As the nights draw in and the air turns chilly, it’s time to start planning the ultimate kids’ Halloween party. From spooky decorations to creepy costumes, the excitement is palpable as the countdown to October 31st begins.
>> Hire a Halloween Entertainer
Yet as Halloween approaches, many families are torn between sticking with time- honoured customs and embracing new and creative ways to celebrate the holiday. We totally get that, so this blog post features a mixture of timeless traditions and innovative ideas.
Whether you prefer traditional activities like pumpkin carving or are intrigued by the prospect of a potions class, we’ve got something to suit everyone. But why settle for one or the other when you can have both? In our experience, there’s nothing to stop you mixing and matching new trends and old traditions.
So, get ready to embrace the magic of the season with these spooktacular ideas which are sure to leave your little, or larger, horrors screaming for more!
Transform your house
- Place carved pumpkins with tealights inside next to your front door. Groups of different sized pumpkins look very effective as darkness falls and create the perfect atmosphere as kids arrive.
- Add a Halloween wreath to the front door – create your own with a wreath base and add faux autumn leaves, plastic spiders, bats, skulls and pumpkins, or even a witch’s hat.
- Place lit pumpkins on windowsills inside – keep other lighting low to maximise their effectiveness.
- Hang spider webs complete with plastic spiders.
- Hang orange and black balloons – mark scary faces on the orange ones with a black Sharpie.
- Craft your own bunting. Download a template from the internet and cut out white paper ghosts or black paper bats. Use felts or stickers to make eyes, punch holes in the bunting and string together.
- Fill plastic cauldrons with water and add glowsticks to make a magical glowing potion. (Tip – warm water intensifies the glow, but will shorten the life of the glowstick, so use cold water if you want them to stay lit for some time).
- Place plastic skulls, rats and similar items in corners or on windowsills.
For lots more creative Halloween decoration ideas checkout this blog post on creative ideas for a spooky haunted house!
Atmospheric Music
Get the party started with some spooky tunes. We suggest creating a Spotify playlist of Halloween classics such as Monster Mash or Thriller to keep the energy up. And why not add in some eerie sound effects, like creaking doors and howling winds, to increase the spooky atmosphere?
Music suggestions:
- Monster Mash
- This is Halloween (Nightmare before Christmas)
- Ghostbusters
- Spooky, Scary Skeletons
- Thriller
- I Put a Spell on You (Disney)
- Addams Family Theme Song
- Harry Potter and The Philosopher’s Stone Prologue
Kids’ Halloween Party Games and Activities
Hire a Professional Magician
Looking to add a dash of enchantment to your kids’ Halloween party? Consider booking a magician. With their spellbinding tricks and captivating presence, they’re guaranteed to make your event a success.
Hire a Professional Balloon Modeller
A professional balloon modeller will be an expert at twisting and shaping balloons into various Halloween items and characters, providing entertainment that is sure to delight children of all ages. Plus, they get to take the models home, so there’s no need for party bags.
Hire a Professional Face Painter
Whether it’s a frightening vampire, a cute pumpkin, or a wicked witch, a professional face painter will transform children into their favorite spooky characters or creatures with just a few brush strokes.
Pin the tail on the cat / spider on the web
Create a large picture of a spider’s web / black cat and several paper tails / spiders. Children can write their name on a tail / spider and are blindfolded when it is their turn to place the item.
Halloween Scavenger Hunt
Create a list of Halloween items kids can look for in your house or garden. If you don’t want to create your own, Etsy has a huge selection that you can download and print yourself, as well as ready printed items. For younger children, a small picture of the item and a tick box are helpful. The winner is the first child or team to find everything on the list.
Pass the Cauldron
Fill a small plastic cauldron with slips of paper marked ‘trick’ or ‘treat’, ensuring that most of them say ‘trick’. On these, write something silly (and age appropriate) for the child to do, such as howl like a werewolf, miaow like a black cat or list an ingredient in a witch’s potion, to earn a treat. The slips marked treat are given a small treat without requiring a forfeit. You could also play this without the ‘treat’ slips.
