Halloween Party Ideas

Why not throw a Halloween party for your child's birthday, even if it's long past October 31! Kids love Halloween and they wouldn't mind.

Invite friends to gobble creepy cuisine and play wickedly fun games - they'll take home lots of memories!

Resources:

Invitations

To make Halloween party invitations, draw and cut pumpkin shapes out of cardstock. Then draw jack-o'-lantern pattern, and color the pumpkin shapes with orange and black markers. Write your party information on the back.

Decorations

Ideas for Halloween party decorations are endless. Start off by getting balloons and paper streamers in orange and black. Play a spooky soundtrack in the background. You can design your own decorations, or get some remarkable "scary" items from a party store.

Scatter carved pumpkins around the yard. (Use your judgment about whether your child can handle a knife safely to participate in carving activity.) Hang plastic or rubber bats from the trees. Create ghosts by using dowels for their base, white trash bags for the "heads" and white sheets for their "bodies." Spread the "ghosts" around the yard and the house.

For decorating inside of the house, have classic Halloween items such as plastic spiders, imitation spider webs, pumpkins, rubber rats, witches, and so on. Use your imagination to come up with the best design based on how much time you have and decorations that are available to you.

Line the windowsill with a row of mini pumpkins. To make one, cut two cups from a cardboard egg carton. Glue the top edge of one cup to the edge of a second cup. Once the glue dries, coat the shell with orange acrylic paint. Let it dry.

Poke a hole in the top of the pumpkin using a straightened paper clip. Make a stem and curly vines out of green pipe cleaners or twisted crepe paper and push the ends through the hole. Use a black marker to draw a jack-o'-lantern face.

Decorate various areas of your house with clothespin bats. Here's how you make one. First, cut and extended-wings shape from the black construction paper. Next, cut out an oblong body with pointed ears and feet, and glue it onto the wings. Add round, beady eyes cut from yellow or red construction paper. Glue a clothespin to the back of the bat, and it's ready to hang on to a curtain.

Turn the lights in one of the rooms. Fill it with "jack-o'-lantern" pumpkins (with votive candles inside them for illumination). Spread out fake spider webs and plastic spiders. Place ghost decorations and other scary pictures on the walls.

Besides creepy jack-o'-lanterns, every haunted house should have any of the following: monster footprints (cut from poster board or sponge-painted), a mummy wrapped scarecrow, dead flowers, furniture covered with sheets, black lights (shining on glow-in-the-dark creatures), helium balloon ghosts (drape balloons with sheets and tie at the neck) and cardboard box coffin.

Cover your Halloween party table with a theme cloth. Place a "monster head" for a table centerpiece. To make one, turn over a clean milk jug and rest it in the deli container (to make Frankenstein thick neck). Attach the jug to the container with duct tape, then coat it with the tempera paint.

When it's dry, paint bloodshot eyes, scars, and a head of greasy black hair. To create bolts in the sides of the monster's neck, cover milk caps with aluminum foil and attach them with pushpins. A nose can be made out of the cardboard, slipped through a slit cut in the monster's face.

Guest Arrival and Introductory Activities

*Sign-in Mural: Tape a large sheet of butcher paper, poster board, or newsprint at kids' eye level on a wall where the main activities will take place. Before the Halloween party guests arrive, use markers to draw a large haunted house at the center of the paper and decorate it with bats, pumpkins, and other Halloween symbols, leaving lots of room surrounding it for additional art.

Leave out markers. As the children arrive, ask them to add their costumed self-portraits to the scene and sign their names. The mural will act as an activity - and a party decoration.

*Slime Factory: In the house's laboratory - kitchen - let Halloween party guests watch a mad scientist (Mom or Dad) transform ordinary ingredients into a ghoulish concoction.

Here is the magic formula: mix 3/4 cup warm water, 1 cup Elmer's glue, and several drops of green food coloring in a medium-size bowl. In a separate large bowl, mix 4 tsp borax and 1 1/3 cups warm water. This brew will act as the fixative. (Note: Since borax is toxic in large doses, be sure to keep this mixture away from kids younger than age three.)

Pour the glue mixture into the borax and water mixture, but do not stir. Let it sit for 1 minute, then lift the congealed slime out of the liquid. Divide it up so that each child has his or her own piece of slime to play with. Keep in mind that the glue in this slime can make it stick to certain fabrics. To minimize accidents, give each little monster a sealable bag to store his slime in. (Warn the kids not to eat slime!)

