6 Creative Halloween Party Ideas
This is the year. You’re in charge of throwing the big Halloween bash.
Organizing a Halloween party isn’t like hosting just any function. Everyone knows you’re expected to make the event gruesome, fantastical, and spooktacular—in addition to entertaining.
Searching for Halloween party ideas? Keep these six tricks—some appropriate for kids and some reserved for adults—up your sleeve to hold an event no goblin or ghoul will ever forget.
1. Set a Theme
Establishing a theme is an optional step to planning your party. Your theme may just be general spookiness, and that’s more than okay. But considering the fact that people may be attending multiple Halloween celebrations in one week, a theme could help set your event apart from others.
In some cases, your theme may affect people’s costume choices, as well as your food, drinks, games, and decorations.
Halloween Party Theme Ideas for Kids
Parents already spend an arm and a leg providing for their kids, especially during the holiday seasons. When it comes to a kids’ party, it might be a good idea to forego a theme so parents can dress children in costumes they already have on hand rather than buy new ones.
However, if you opt for a theme, there are a few fun ideas little ones will love.
If your child and their friends are obsessed with a certain show, you have yourself a ready-made theme! For example, you could ask that kids dress up as characters from SpongeBob SquarePants and decorate your house as Bikini Bottom, or have them dress as the cast of Star Wars Rebels and turn your living room into a starship.
You could also set a broader theme, like a zombie or Disney party. These ideas give parents plenty of flexibility when buying a costume but still provide you with guidance in planning snacks and decorations.
Halloween Party Theme Ideas for Adults
The decades theme is a classic for adult Halloween blowouts. You could simply make the theme “decades,” and people will show up as flappers, hippies, or Jazzercise instructors. Or you could pick a specific decade.
Another go-to theme? Masquerade. This will push people to be even more creative with their costumes.
You could also ask guests to dress up as terrifying movie characters or as the cast of a specific spooky show. (Stranger Things party, anyone?)
Adults are often busy with jobs and families. As a result, some people may drop the ball when it comes to putting together an ingenious costume. As an incentive, try offering a prize for the best costume, like a gift card.
2. Go All Out on Decorations
Halloween Decorations for Kids’ Parties
Depending on the target age group, you may not want decorations to be too frightening. Wouldn’t you feel guilty if a five-year-old cried for his mommy because he was scared by the giant pile of bloody bones in the corner?
Your decorations may vary depending on the theme, but there are a few classic ideas for kids’ parties. Orange and black streamers, pompoms, and balloons are fun and affordable. Hay bales and scarecrows provide a lighthearted feeling, and cobwebs tend to be daunting but not downright terrifying.
Halloween Decorations for Adult Parties
With adult celebrations, you can make the setting a little more fear inspiring. Cobwebs are still great ideas, but think beyond that. Black is a much creepier color than orange, so consider playing up the black and omitting orange from your decor. You could also work fake blood into your decorations.
For an ominous ambiance, decorate with candles—think white candles dripping with fake blood instead of a pleasant, vanilla-scented candle. Candles add a touch of eeriness, and they’re more appropriate for adult parties than kids’ parties because children could burn themselves or set something on fire. If this is the case, try for battery operated candles.
3. Serve Scary Snacks
Kids’ Halloween Snacks
The two keys to a good kids’ party are keeping them entertained and keeping them fed. Kill two birds with one stone by having them decorate their own treats. Provide cupcakes or pumpkin-shaped cookies along with plenty of sprinkles and orange, black, and white frosting.
Kids will enjoy cake even if an event isn’t meant to celebrate a birthday. Bake or order a Halloween-themed cake, shaped and decorated to be a pumpkin, ghost, or witch hat. A fun cake can double as an element of your décor.
It certainly can’t hurt to provide all the candy kids normally look forward to receiving when they go trick-or-treating—mini candy bars, lollipops, and bubble gum galore—especially if your party is intended to be a safe substitute for the door-to-door ritual.
