Halloween ideas for a fun and frugal Halloween
halloween ideas
Halloween is a favorite holiday for kids of all ages. When it comes to dressing up in goofy costumes, converting your house into a spooky haunted mansion, serving bizarre party treats like black jello and peeled grape "eyeballs"... What is not to love?
Where Halloween is concerned, the older and more tattered the better - this makes it one of the easiest holidays to celebrate frugally. I have compiled some budget-minded Halloween ideas here. I will add more as I come across them.
halloween ideas
Halloween Costume Ideas
Lots of good Halloween ideas for costumes that you can make yourself!
Halloween Party Ideas:
- Witches Brew: Serve Root beer floats (scoops of vanilla ice cream floating in root beer) from a punch bowl. Make it look like it is steaming by setting the punch bowl (chill it first so it doesn't break) in a non-glass container filled with dry ice and water - this will give the effect of a mist rising mysteriously from your "brew"!
- Spooky Curtain: To make your entrance look spooky, hang this witchy curtain! All you need is a large black plastic trash bag. Open the seam so that it lays out flat and cut the whole bag into 1-inch strips from the bottom to a couple of inches from the top. Pull some of the strands to stretch them out and make them look twisted and irregular, then hang it over a doorway. Voila!
- Party Punch: Dissolve 1 small package of orange favored gelatin in 1 cup of boiling water. Add 1 six ounce can of frozen orange juice, 4 cups of chilled apple juice, and 3 cups of cold water; stir to mix it all together and chill it. Just before serving, pour the orange juice mixture and a 2-liter bottle of lemon-lime soda over ice cubes in a large punch bowl. Garnish with thin slices of orange. Makes about 25 4 oz. servings.
- Halloween Cupcakes: Use orange cake mix to make cupcakes and frost them with dark chocolate frosting, then decorate them with candy corn.
- Jack-o-lantern Luminaries: In empty tin cans, poke holes in a scary face design. Set a tea light or votive candle in each one. These can be used inside or out.
Halloween Party Games
halloween ideas
Guess How Many
Fill a jar with candy corn, counting the pieces as you go. Put the jar on a table near the door, and have guests guess how many pieces are in the jar. Give each guest a 3x5 card to put their name and their guess. Award a prize to the one with the closest guess.
Who's Got the Pumpkin
Place everyone is a circle. Start a song (Halloween themed songs like Monster Mash are fun to use) and toss a mini pumpkin to one person, they throw it to the next, and so on until the music stops. The person who is caught holding the pumpkin has to leave the circle. The last one left is the winner and keeps the pumpkin!
Halloween Hunt
Using the same idea as an Easter Egg Hunt hide little bags of candy corn, or other fun candy around the back yard. Set the kids loose and let them find the candy. Be sure to keep back several extra in case someone does poorly. You can give them a few more!
Mummy May I
This is a variation of "Mother May I". To play, choose one child, or an adult, to be the "mummy". The other children stand in a straight line, with the mummy standing several yards in front of them (enough distance for them to move forward towards him or her).
The children take turns asking the mummy for permission to take steps. For example, a child could ask, "Mummy May I take ten steps forward?" The mummy can be creative as to the type of steps they ask to take, such as giant monster steps, pixie steps, as well as ogre, howling dog etc.
Mummy answers, "Yes, you may" or "No, you may not," and the child must follow the instructions. If the child moves when he or she has not been given permission, they must go back to the starting line. The first child to touch mummy becomes mummy in the next game.
Halloween Party Invitations
On party invitations be sure to include the day, time and location of the party and a line that states if the party is a costume party or not.
Bat Invitation
You will need: - black construction paper
- orange construction paper
- glue
Cut two bat shapes out of construction paper - one from black paper, and one a bit smaller (about ½”) from orange paper. Write your invitation information on the orange bat and then glue it onto the black bat. Let the glue dry and then fold the invitation in half.
Ghost Invitation
You will need: - squares of white fabric, about 10 or 12 inches square (frugal tip: cut up an old sheet or pillow cases to use for this)
- lollipops
- ribbons or rubber bands
- black marker
On the pieces of white fabric write the invitation information in a spiral around the edges, making sure to leave the center white. When done, wrap the fabric around a lollipop (written side out). Fasten with a ribbon or rubber band at the neck of the lollipop and dot two eyes with a black felt tip marker. Send your ghost invitations in padded envelopes or pass them out in person.
Gravestone Invitation
You will need: - 1/4 to 1/2-inch thick Styrofoam
- box cutter
- black marker
With a box cutter, cut small gravestone shapes out of the Styrofoam. (Make them big enough to get all your information on them!) In big black letters print R.I.P. on one side. On the other, write your invitation information. Send your invitations in padded envelopes or pass them out in person.
halloween ideas
Halloween Ideas back to Frugal Holidays
Halloween Ideas back to Frugal Living Now
|