*Furry Spiders: Help your Halloween party guests create their own spiders. For each spider, you'll need 4 pipe cleaners, a 4-hole button, and a pair of stick-on googly eyes.

To begin, bend a pipe cleaner into a V shape. Push the base of the V up through one of the button holes until it protrudes 1/2 inch. Bend the 1/2-inch length over the top of the button. Use the same method to thread the three other pipe cleaners through the remaining button holes.

Next shape the eight legs by bending the pipe cleaner ends first 1 inch from the button and then again 1/4 inch from the tips. Stick the googly eyes onto the button between the front legs.

*Freaky Hair: Spread out a white sheet on the floor or on a bed, then have a child lie down on it. Help the child fan out his or her hair (have a wig on hand for the crew-cut contingent).

Invite the child to make his or her most gruesome Halloween party face, while you take a Polaroid (or digital) picture from directly above. When the photo develops, write the child's name on it, use it as place card for the party table, and then send it home as a party favor.

Favors

For your Halloween party favors, hand out such items as wind-up pumpkin toys, Halloween sticker sheets, kazoos, glow-in-the dark items, tattoos, ghost erasers, mini hand clackers, plastic spiders, bone candy, gliding eyeballs, skull keychains, and so on.

Halloween Party Games

*Costume Parade: When all the Halloween party guests have arrived, organize a terror-raising march in the backyard or around the block to show off everyone's ghoulish gear. Turn on a spooky sound track to start the parade - and don't forget to take pictures!

*The Mummy Wrap: Divide the kids into teams of two, give each pair a roll of toilet paper, and instruct one member of each team to race to wrap his partner, mummy style, at the sound of a screech. Kids must use up the whole roll, avoiding the head and wrapping arms separately from the torso.

Once wrapped, the mummy yells "mummy wrap!" Award the winning team, reverse partners' roles and start again.

*Pin the Wart on the Witch: Hang a picture of a witch at kids' eye-level on the wall, then wad up modeling clay into gumball-size "warts." Blindfolded, kids take turns trying to stick the wart on the witch's nose.

*Eyeball on a Spoon: Before the Halloween party, make eyeballs (one per guest) by drawing an iris, a pupil, and bloodshot veins onto ping-pong balls. To play, set up a starting and a finish line. Hand each child an eyeball on a spoon.

At the whistle, the kids must race to the finish line without touching their eyeball. If it falls, the player must retrieve the eyeball and return to the starting line and begin again. Whoever makes it to the finish line first wins.

*Fishing for Fortunes: Magic Wanda (a parent dressed as a gypsy) invites children to her private, velvet-covered fortunate-telling table in the corner of the room. One by one, Wanda asks children to close their eyes and retrieve a take-home treat from her crystal ball (a goldfish bowl) in the center of the table.

Based on the item, Wanda predicts the child's future: a chocolate coin equals a raise in allowance; a gummy rat foretells a pet in the child's future; a chocolate soccer ball means fame to come in the sports world; a candy pacifier indicates a new sibling; a chocolate medallion points to a future Olympian. (Tip: make sure that every child gets a treat that he or she can be excited about. For example, don't include toothpaste so the holder "never gets another cavity.")

*Cookie Contest: Hang cookies across the room and they'll act as a Halloween party decoration, a treat and a game. You'll need one 20-ounce package of refrigerator sugar cookie dough, cookie cutters, drinking straw or chopstick, string or fishing line, frosting (optional) and clothesline.

First, bake the cookies. Heat the oven to 350°F. Roll out the cookie dough to a 1/4-inch thickness and cut with cookie cutters. (You can use Halloween shapes, but star and moon shapes will do.) Arrange the cookies on an ungreased cookie sheet.

Poke holes through the tops using a straw or chopstick and bake for 7 to 20 minutes or until lightly brown. Two minutes before the cookies come out of the oven, repoke the holes to make sure they are large enough for threading a string. Remove the cookies from the pan and cool on a cooling rack. Thread the cookies with 2- to 3-foot lengths of string or fishing line. Frost the cookies, if desired.

