Halloween Party

Decorations - Outdoor

• Set up a graveyard in the front with headstones with funny names such as... Izzy Dead, Willy Rott, M.T. Tomb, Frank N. Stein, Seymore Earth, Barry M. Goode, Yuel B. Next, Al B. Bach, etc - see what funny names you can come up with! To make the headstones, you can use styrofoam and spray paint them or use cardboard and attach to a lawn stake to set them up.
• Make giant bats to hang in your trees. Cover a 2 litre pop bottle with a black garbage bag and tape with binding tape. Cut bat wings from the remainder of the garbage bag. Attach the wings to a stick and then to the covered bottle. Cut ears from black foam and tape or glue onto the bat. Add glow in the dark eyes. Use the stick to secure the bats in your trees.
• Make a giant spider for the yard. Fill a large black garbage bag with newspaper or leaves. With black wool or twine, create a head and body. Cut slits in the bag - 4 on each side. Twist black garbage bags for the legs. Use wire to keep them together and as joints for bending. Push the legs into the slits and set up the spider. You can add a huge white twine web for your spider if you wish. Finish it off with glow in the dark eyes!
• Carve pumpkins for your doorstep area.
• Ghosts: fill the end of a white garbage bag or white sheet with leaves or newspaper and tie for the head of your ghost. Use marker to add a face. You can add these to trees or place a dowel in the ground and prop the ghost on them. If making a bunch, you can tie them together as if they are holding hands to set up a scene.

Decorations - Indoor

• Set up spider webs and spiders throughout the room.
• Carve pumpkins and use safety lights in them to create a Halloween mood throughout the room.
• Carve pumpkins and use safety lights in them to create a Halloween mood throughout the room.
• Decorate a large cardboard box as a haunted house (can also be used in the Haunted House walkthrough game).
• Not really a decoration, but don't forget the spooky music to help create the mood!

Games/Activities

• Costume Parade: Have everyone come in costume. This way you can have a costume parade and award prizes for Funniest/Scariest/Silliest/etc costume. Make sure that everyone gets a prize!
• Mummy Wrap: Pair off children. One child is the mummy, the other the wrapper. Give the 'wrapper' a roll of toilet paper. When you say "GO", the wrappers start wrapping the other child until they are covered like a Mummy. First one to completely wrap the Mummy wins. You can also just do this for fun and not have a winner for the game - set a time limit and see if everyone can have their Mummy wrapped before the timer goes off.
• Musical Ghost: Create a ghost from a large white cloth napkin. Decorate the face with a permanent marker. Inside the ghost head part, stuff with candies. Children pass the ghost around to music. Child holding the ghost when the music stops is 'caught' - all children continue playing. At the end of the game, open up the ghost and share the treats.
• Halloween Candy Walk: Tape different Halloween characters to the floor (witch, bat, pumpkin, ghost, trick or treat bag, black cat, cauldron, broomstick, candy, etc). Have one character on the floor for each child playing (it's a good idea to have one or two extra so even the last child on has a choice) Cut out a copy of each of the characters and place in a small plastic play cauldron or bowl. Play music and children dance around the area. When the music stops, children must get on one of the characters. When all children are on a character, draw a paper from the cauldron (or bowl) - the children on the same character that was drawn gets to come up and choose a treat from the candy bowl.
• Pass the Pumpkin: For this game, you need the small miniature pumpkins you can buy at the grocery store. If you are dividing the children into groups, have enough for one for each team. Children stand in a line with their hands behind their backs. They must pass the pumpkin neck-to-neck without the use of their hands. If the pumpkin drops, it must be taken to the front of the line to start over again.
• Ping Pong Toss: Set up a plastic cauldron or pumpkin (the kind you use for tick-or-treating) on a table. Have children try to toss ping pong balls into the them.
• Haunted House: Set up a maze for children to walk through have things set up that they can open and will jump out and scare the kids. If you have lots of adults, have them be an interactive part of the Haunted House.
• Storytelling: Children can turn off the lights and use flashlights to tell 'spooky stories'.
• Fabric Painting: purchase t-shirts (oversized ones can be used for nightshirts!) and let the children decorate with fabric paint. Provide glow-in-the-dark fabric paint for added fun.
• Movie: Set up an age appropriate Halloween movie to watch. We are going to watch The Witches based on Roald Dahl's book.

Food

Here are some fun and disgusting food ideas that will be a hit with your trick or treaters!

• Pumpkin Sandwiches: Cut cheese sandwiches with a pumpkin cookie cutter
• Devilled Eye Balls: Make devilled eggs and use ketchup and a toothpick to add red lines on the white part to look like eye balls.
• Wormy Brew: Add gummy worms to water in icecube trays and freeze. Make your favourite punch recipe in a clear punch bowl. Add the icecubes just as the party starts

Goodie Bags

Although not required, it is nice to send each guest home with a 'goodie bag'. Putting the items in small cauldrons is a neat way to distribute treats for the kids to take with them as they leave the party.

• Treat sized candies, chocolate bars, and/or chips
• Spiders
• Rats
• Halloween stickers
• Halloween foamie shapes
• Glow in the dark necklaces/bracelets/wands
• Halloween Novelties
• Halloween pencils and/or eraser toppers