Halloween Party 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?

When it comes to Halloween party ideas, the older and more tattered the better - this makes it one of the easiest holidays to celebrate frugally.

Halloween Costume Ideas

Lots of good Halloween ideas for costumes that you can make yourself!



Halloween Decorating 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!
  
  
• Cobweb Curtain: Hang a piece of cheesecloth (available in grocery stores) over a doorway or window to give a creepy cob-webby effect.
  
  
• 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.
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• Flying Bats: Paint a tree branch black with spray paint and hang it from the ceiling or a window or door frame. Hang paper or plasic bats from it with clear nylon thread so that they float around like they are flying.
  
  
  

Halloween Food Ideas:

• Halloween Cupcakes: Use orange cake mix to make cupcakes and frost them with dark chocolate frosting. Decorate them with candy corn, cookie "headstones" or tiny plastic spiders.
  
  
• 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.
  
  
• If you make almond bark, Rice Krispy Treats, or popcorn balls simply add some Reese's Pieces candy to the mix before allowing it to harden to add a colorful Halloween look.
  
  
• Snack mix: Add candy corn and/or Reese's Pieces to any snack mix (such as Chex mix) to give it a more festive and seasonal look.

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 Ideas back to Frugal Holidays

Halloween Party Ideas back to Frugal Living Now