String the clothesline across the room (preferably the basement, porch, or another room where you don't mind getting crumbs on the floor). Then hang the cookies on the line so they fall at the height of the kids' shoulders. If you're hosting a variety of ages, be sure to hang the string in different lengths. To play, instruct the kids to keep their hands behind their backs while they eat the cookies. The first child to eat his entire cookie without it falling to the floor wins. Everyone wins a prize - their cookie.

*Boo am I?: To put a frenzied twist on a traditional game of charades, write out clues for Halloween characters on slips of paper (Frankenstein, a mummy, a mad scientist, Dracula, a skeleton, a cat, a bat, a rat, and so on.) Put each slip inside white "ghost" balloons, blow up the balloons, and set them aside.

Divide the Halloween party guests into two teams. The first player has three minutes to choose a balloon, pop it, read the clue inside, and silently act it out until her team guesses the clue. The child to guess correctly picks up the next balloon.

*Zombie Tag: Set up this Halloween party game in an open area outside or in a large rec room inside. Rope off a circular area or lay down some sweatshirts in a circle and be prepared to yell "Out of bounds!" to your blindfolded zombie. Make sure it's a trip-proof playing area.

To play, follow the classic rules of Marco Polo. "It" wears a rubber monster mask (with a blindfold) and rubber hands. Everyone has to stay within the circle while he wanders around with his arms stretched out in front, zombie style (this also keeps him from crashing).

When "it" groans, all the players must groan back and extend their arms. This is how the zombie zeroes in on his victims. When a player gets tagged, she becomes the next "it" and gets to wear the mask and hands.

*Grab the Ghost: Before Halloween party, make ghosts by draping a piece of paper towel around a small ball, such as a Superball (or in a pinch, a waded-up paper towel). Cinch the towel around the ball and secure with one end of a 2-foot length of yarn. Have guests draw a face on their ghosts with markers.

At the start of the game, each player is given ten pennies. Choose one person to be the goblin.

The other players lay their ghosts on large paper circle and hold on to the yarn leash. The goblin holds the funnel, upside down, at least 2 feet above the circle.

The goblin chooses two numbers on a die, announces them to the group, then rolls. If either of the chosen numbers appears, the players try to pull their ghosts out of the circle before the goblin can slam the funnel down over them.

If a player is caught, he must give the goblin a penny. If the chosen numbers do not appear, but the players panic and yank their ghosts out of the circle anyway, it's another penny to the goblin. The goblin, for his part, is allowed to fake a funnel slam, but if he touches any ghost, he must shell out a penny to each player.

After three rolls of the die, the next player takes over as goblin. Play is over when one player runs out of pennies. The player with the most coins wins. As a prize, let him keep his pile of pennies.

*Witch's Stew: This Halloween party game requires skill, speed, and raw straw-sucking power.

Before the party, ask your child to help you cut out ten Halloween shapes, such as ghosts, bats, and pumpkins, from construction paper. Each shape should be about the size of a yo-yo. Place the shapes in a pile beside a small bowl. Using the straw as a vacuum, each contestant should try to pick up a shape and place in the bowl to create the Witch's Stew.

Time the players to see who can get all ten in the bowl the fastest. For a head-to-head race, cut out two sets of the shapes and let the players race against each other.

*Witches' Brew: Let's say you have 8 kids playing. To set up, each child will need his or her own color-coded, matching set of eight ingredients (use colored paper and markers): child #1 has eight green copies of one toad, child #2 has eight brown copies of five vulture feathers, and so on (see 'secret ingredients' below). With double-sided tape, attach seven copies to each child's back (the eighth is his or hers to hold) and set out a soup pot or cauldron.

On "Go!" the players must try to protect their own backs while pulling off one ingredient from each of the other players. The first Halloween party guest to collect all eight ingredients puts them in the pot of witch's brew.

Secret ingredients may include: 1 toad, 5 vulture feathers, 7 poison ivy leaves, 4 dragon tears, 3 cat eyes, 9 red ants, 10 shark teeth and 6 pig tails.

*Spider Relay Race: For this Halloween party game, you'll need 4 old pairs of black or striped tights, 2 belts and Fiberfill batting.

