Halloween is the advent of spookiness, where one can explore their tastes in dressing up and cosplay without judgment. There are many things to do at a Halloween party, each with significance.
Though one may believe it or not, everyone shows a great interest in warding off the ghosts and paying respects to the spirits that have parted with the other world.
Some cultures also call this day “All Saint’s Day” or “All Hallows Day,” which would be the remembrance of all the martyrs and the saints who have passed along with the loved family and friends of any family. However, some other cultures celebrate Halloween, All Saints’ Day, and All Souls’ Day separately, dedicating each day to different people.
1. Why Is Halloween Celebrated?
I would also like to assume that the traditions of Halloween day formed concerning the dearly departed and making them feel at home by dressing up ghastly, going on a trick or treating, and putting up Jack-O-Lanterns carved from big pumpkins, and not forgetting the sweet candied-shaped in all kinds of spooky shapes.
It is such a wholesome little party for the ghost guests!
This eerie but fun festival is celebrated on the 31st of October each year, shortly before All Saints Day and All Souls Day, which are celebrated on the 1st of November and the 2nd of November, respectively.
2. Traditions of Halloween
Halloween parties all have specific traditions depending on the location of the celebration. Traditionally, American households may celebrate Halloween by pumpkin carving, trick or treating, going on an easter egg hunt or scavenging for treats, and giving away sweet treats to the kids who dressed up in their humorous costumes. Kids are the ones who look forward to this.
The following are the ideas to entertain your kids and guests, and bring back the Halloween spirit!
3. Be a Warm Host for Your Guest This Year
Being a host for any party is super difficult these days, especially since nothing seems to contain the factor of excitement enough to keep everyone entertained.
Of course, the host doesn’t have to stray far from the traditions of Halloween but still manages to keep the party enjoyable. Here are the choicest favorite Halloween games and tips to keep your guests entertained.
4. Keep the Kids Away from Cavities
Kids are always the ones looking forward to this day, so let’s make this day more special to them by catering to their likes and wants. And what do kids like the most? Candy. Kids stash up more than enough candy this time of the year for the next few seasons.
Substituting that enormous pile of candy for a few gifts instead might save the trip to the dentist this year. So, they should concentrate more on activities where they can win new toys instead of just candy.
Of course, activities like finding the murderer in the dark and other games are also loved dearly by the kids.
5. Fun Things to Do at a Halloween Party
5.1. Pumpkin Carving Contest
This is such a great way to bring the spirit of Halloween into people. You can have pumpkin carving contests at your workplace and neighborhood. It is a good idea to get people to get some creative outlet from their busy schedules. Who knows what kind of pumpkin carving prodigies were hiding in plain sight? This is a perfect chance to uncover hidden talents.
Why not also decide the winners by the voting system? It’s also a fun activity to do in your craft classes.
5.2. Easter Egg Hunt/ Halloween Scavenger Hunt
The Easter egg hunt isn’t just reserved for your Easter parties. Hiding some spooky gifts with mystery notes can also come to Hunthandy to keep the guests guessing and busy. Plan the hiding spots and the gifts at Hiding East a week prior, and make sure the Sherlock Holmes in you gets the opportunity to use his brain to the fullest.
Don’t shy away from using poetry with hidden meanings in the clues. Make sure the guests have to keep guessing for most of the day. Don’t try to make it easy; hide the gifts in the most unexpected spots. It is your time to make your name in your neighborhood as the most “crafty witch”
5.3. Halloween Charades
This game can not be played without the team members trying to cooperate and understand the other’s point of view. The disharmony amongst the guests can be resolved as this is a great icebreaker.
Of course, a nice little prize will help the members cooperate better and, thus, build a fun atmosphere. Therefore, it is important to set proper rewards and gifts for the winners and runner-ups to maintain that excitement.
5.4. Movie Trivia and Pictionary for the Kids
The little guests and the kids of yours might not exactly catch up with the charades. So it is not necessarily a bad idea to conduct a pictionary that, of course, has a Halloween theme and has a bit of the spook!
Movies trivia will also be great straight after the movie night. Just make your little friends in the comfort of loads of candy corn and some more sugary treats!
5.5. Spooky Movie Night
There is no great Halloween party without having a scary movie night which kickstarts your goosebumps for the night. The scarier the movie, the better.
Even better yet, you could binge-watch the entire Goosebumps series or Courage the Cowardly Dog.
5.6. Costume Contest
There is no reason not to dress up the best in the costumes you have been stocking in your closet behind the backs of your friends. Everyone knows you have been waiting for this exact moment to show off. So, what exactly are you waiting for?
Pull off all your costumes, from the weird Minion costume to the equally gnarly-looking Catwoman one. Why not conduct a runaway for all your equally enthusiastic friends and family?
