While adults may be jumping on the Halloween bandwagon, first and foremost Halloween is a kid’s holiday. Besides trick-or-treating and costumes, Halloween parties are one of the many activities that kids can look forward to each Halloween.
So now you want to have a Halloween party but are unsure how to keep the kids entertained while they are there. After all, there is only so much pizza and candy that a kid can take!
If you are thinking of jumping in and hosting your own kid’s party this year, one thing that you will need to think about is the games. If you are tired of the traditional games, like costume contests and bobbing for apples, here are a couple of alternatives that can help keep everyone entertained.
But before we get to the actual party games, you may want to think about one more thing – PRIZES
When planning kid’s party games, keep in mind that many games will only have one winner. So be sure to play enough games that every child can be a winner, or consider providing second and third place prizes to help avoid hurt feelings. If you don’t want to use candy for prizes, Halloween party favours and small toys also make great prize ideas.
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Now let’s see what Halloween Party games can be played:
1) Spooky Storytelling
On a creepy night like Halloween, telling spooky stories can help set the mood. Before the party, you will want to take a small deck of index cards and write story-starting phrases. You will want at least one per party-goer, and more if you want the game to continue longer. Keep them appropriate to your party’s age group, but you can include things like:
It was a dark and stormy night…
The door creaked open and we saw…
The witch cackled over her cauldron, stirring what looked like…
I peaked under the bed and saw…
There was a knocking at the window and…
I heard a horrible scream and I knew…
To play the game, sit everyone in a circle and dim the lights. Consider having a flashlight to pass to the person whose turn it is to tell the tale. Have everyone pick a card, and then someone starts the story. Set a timer for one or two minutes, and that person has to start the story with the phrase on their card. When the timer goes off, the flashlight gets passed to the next person, who then continues the tale with the phrase on their card. This continues at least until everyone has a turn, or longer if you have the time.
2) Mummy Memory
Get a large serving tray and fill it with small Halloween goodies. Toy spiders and bugs, stickers, pumpkins, and other Halloween party favours can be a good way to go (plus, you can recycle these items into the goodie bags to go home when you are done). Cover the tray with a cloth, and give everyone a piece of paper and a pencil. Remove the cloth, giving everyone a minute or two to study the tray, and then recover. Everyone should then try to write down everything that they remembered, with the person remembering the most winning a prize.
3) Terror Tag
You need a larger, empty room for this game. Before the game starts, secretly assign each person to be a ghost or a mortal. An easy way to do this is to give each person a slip of paper with their designation on it – but make sure they know it is to be a secret! You should always have a much higher ratio of mortals to ghosts, so most of the time one or two ghosts will be plenty. Then, turn down the lights so that it is dark in the room (or you could blindfold players). Have them go about the room, shaking hands with other players, and whispering to them if they are ghost or mortal. If you shake hands with a ghost, you must freeze in terror. This continues until there are only ghosts left.
4) Ghostly musical chairs
Almost everyone is familiar with the game of musical chairs, so you probably won’t need a detailed expression of the rules. All you need is one chair less than the number of kids attending the party (so 9 chairs for 10 kids, for example). Cover the chairs with white sheets and paint some eyes and mouths on them to make them look like ghosts. Line the chairs up or arrange them in a circle. To play the game, play some music while the children walk around the chairs. When the music stops, the child left without a chair is out. Remove a chair, and keep playing until there is only one child left.
5) Dress the scarecrow
If you have some of dad’s old clothing lying around the house, this is a fun game for kids. Divide the children into small teams, and give all teams some clothes for their scarecrow. Jeans or overalls, flannel shirts, boots, gloves, and a straw hat are typical, though you can use whatever you have on hand. One child in the team is the scarecrow and has to stand still while the others of the team put the clothes on. The first team to complete a scarecrow is the winner.
6) Meet my mummy
For this one, you will again want to divide children into small teams and have one child volunteer to be the mummy (preferably a child who was not the scarecrow if you play both games). Give each team a roll of toilet paper, and have them wrap their mummy with it (you can also use rolls of streamers in Halloween colors if you would prefer). The first team done wins.
7) Pin the nose on the jack-o-lantern
Create a large pumpkin out of cardboard, or make one out of construction paper and pin it to a bulletin board. Paint or glue eyes and a mouth on the jack-o-lantern, leaving the area where the nose should be empty. Cut out several yellow triangles, writing the child’s name on the front and placing a small piece of double-sided tape on the back. Blindfold children and have them attempt to pin the nose where it belongs. To make the game more difficult, spin the child in circles several times before having them pin the nose on.
To sum it all…
Halloween party games can be fun to play and help pass the time.
Almost any child’s party game can be converted to a Halloween game with a little creativity. Of course, leave plenty of time for snacks & drinks after the Halloween party games.
I hope you liked these Halloween Party Games. Don’t forget to leave your feedback by commenting below.
You can let me know about games you enjoy during Halloween & what you do on Halloween.
Also, don’t forget to check our blog on Christmas Gift Ideas for Teenagers
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These are such fun activities!! I especially love terror tag, it sounds like a blast, something you can keep playing and playing. Great post!
Yeah, they are such fun-filled activities that adults can also try their hand & enjoy Halloween. Thanks for your feedback.
Awesome post. Thanks for the ideas!
Thanks Ashwini for your feedback 🙂
Love all of these ideas! I have the best memories of Halloween parties when I was a kid. The musical chairs were a hit at parties and love the idea of pin the nose on the jack o lantern! We loved watching movies and telling stories x
I am so happy you loved the Halloween Party game ideas. It’s great to know you enjoyed your Halloween too. Thanks for your lovely feedback.
My daughter is excited about Halloween, and I’m not sure what we’ll be doing this year, but these are great ideas for games to have at a party! Musical chairs is a must, and terror tag sounds fun too!
I love musical chairs too. We used to play a lot during our younger days. Thanks for your feedback
These games are amazing. We play tag with the little one. So I love this Halloween spin on it. Thanks for sharing.
Thanks for your feedback & glad you liked the post
Some fab ideas thanks!! We’re going trick or treating but having friends round before we go so these will be perfect!
Thanks Annabel.Hope you had fun.
These ideas are fab! I remember playing a version of “mummy memory” when I was little!
Thanks Katherine for your feedback