GOOD LUCK!!!!

 

[christineann]

At a school Halloween party for this age group, we played musical chairs using the "Monster Mash" song. The kids loved it!

 

[snowball22]

I had a Halloween party for my kids a few years ago. The kids all came in costumes. I had the party in my basement. I had Halloween music playing. We first decorated brown bags with handles for beggars night with crayons, markers, glitter and stickers. Next we played pin the nose on the pumpkin. After that we bobbed for apples. I also had a container filled with candy corn and the kids had to guess how many were in the container. The winner got to take home the container with the corn in it. For decorations I used the stretchy spider webs, balloons, crepe paper and taped up paper decorations that the kids made. I had three huge pumpkins carved and lit. One was Winnie the Pooh. For food we had ham sandwiches, bloody donut eyeballs(take white donut holes and use red gel to make bloodshot marks with a chocolate chip in the middle), Halloween cut out cookies, doritos, cheese cubes with small pretzel sticks stuck in them and beetle juice(7-up with grapejuice ice cubes with gummy worms frozen in the cubes). Each kid went home with their decorated beggars bag and a goody bag filled with candy. Have fun!!

 

[tigercat]

I used to have halloween parties for my 3 kids when they were younger. To decorate I use to take garbage bags (the really big ones black or dk green) and cut them in strips but leaving them on the bag. Then I put the bag up on the wall to cover the door so that they had to go through the bag doorway. I had a room that it didn't matter and would put up heavy paper on the walls and plastic on the floors and have them paint me a mural. I would cut out pumpkin shapes out of orange construction paper a head of time and then they would decorate them at the party. Bobbing for apples was a big event. I would have different stations for the different age group of kids and that worked really well. I think we also did do pumpkins. I would get orange bread from the grocery store and have them cut it lengthwise and then make circle sandwiches, orange drink, chocolate cake, orange jello all worked well. I loved giving those parties and the kids loved having them.
tigercat

 

[PRINCESS VIJA]

Thanks everyone! Those are great ideas and hints!!!!