How To Organise a Kids’ Halloween Party At Home

Trick-or-treat! How to organise your own spooktastic Halloween party for kids at home – from ghoulish treats to on-the-day planning and Halloween-themed party games!

If you’re not taking the kids out trick-or-treating at one of the many Hallowe’en events around town you may be keen to organise your own Halloween party at home instead! Here are my tips to plan a frightfully good Halloween party (from where to get Halloween decorations to candy, Halloween costumes and how to organise spooky party games) as a self-professed Halloween junkie!

Easy tips for a Halloween party at home

Get the kids involved. There are lots (and lots) of easy crafts on the internet and Pinterest. Use the rainy days or weekends at home to make some fabulous decorations from recycling old toilet rolls and other fun things. Once you have a basic set of paints, papers or pens in spooky colours – you are all set to make so much!

Send out the invitations. Make sure your invitations go out early and that you include an end time – so that you have time to relax afterwards!

Purchase any other decorations early. I mean now, if you haven’t already! Halloween merchandise is already in the shops here in Singapore. If you are purchasing online, you’ll need time for items to arrive! There’s nothing more annoying than that 6ft inflatable pumpkin arriving in November!

Plan your Halloween party. Your party doesn’t need to go on for hours and hours – but you want to make it as fun as you can. Decide if you will be letting kids watch a movie (factor in games and snack time on top of the movie time).

Start with an “Arrival Gift” – this can be a small pumpkin/cauldron filled with some fun accessories to be used throughout the night. Think of glowsticks, silly glasses, hair clips, fake fangs – the list is endless! Make sure they are labelled so there are no mix-ups. The guests can fill them with the candy they get through party games and more.

Set the mood. Nothing sets the scene better than a mixture of music and spooky sounds. Grab an online playlist – or make your own.

Temporary tattoos. These can be fun and keep kids amused if you are waiting for someone to arrive.

Halloween Party Games

Organise a couple of games – team and individual. From traditional bobbing for apples (switch over the water and apples between participants) to dangling doughnuts, balloon stomping, pumpkin drop, musical pumpkins and spaghetti eyeball dig! You can be as messy – or not –  as you choose! Here are some ideas for 7 to 11-year-olds:

– Eyeball Roll: Plastic eyeballs, straws and a table … even more fun if you have a bucket to aim for at the end!
– Witchy Fingers: Grab some black, purple and orange balloons, some empty toilet rolls and some “witch’s fingertips” (Halloween costume aisle) – who can go the furthest without dropping the balloon?

– Hangman’s Apples: The classic hanging apple game (you could use doughnuts instead) or pop the apples in a washing up bowl of water … and go bobbing.
– Worm Hunt: A bag of worm sweets and some flour (or squirty cream) – find as many as you can with just your mouth!
– Spider Catch: Inflatable spider headgear with tossable rings – who can get the most points?

Halloween Crafts

Getting the kids crafty can be a lot of fun – from scary toilet roll eyes, paper monster lanterns, witch wind catchers or flying ghosts. Set up some easy crafts and pre-prepare the materials needed.

Halloween Food

There are some fiercely creative and easy snack ideas to add atmosphere, from all-out sweet-fests to cute ghosty bananas or fruit sticks – there really is something for everyone’s taste and cooking ability. Grabs some ready-made fun snacks from stores, and you can even just add spooky elements like vampire’s teeth to ring doughnuts, gummy worms to chocolate mousse or wrap some pastry around some hotdog sausages for a mummy-effect.

Trick or Treat.
If your condo has a trick-or-treat event all the better! If you want to keep the party ‘contained’ you can also hide some candy around the space you have for a Halloween treasure hunt which can be just as fun! Why not turn out the lights to make it even more difficult and spooky? Cellophane goodie bags with a glowstick inside are fun to find, or decorate some leftover plastic Easter eggs! You can make toilet roll monster piñatas – or even ghost lollipops to find. You can hide the candy – or have the children find the ghost to win the candy. Throw in some clues and you have a Spooky Scavenger Hunt!

Halloween Movie Time
If you are happy to keep the little monsters a bit longer, you can get them settled in front of a Halloween movie – but if they are on a sugar high you might want to turn out the lights and let them have a boogie instead!

Halloween Leaving Gift
As with all the things mentioned, this is just an idea and is optional. Try filling a disposable glove with candy or other Halloween treats.

What if you have kids of differing ages? Why not try and organise with your friends to each take a different age group? One of you can host 7-9-year-olds whilst the other hosts for the 4-6-year-olds. This makes concentrating on one set of Halloween games much easier. If you are not ‘swapping’ kids, why not ask the invitees to bring along some candy to share – thus making it a little lighter on your pocket?

However you celebrate Halloween this year, I hope you have fun!