Throwing a kids’ Halloween party is one of the best ways to celebrate All Hallows Eve with your children and their friends. Although the idea might seem a bit overwhelming at first, it doesn’t have to be. Just make sure you plan, plan, plan!
Follow our advice on things you should consider – from games, to food, to crafts – when throwing your children a successful kidHalloween party to remember!
Budget Wisely
You need to balance what you want with what you can afford. Start setting aside some money each week for the weeks leading up to the party. Most of the non perishable party supplies (such as decorations, crafts and paper goods) are available online well before Halloween – usually at cheaper prices compared to when shops start stocking Halloween merchandise. You could buy early to keep the costs lower, and so you don’t have to rush around last minute.
Choose a Theme
The traditional ‘Halloween’ theme is naturally perfect for a kids’ Halloween party. That being said, there are plenty of more specific themes which work equally well, like vampires, Star Wars, science fiction, pirates, ghosts or zombies. Remember to tailor your theme to your audience. You want to make sure that it’s fun for all your guests, so make sure you choose a theme that isn’t too scary for the age group that will be attending.
For older children, you could throw a BYOP (bring your own pumpkin) carving or decorating party. Lay out a large workspace to allow each child to decorate their pumpkins with paint, stickers or other accessories, or have them carve out designs with adult supervision. After they finished scooping out the pumpkin, pop the seeds in the oven for a snack to enjoy while they decorate. When everyone is finished, hold a contest for the best pumpkin in different categories (scariest, most colourful, most unique, etc.)
Decorate Your Haunted Home
Decorations will transform the feel of your child’s party. For younger children, keep it cute with some friendly and colourful jack-o’-lanterns and ghosts. You could create some Halloween paper chains with your children in advance to give them something to show off on the big day. For older children who want a scary haunted house, you can decorate with gravestones and cobwebs. Make it even scarier with some spooky music, dark lighting, scary jack-o’-lanterns and cardboard coffins!
For younger ones, nothing says party like a bunch of balloons. Rent a helium tank and blow up balloons in different shapes and sizes. Go with traditional orange and black balloons or coordinate them with the rest of your decorations. Tying several balloons to your front gate makes it easy for guests to identify the party location. Indoors, attach balloon bouquets filled with plastic spider rings, sweets or other goodies to every chair at the table, and allow children to take them home after the party.
Make Food Fun
The key is to keep the food simple. You will have enough to do without having to worry about an elaborate spread for the children. Finger foods such as pizza pockets or bagel pizzas are
There’s nothing wrong with letting the children participate in some of the food preparation. Lay out a variety of toppings and allow each child to prepare his or her own personal size pizza. You can even create pumpkin (pizza) pies. Pre-cut different veggies to make them look like pumpkin eyes, noses and mouths and let the children create a scary pizz-o-lantern. Carefully bake the pizzas in the oven and let the kids eat the food they helped to create.
When it comes to dessert, try out some ice cream witches. Scoop out a ball of mint ice cream for each guest and place waffle cones on top to create a witch hat. Give them toppings and frosting in which to create their witch’s face and hair. Use iced gems for eyes, strawberry laces for hair and sweets corns for noses. The recipe uses pudding, jelly beans and Life Savers to create a creepy, yet delectable treat. Anything fun that allows the children to participate in preparing (or playing with!) their own food will give them a sense of accomplishment and pride.
Plan Some Games
There are many Halloween themed games to add to the traditional ‘Apple bobbing’ list. For instance, ‘Zombie Tag’ where the “it” person is a zombie. Once the other children are tagged, they become zombies too and help in the hunt to find the rest of the humans. Or play a Halloween themed Easter Egg hunt. Fill small plastic pumpkins with sweets or prizes and hide them throughout the garden for the children to find and collect.
Another option is to have children try to identify different objects while blindfolded. Cold spaghetti, jelly, gummy worms and peeled grapes all have interesting textures that lend themselves to squeals and laughter when playing this identity game.
Everyone loves prizes, so hold a costume contest and make sure every child gets recognised for their creativity. Give out awards for the most colourful, spookiest, most unusual, etc. You should be able to create enough categories so that every child comes out a winner.
Take a look here for more ideas for Halloween Party Games
Create Lasting Memories
Arts and crafts are a good idea for giving the children memories of your Halloween party – so long as you’re not afraid of cleaning up a little mess after your guests go home.
Witches hats are fun and easy to make. Have the children roll the black card into cones, trim the bottoms so they can stand flat on the table and cut out circles for brims. For smaller children, you can supply pre-cut paper or supervise the cutting with safety scissors. Using the glue sticks, the children can secure the cone-shaped hat in place and glue the brim to the bottom. Once the hats have been assembled, encourage children to decorate them with glitter, paint and other crafts items.
Pumpkin buckets are another really simple idea. Buy black or orange plastic buckets. Let children to decorate their buckets using card cut-outs of ghosts, jack o’ lanterns, black cats, witches hats and other creepy Halloween-themed objects. Provide safety scissors and adult supervision for smaller children or supply pre-cut shapes that they can affix to their buckets with glue. For an added treat, fill each child’s bucket with sweets or other suitable surprises when they are done.
Send Home Something Special
Halloween party bags are a must for children of any age. You could provide each child with a miniature pumpkin filled with Halloween stickers or sweets for them to take away. This can even be turned into a fun arts and crafts project if you let the children decorate their mini pumpkins with paint, stickers and glitter.
If you want to make your child an easy homemade Halloween costumes, take a look at Easy Homemade Children’s Costumes for Hallowe’en