Adult Halloween Snacks
What are some Halloween party food ideas that are a little more mature than cookies? MyRecipes has some brilliant ideas. First, plain old deviled eggs. Just sprinkle extra paprika, then place snips of chives above the egg to make it look like a pumpkin.
Another MyRecipes original is called Witches’ Fingers in Bandages. They’re basically pigs in a blanket, but you wrap the bread around the franks in a way that looks like a bandage. The website even suggests adding ketchup to the tips of the franks to give the impression that a witch is wearing red nail polish.
These snack ideas are great examples of serving classic party food that adults like, but altering them slightly so that they’re Halloween-themed. If you’re worried that guests won’t pick up on what each snack is supposed to be, you can label each tray with a place card.
Of course, adults love cookies and Halloween candy just as much as kids do, so it can’t hurt to serve these treats, too.
4. Craft a Signature Spooky Drink
Halloween Drinks for Kids
There are three steps for making a truly great kids’ drink: First, create a beverage the children will like. Second, pour it in a fun cup. Third, add decorations for a little flair.
For example, you could make a Halloween-themed punch, like candy corn punch or green punch that looks like slime. Kids can drink your concoction out of plastic or paper Halloween cups. (There will probably be numerous options at your local party supply store.) Finally, drop gummy worms or googly eyes in there to make the beverage bone-chilling.
Halloween Drinks for Adults
You may want to serve one or two signature cocktails to your guests. Consider choosing something red to resemble blood, then decorate the glasses and table with fake blood and eyeballs.
You can make any cocktail look spookier by setting a place card on the table that reads something like, “Monster Margaritas.” Bloody Marys are a good option because, hey, the word “bloody” is already in the name.
Making a signature drink in large quantities can be expensive. Depending on how many people attend your party, you may want to consider ordering a keg of beer to make sure you don’t run out of alcohol.
If you don’t want to put the time and money into creating your own cocktail, you could just get creative about how you serve drinks. Buy some festive shot glasses that have skulls or ghosts on them. You could even serve shots in creepy test tubes.
If you anticipate guests who don’t drink alcohol, you might consider offering a non-alcoholic cocktail for those who enjoy a fun party without imbibing.
5. Organize Ghoulish Games
Halloween Party Games for Kids
It can be tricky to come up with Halloween party game ideas. But there are plenty of ways to add Halloween flair to common kids’ games.
Remember Pin the Tail on the Donkey? Well, you could play Pin the Nose on the Jack-o’-lantern or Pin the Heart on the Skeleton. You could also order a piñata in the shape of a ghost or witch, because for kids, Halloween is all about the candy! Consider having children guess how many pieces of candy corn are in a jar, and the winner takes home the jar of candy corn.
Asking a couple of adults to oversee a pumpkin carving station, and a few more parents to run a Halloween face painting or nail painting corner may be as much fun for the kids as for the adult chaperones.
Halloween Party Games for Adults
Let’s be honest—almost any game can be turned into a drinking game for adults. For example, whoever correctly guesses the number of candy corns in the jar, or the closest number, wins a free prize.
If your guests aren’t alcohol-driven, there are other ways to turn kids’ games into adult games. Maybe the person who wins the candy corn guessing contest takes home a higher-stakes prize, like a gift card to the local movie theater.
6. Pay for Your Halloween Party with SoFi Checking and Savings
Halloween parties are once-a-year events that we share with our children or closest friends, and acting as the host can be a special experience. However, paying for snacks, beverages, and decorations can take a toll on any host’s bank account.
You might consider paying for your Halloween party with a SoFi Checking and Savings® checking and savings account.
Managing your cash with SoFi Checking and Savings means you can pay for your Halloween party while still earning interest on the money left in your account. This could help to make the financial stress of planning your shindig less daunting. After all, the only thing scary about a Halloween party should be the fake eyeballs in your drink.
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