First, make a set of four spider legs for each team; you can make each set by stuffing 2 pairs of tights and tying them together. Tie them to a belt, which will buckle behind each player's back. Set up the relay race in a big open rec room or the yard. Outside, you can set up safe (soft) obstacles with hay or straw bales, then spread out a pile of leaves for finish line.

To play, divide your Halloween party guests into 2 teams and mark a finish line about 20 yards off for big kids (make it closer if you are playing with kids under age seven). The first player on each team straps a set of legs around her waist so that two legs will dangle on each side of her when she's in the classic crab position.

On command "Go!" the first players scurry on all fours (well, eights), with their bellies to the sky, to the finish line and back. Each team then helps its player take off the spider legs before strapping them onto the next player, who "runs" the race and returns. This continues until the final player from each team comes across the finish line.

*Ghost Storytelling: In a jack-o'-lantern-lit room, a ghost (parent in costume) gathers storytellers into a circle and starts spinning a spooky yarn into a handheld tape (or digital) recorder: "One night, Mr. Bonaparte heard the sound of heavy footsteps in his attic. With every step, the house rattled..." She then passes the tape recorder to a child, who improvises what happened next ("The man couldn't take the noise, so he went upstairs with a bat...").

Once each child has had a chance to speak, the ghost "rewinds the tape", and the gang listens to the story. Older kids enjoy the added challenge of pulling an object (a feather, dog collar, mirror, and whatever else you can round up) out of a box and incorporating the item into the story.

Food and Drink

Halloween Cake:

*Haunted House Cake: For this Halloween party cake recipe, you'll need 3 baked chocolate cakes: a 13-9-2-inch, an 8-inch round cake baked in ovenproof bowl, and a 6-inch loaf. Other ingredients include 4 cups chocolate frosting and 1 cup orange frosting.

Cover a large cutting board with foil. Place the 13- by 9- by 2-inch cake on top to make the "graveyard." On one end, place the bowl-shaped cake "hill." Ice the graveyard and hill with chocolate frosting. Cut out a 2- by 3-inch rectangle, about 1 inch deep, on top of the hill to accommodate the house.

Turn the loaf cake into a house by cutting the corners off one end to make a peaked roof. Place the house in the 2- by 3-inch slot and "paint" it with orange frosting. Tile the roof with chocolate graham crackers and frosting. Add details: windows made of broken chocolate cones with orange icing grids and Nutter ButterŽ cookie door with a candy doorknob.

Surround the house with shoestring licorice barbed wire. Add a flying witch (a gumdrop "face" with a chocolate kiss "hat" on a twisted licorice "broomstick").

To create gravestones, break Nutter ButterŽ cookies in half and pipe on spooky sayings with orange frosting ("Boo," "R.I.P." and so on). Secure in the muddy frosting. Next make ghosts in the trees (cut crooked branches in a piece of twisted licorice and add mini marshmallow ghosts with mini chocolate chip eyes), then plant the trees in the "mud."

Draw a crooked path from the base of the cake to the witch's door with a toothpick. Outline the path with chocolate-covered raisins, then sprinkle with broken green hard candies. At the entrance, add a chocolate graham cracker drawbridge. Finally outline the yard with broken chocolate cone fencing. Set the house in a place for all to see.

Halloween Party Food Ideas:

*Snake Sandwich: Make one giant salami and cheese sandwich out of a loaf of French bread. Cut the sandwich into 2-inch pieces. Arrange these in a snake curve on a large platter or cutting board. (Garnish the platter with leafy lettuce first.)

For the snake's head, halve one heel and open it to make the snake's mouth. Wedge two carrot strip "fangs" into the mouth to hold it open. Cut a piece of red pepper into a tongue shape and set between the fangs. Add broccoli florets for eyes, radish slits for eyebrows, and red pepper for nostrils. Use the remaining heel at the tip for a tail.

*Scary Face Pizzas: For this Halloween party recipe, you'll need 6 small pitas or mini pizza breads, 3/4 cup tomato sauce, and 3 cups mozzarella cheese. Pizza toppings can include: zucchini rounds, mushroom slices, olives, broccoli florets, red and green peppers (sliced in curves), tomatoes (chopped or sliced) and pepperoni slices.

Heat the oven to 375°F. Position the pitas or pizza breads on a large baking sheet and prick them with a fork. Spread about 2 tbsp of sauce on each pita or pizza bread and sprinkle on about 1/2 cup of shredded cheese.