Don’t forget about a costume away for your fur babies, too. Dress them up as your favorite animal sidekicks from one of your Halloween-themed series. This fashion show shall remain legendary if few of the pets show up as Scooby-Doo and few as Minions and others as, I don’t know, what not!
5.7. Murder Mystery Game
Waiting for dinner might get exhausting. Why not put up some barbecue while solving a murder mystery? Assign roles to all the members and leave some clues for each other to find the murderer. Maybe one of you is Sherlock enough to find the murderer in seconds.
5.8. Mad Scientist and Witch’s Brew
Parties are pretty tiresome if only the host racks their brains on the food, the games, and the guests. It would be a lot easier for each of the guests to contribute to the party.
Let’s just let the guests compete with each other by contributing their craziest brews and recipes for the party. Of course, ask the guests to put their craziest ideas on the plate to get a chance to win the game. Let the talent in you all sprout this Halloween.
5.9. Mummy Wrap Contest
Looking at pets who wrap themselves in the toilet roll is amusing. Use the same concept and challenge the guests to Mummy wrap themselves the fastest to win the bounty.
You’d never realize how talented the kids from your neighborhood are at wrapping themselves in toilet paper. There is no wastage of toilet paper, though, especially since the shortage we saw during COVID-19.
5.10. Pass-It-On Ghost Story
Word-building is boring after some time, while you could use an evolved version of world-building. Here, everyone sits in a circle, and one of them will start a story. Like say “Once upon a time, underneath an oak tree lived a man with his wife,” and the next person continues, “But, the wife wasn’t his wife!”
Let the story take crazy turns and maybe find an ending where everyone is satisfied. It might be impossible to get to one end, though; use this as a way to add humor and laughter because why not?
5.11. Find the Perfect Venue for Your Halloween Party
As much as party activities matter, Halloween venues do too. Of course, your house would be a great place for celebration. But a great venue accommodates all the needs of the people, including having a good space for treasure hunts and all the activities you have been planning.
Have a voting system to decide the venue; let the kids decide, too!
5.12. Eyeball Spaghetti Dig Game
Do you have some expired pasta that you can’t find a way to discard? Cooking them and playing with them might be one of the easiest ways to help deal with expired food. Just cook some pasta and cool it down.
Put all your Halloween charms, like plastic spiders, witch hats, and whatever you have on hand, in it. Cold pasta is slimy to the touch, and what is more, at a Halloween party, you require more than some red food coloring to make sure it all looks like a murder scene. Not just kids but other guests will also be sure to be entertained by this game.
Try to prepare some eyeball charms that crack open as a surprise egg, but this is completely optional! Just make sure that no one gets that nasty stuff in their mouths, especially if you’re using expired pasta.
5.13. Halloween Guess the Gross Food Game
Let your imagination run wild with this game where you could prepare foods resembling the nasty stuff like worms that are just spaghetti or Frankenstein’s brain, which is a cake. Let the guests guess what they are made of. A sweet Halloween twist could turn this to let the guests decide whether the entire food there is cake. Challenge.
5.14. Halloween Decorations Hunt
This is a plausible pre-Halloween scavenger hunt idea. Scatter all your Halloween decorations around the venue and let the guests and the kids find all of them. Of course, clues are a plus point to any murder mystery; just make sure it is very, very hard to find so the kids remain engaged while you’re busy with your preparations for the big day.
After the decorations are found, the kids and the guests can help decorate the venue as they please.
5.15. Printable Halloween Bingo
If you feel all the hunting is tiresome and want to celebrate your Halloween indoors in a cozy atmosphere, Halloween Bingo might do it for you. You wouldn’t need to prepare your own Bingo cards unless you want to, as there are heaps available online, and they are free.
Just download Halloween-themed Bingo and print them all on some cards or paper. Just hand one to each of the guests and let the game commence.
5.16. I Dare Halloween Scavenger Hunt
Truth or Dare convincingly becomes more and more boring each time the person repeatedly chooses truth over dare. Keeping the guests’ spirits is hard when their excitement level goes down. Why not eliminate truth and play the game of dares? After all, Halloween is a season to show off your guts.
In the “I Dare” Halloween scavenger hunt, choose a vast and, most importantly, spooky venue. Hide some Halloween charms or flags around the “shady” parts of the venue. Let the guests find those flags or charms and return them to collect their bounty as the bravest!
5.17. Black Light Halloween Candy Game
To play this game, tape the candy with charms or some paper that glows in glows in black light. This game, of course, needs to be played in the dark, with all the guests having access to black light. If you don’t want to buy black light torches, you can DIY using some tape and Sharpies on your phone’s torch.