Potions Class
Guaranteed to bewitch the kids! This activity can be a run as a ‘class’ with a suitably attired adult witch / wizard, or simply give the kids free rein to make their own potions. Whichever route you take, be warned, it will get messy; plastic table and floor coverings are essential!
Requirements:
- Plastic cauldrons or bowls for mixing potions
- Selection of bottles and jars – Hobbycraft have a selection of ‘potion type’ bottles, but jam jars, food bottles, or even small vases work just as well
- Bottle labels – make your own labels in PowerPoint or Canva (free version)
- Pipettes (Amazon UK – nice but not essential)
- Plastic scoops / spoons / tongs for dry ingredients
- Sticks or wooden spoons for stirring
Suggestions for potion ingredients:
- Dragon / lizard blood – red / green washing up liquid
- Powdered asphodel – bicarbonate of soda
- Dragon scales – bark
- Dried spiders – use small plastic spiders
- Dried toads’ eyes – peppercorns
- Jellied worms – jelly sweet worms (Amazon.co.uk)
- Witches’ tears – malt vinegar
- Powdered dragonfly wings – glitter
- Liquid sunshine / grass / sky (colour dependent) – coloured water
Herbs, plastic insects, small flowers and just about anything from your pantry can be used as potion ingredients – just label them imaginatively.
Vinegar and bicarbonate of soda (a couple of tablespoons per child) are essential if you want your potion to fizz and bubble. For best results, add the vinegar after all other ingredients and don’t add too much water.
NB. Do take care with this activity, especially with very young children – make it clear at from the start that no one should sample any of the potions or ingredients!
Kids Halloween Workshop
Looking for a fun and engaging activity for the kids at your Halloween party? Set up a kids’ workshop where they can get creative and make their own spooky crafts! Whether you DIY this or book a professional, it’s a great idea for Halloween.
Suggested activities:
- Pumpkin drawing with Sharpies – adults can cut pumpkins after the kids have designed them
- Skeleton arms – kids make a hand/arm print in white paint on black paper; when dry glue on some cotton bud ‘bones’
- Mask making – provide blank masks and an assortment of decorating materials
- Ghost / witch/ monster lanterns – decorate empty jars with glued on tissue paper, felts, googly eyes etc. and add a tealight to complete
- Slime making
- Spider making – use pipe cleaners for legs, tying 4 pieces of pipe cleaner together in the centre to make 8 legs: bend these to represent spider legs. Add fuzzy pom poms for bodies and heads (secure with hot glue) and finish with googly eyes.
- Paper spider webs – cut out folded paper – the same technique as paper snowflakes.
Halloween Party Food
You’ll want to serve some suitably spooky snacks to delight the kids and keep their energy levels up. Here are some ideas to get you started:
- Witch’s Fingers: Serve breadsticks or pretzel rods with almond slices as fingernails for a creepy snack.
- Mummy Dogs: Wrap hot dogs in strips of crescent roll dough to create adorable mummy-shaped treats.
- Pumpkin Patch Stuffed Peppers: Fill halved orange peppers with a mixture of rice, ground beef, and cheese.
- Spooky Spiderweb Pizza: Use string cheese to create a spiderweb design on a pizza.
- Jack-o’-Lantern Quesadillas: Use a cookie cutter to shape cheese into jack-o’-lantern faces on top of quesadillas.
- Spider web doughnuts – pipe concentric circles on doughnuts in white icing and pull a cocktail stick through the circles towards the outer to create a spider’s web.
- Gingerbread ghosts – decorate ghost shaped biscuits with white fondant or water icing to represent ghosts.
- Mini broomsticks – wrap cheese strings around the base of breadsticks and tie in place with chives.
Jazz fruit squash up with edible glitter, fancy straws and a jelly snake sweet draped on the rim of the cup.
>> Hire a Halloween Entertainer
So, that’s it! With some creativity and a little bit of planning, you can host a spooktacular kids’ Halloween party that will leave everyone screaming – with delight, of course!
PartyWizz helps you book the best kid’s entertainers and party services in UK and Ireland. From magicians and face painters to party packages and photographers, you’ll find those in your area on our easy-to-use platform. Whether you’re planning a birthday party, christening, communion or a corporate family day, go to PartyWizz to find the perfect service providers hassle-free!
