Tons of people love Halloween. It is a favorite holiday for many adults. The home decor, the dress-up, and the great parties all add to the fun surrounding Halloween. To throw a great Halloween party for adults, you won’t need much: A few decorations, a ghoulish, funny, or sexy costume, and lots of food, music, and fun. For children, it may take a little more to encourage the excitement and fun. The following will review a few tips on throwing a great party for Halloween.

Costumes

Invite children through the use of invitations. Receiving a party invitation in the mail can increase the fun and excitement for a young child. Make sure to include your name, location of the party, the date and time of the party, and a telephone number where messages can be left. If you are including an RSVP date, make sure it is about a week in advance of the party. Much later and you may have trouble knowing who will be attending and how much stuff to buy. Any earlier and people may have a difficult time committing. Finally, make sure your invite states the party is a “Costume Party” to ensure all the friends arrive in costume.

Food

Planning a menu of scary Halloween food (or seasonal favorites) can be fun. Here are a few creative ideas to change normal food into creepy Halloween food:

• Use green food coloring to turn macaroni and cheese into “chopped brains.”
• Slice apples and serve with a caramel dipping sauce.
• Dried Cranberries can be “Dried Scabs” (how gross!!! I wonder how many of your guest will eat them?)
• Deviled Eggs (fitting name for this ghoulish holiday)
• Cut sandwiches with cookie cutters (pumpkins, ghost, bats, etc.)
• Use Jell-O Brand gelatin to create fun molds of worms, skulls, or bones. Red Jell-o makes great “blood” around different foods.
• Halloween sugar cookies and other fun food items can make the kids giggle with excitement.

Games

Planning games usually takes a little more time than people expect. Also actually playing the games will take longer, so only plan one or two that you know you will play, and then have a third on reserve if the party guest start to look board. Here are few ideas:

#1 Costume Contest

Create different categories and choose more than one winner for this (about 1/3 of your guest). Categories may include:

• Most Creative
• Scariest
• Prettiest
• Most Gory
• Most Authentic or Original
• Overall Best Costume (Purchase Best Costume Skeleton Trophy from ShinDigz)

#2 Mummy Contest

What You Will Need

10 or more roles of cheap toilet paper
Timer
Judges (parents)

How To Play

As children get older they may find different uses for cheap toilet paper, but for now, use the toilet paper to create mummies. Divide your party up into groups of two or three children. In each group, one child will be the “mummy” and the other two will be the curators of the museum. Let the children know that somehow the mummy lost its wrapping and now it is the curator’s job to fix it before anyone finds out. This can be a race against the clock or against the other teams. Provide each team with a few rolls of toilet paper. Have one member of the team stand like a mummy and the other members of the team will wrap him or her up. On your command, the teams begin wrapping up the “mummy.” The first team to successfully wrap up their mummy wins!

Tips for success:

1. Perform this game in a dry area away from any open flames.
2. Don’t buy super cheap toilet paper as it will be hard to use without tearing.
3. Depending on the age of the children, specify, before you begin, how well wrapped your mummy must be in order to win the game.
4. Don’t have all teams go at one time. This way there will be a “cheering” section creating more excitement in the room.

#3 Musical Chairs

Play this game as the traditional game is played but use Halloween music to help set the mood.

What You Will Need

One Less Chair than People at the party (i.e. if you have 12 children, you will need 11 chairs)
Two music sources
Halloween Music CD
Normal Music CD

How to Play

If your children are slightly older and understand the game of musical chairs then you can introduce the twist to provide greater competition to the game. If they are still young (under 8 years old) then you may want to stick to the traditional game.

Arrange the chairs in a circle with all seats facing away from the center of the circle. Have all the children line up around the chairs (standing and not sitting) begin playing the music. As the music plays, the children walk at normal speed around the chairs in a clock-wise direction. When the music stops, all children must find a chair. Since there are one fewer chairs than children, one child will be unable to locate a chair. This child is out. Remove one chair and repeat the process until only one chair remains and two children are in the game. The last child sitting is the winner.

Twist: Decorate a chair with orange and black. This chair is designated as a special chair that can either bestow privileges or special prizes.

Privileges

You can use the special chair to allow the child sitting in the chair when a Halloween song has played to choose another child who has already left the game to return for another chance (do not increase the number of chairs). This means on the next song, two children will be left standing without a place to sit down. The privilege of the chair is only valid following the playing of a Halloween song. If you play a normal song, then no privilege is bestowed that round.

Special Prize

As with the privilege honor of the decorated chair, each child will receive a special treat if they get to the chair first following the playing of a Halloween song. If you play a normal song, then no treat will be given that round.

Prizes for the Winner Circle

Before the party, make sure to buy a few prizes to give away to the winners of the games and also for thank you gift bags. You can order Halloween specific treats from ShinDigz or other suppliers. A few gift ideas include:

• Glow-In-The-Dark items such as Silly Bandz, glow sticks, or bracelets
• Meal tickets for local restaurants (Big Boy, Skyline, McDonald’s, Wendy’s, Dairy Queen)(Inquire at your local restaurants for participation and pricing)
• Candy Treat Bags (especially if the party is thrown in lieu of going trick-or-treating)
• Halloween Crafts (many great ideas can be found at ShinDigz)
• Anything will do as long as it is fun and exciting for the children to receive

Free Time

Don’t forget to let your guest have a little free social time to play with one another. Although too much free time may lead to boredom or rough housing. Find the right balance and be flexible with your party plans. Remember, if the children go home happy, then you threw a great party! Have fun and be ready for anything.