Planning Your Halloween Party
A party, any party, is actually pretty simple because it only has a few elements: a cool place to get together, people you like, some food, and some fun things to do. Now the trick and talent of having a good party is how creative you do those things! Coming up with party ideas for Halloween can be even easier, because you have a theme built in.
A Cool Place to Get Together
Halloween is a great time to be creative with the spot for your party. Besides having the party at your house, you could hold it at a hall, in your yard, at a park (during the day), a warehouse, a farm...so many places can be interesting for a scary party.
Next you have to decorate. Here are few basics to get you started. You can go with an orange and black color scheme for things like balloons, table cloths, or streamer. Then, naturally, you go you go scary. For a kid's party, stay with friendly-ish props and decorations: goofy looking Frankensteins and smiling ghosts. For adults, indulge your dark humor with severed limbs and even horror movies playing in the background. Standards that are good for any party are pumpkins and Jack O'Lanterns, cobwebs and spiders, and ghosts. Lower the lights to create an eerie atmosphere, or replace the lights with red or black bulbs. And use Halloween music to set the mood.
It is easy to spend a lot of money quickly on decorations. If you want to save money and have some fun, make a lot of decorations yourself and maybe even get your guests in on the act, especially kids.
People You Like
Your Halloween party invitations are a very important aspect of your party--invitations get your guests excited about your Halloween party! Send some creative handmade Halloween invitations and you can be sure your party will stick in people’s minds. Write them with a shaky hand and enclose little black plastic spiders. Include an RSVP and phone number or email address so your guest can respond to your invitation.Decide on the date and time. Hint: have your Halloween party start later, like after dinner time so you only have to serve snacks and finger foods. Make sure the number of guests is one you can easily accommodate and serve.
Send Halloween invites at least 2 weeks in advance.
Some Food
There are lots of creative things with your food, your dishes, and your table to get your guests into a Halloween mood. Serve chips and dips in black cauldron pots. Make a freaky punch bowl with your favorite punch and ice cubes that you have frozen with plastic spiders or fingers in them or even an ice hand (fill plastic glove with water and freeze it). . Remove plastic glove and you got a creepy ice hand). Other hits are Oreo cookie spiders, "finger" sandwiches and Jack O'Lantern cream puffs. And anything pumpkin, from pumpkin seeds to snack on to pumpkin cupcakes, will work.
Fun Things to Do
You can have activities and games. For activities you could have crafts and things to make, especially for kids's parties. But don't count out adults--Halloween is a time to be goofy and I know a lot of adults who sit and love making something silly right along with the kids. Making a ghost or spider or bat to take home is a nice remembrance of their party.
The traditional Halloween games include apple bobbing, pumpkin carving or decorating, fortune telling, and telling ghost stories. Other ideas include a Monster Mash freeze dance contest, a game of Halloween Lotto where the prizes are miniature candy bars, mummy wrap contest, mad scientist guessing game and musical tombstones. Play some movies in the background, childrens' or classic monster movies for kids, scary stuff for grown-ups.
Don't forget to have a prize for best costume at the end of the night! Creative party ideas for Halloween will make you party one they will be talking about for a long time.