Let guests scavenge and collect their bounty of sweet treats.
5.18. Ghostbusters Punch Board Game
Making a punchboard is a pretty easy task. Fill the cups with candy and a few with some tasks or dares. Or you can put in some of those Halloween charms and cover them with paper. Doodle some spiders and ghosts on the paper and arrange them on a board.
Let the guests choose and punch to find their tasks or treats.
5.19. Spooky Halloween Boggle
Again, this is one way to keep the guests entertained with little to no effort. Print out some Halloween boggles and let the guests find the Halloween-themed words in the boggle.
5.20. Candy Corn Relay Race
If you’ve ever been to a carnival at your school, you would have played a Lemon on Spoon relay race at least once. The candy corn relay race has the same concept but makes it a little more difficult by using a straw to pick up the candy corn and race across the venue. Maybe try the game with some other Halloween candy if candy corn isn’t your niche candy.
5.21. Pin the Spider on the Web
This is a simple game that takes little to no preparation. All one needs to play the ‘Pin the Spider on the Web’ game is a spider cut out with a pin attached and a web drawn on some cardboard or thermal. This is one DIY Halloween party game that takes barely any time.
Blindfold the player with a scarf and let them place the spider on the board. The rules are simple: the closer the spider is to the web, the more points. And the nearer to the web’s center, the better.
5.22. Pumpkin Races
In case you don’t have bowling pins to try out the pumpkin bowling game, why not try simply racing the rounder pumpkins? Roll those pumpkins down the aisle to see whose pumpkin goes the farthest and the fastest. It is a great idea to create a friendly Halloween family feud.
5.23. Pumpkin and Witch’s Broom Race
Racing never goes out of the trend; nevertheless, racing on pumpkin and broom carts. Early during the day, all the witches, princesses, and other costume-wearing participants build their pumpkin carts or make their special witch’s broom cars. Of course, a friendly competition about making the best functioning carts will keep the Halloween spirit.
Later, the guests get to test the functionality of their other-worldly carts by racing them across the venue.
5.24. Pumpkin Bowling
It isn’t anybody’s fault that pumpkins are so versatile, from serving as Jack-O-Lanterns to making a pie, and why not also serve as bowling balls? If you plan on mashing up some pumpkins for cooking later in the day, it is recommended that you let the pumpkins have a life as a bowling ball to entertain your guests.
Line up some bowling pins down the aisle and let the guests go wild with the pumpkins. It is one of those fun Halloween party games that will end up with everyone having fun.
5.25. Murder in the Dark
This game can be played with either a deck of cards with only one set of aces, kings, and jack, who will each take the roles of the murderer. The policeman and the detective, respectively. The rest of the players can remain as the characters that can be killed anytime in the dark by simply whispering, “You’re dead.”
The policeman and the detective are then tasked to find out the murderer. Guessing and eliminating all the suspects caused the policeman and the detective to lose or gain points based on whether the suspect was the murderer. Party guests can have a lot of fun with this Halloween party game, especially if the theme place is a haunted house.
5.26. Spider Ring Toss
Spider ring toss is a pretty suitable game if you want to celebrate a Halloween party in the comfort of your home. Place a spider with 8 legs facing up like a hook in the sitting area. Get some rings that can be tossed onto the spider and have fun.
5.27. Guess the Pumpkin’s Weight
If growing the largest pumpkin is not possible, guessing the weight of the pumpkins may be possible. Line up all the pumpkins before carving them up for the pumpkin carving contest and let the guests bet on the weight of each pumpkin. Or if you could compete in growing the bigger pumpkin and guess the weight of each, it could be much more fun!
5.28. Trick or Treat Balloon Pop
If you happen to have some opaque balloons at home, fill them up with some candy in the “treat” balloons, and the others can have some tricks hidden in them. Tricks can include stuff like fake spiders, plain old glitter, or slime dyed in green food coloring.
Let the guests go around popping balloons at their discretion; remember to warn them about the balloons containing glitter.
6. Last Words on Halloween
Halloween is one of the best festive holidays. It not only awakens the spooky spirit but also allows the kids and the others to truly express themselves and have fun without having to face any judgment.
Of course, this means that the people go all out planning a perfect party for their near and dear. After all, the chance to unite family and friends doesn’t occur daily. So, planning these activities ahead of the spooky season will save you a lot of tension and stress that comes with last-minute planning.
This year, choose your priorities and plan in such a way that all your family and friends are happy.
It doesn’t matter if you’d rather not dress up and instead stay home and watch the Addams family, maybe, to get yourself in the spirits. But, it is necessary to seize the opportunity to spend time with your family either in witch hats or on your cozy couch.
Happy early Halloween!
Last Updated on by Sathi Chakraborty, MSc Biology