Set out bowls of the toppings from the ingredient list. Then let the kids choose their favorite toppings to make creepy faces. Bake for about 10 minutes or until the cheese has melted and the bread begins to get crispy.

*Worms on a Bun: Cut hotdogs (1 per guest) into thin slices (you'll get about 4 worms per hotdog). Boil or microwave until the slices curl like wiggly worms. Serve three or four worms to a bun and, for an extra-icky touch, add a few squiggles of ketchup.

*Bat Wings: With a little soy sauce and honey, ordinary chicken wings can be transformed into exotic bat wings.

First, combine 1/2 cup honey, 1 cup soy sauce, 1 cup water, and 2 crushed garlic cloves in a large baking dish, reserving 2/3 cup in a bowl for a dipping sauce. Toss in 2 dozen chicken wings and marinate for at least 1 hour. Broil for 8 minutes on each side, allowing the wings to char slightly. Serve with the bowl of reserved dipping sauce.

*Skeleton Crude-itay: For this Halloween party recipe, you'll need assorted fresh vegetables and 2 cups of vegetable dip.

Build your skeleton on a large platter. Arrange zucchini and squash slices down the center as the spine. Cut two long slices of cucumber and place them as the shoulder bones. Use green beans for arms and cherry tomatoes as the elbows. Use a cauliflower floret for each hand with baby carrot fingers.

Next, arrange rows of celery for the rib cage, red pepper slices for the hip-bones, and carrot slices for the leg bones. Create mushroom ankles, broccoli floret feet, and snap pea toes. Finally, fill a hollowed-out cabbage with dip and place it at the "head" of the platter.

*Spider Salad: Toss together cubed cantaloupe and watermelon, sliced strawberry and grapes, then fill plastic champagne glasses with the fruit salad. Top each fruit cup with a plastic spider ring. Then wrap each in plastic and tie a ribbon around the stem.

*Creepy Peepers: To prepare this Halloween party snack, you'll need 8 eggs, 8 tsp mayonnaise, dab of mustard and 16 black olives.

First place an egg in a small saucepan and cover it with cold water. Bring it to a boil and cook for 1 minute, then turn off the heat. Cover and let sit for 12 minutes. Drain the hot water and run cold water over the shell.

Peel the eggs and slice them in half lengthwise. Scoop out the yolk into a bowl and mash it with the mayo, mustard, and a pinch of salt. Spoon the mixture back into the egg white halves and top each with a ripe olive.

*Spider Pretzels: With a peanut butter, make a cracker sandwich. Insert 8 pretzel sticks ("legs") into the filling. With a dab of peanut butter, set two raisin "eyes" on top.

*Banana Ghosts: Remove any stingy fibers from peeled banana, then cut it in half lengthwise. Push a PopsicleŽ stick into each half through the cut end, then cover each pop with plastic wrap and freeze until firm (about 3 hours).

Next, place a 1.5-ounce piece of white chocolate candy in a microwave-safe bowl and cook on high until melted (it generally takes about 1 minute). With a butter knife, spread the melted white chocolate on the frozen banana halves. Set the pops on a dish covered with waxed paper. Press on candies or currants for eyes and mouths and return the pops to the freezer until serving time. (Makes 2 "ghosts.")

*Gummy Worms, "Edible" Spiders and other "scary" treats.

Halloween Party Drink Ideas:

*Putrid Punch: For this Halloween party drink, you'll need one package of unsweetened lemon-lime Kool-AidŽ, 1 cup sugar, 8 cups water, 1 can frozen orange juice concentrate, 4 cups ginger ale and orange sherbet.

Empty the Kool-Aid into a punch bowl. Add the sugar and water and stir until dissolved. Stir in the juice. Just before serving, add the ginger ale and, if desired, ice cubes with gummy worms frozen inside. Float scoops of sherbet on top.

*Witch's Punch: A day before your Halloween party, pour prepared green Kool-Aid drink into ice cube trays and freeze for a few hours.

Mix ginger ale with white grape juice. Then add Kool-Aid ice cubes for the drink to turn green before the kids' eyes. Put a miniature witch's hat in each glass for added fun.

*Root Beer
*Sodas

*Source for Content & Photos: Courtesy of Family Fun Magazine

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