Thread: Halloween party Ideas...HELP!

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Hi everyone,
I have a few questions regarding planning my Halloween party. This will be my first party, so any and all suggestions are appreciated!
First, I really need a theme. however, I am on a limited budget, so something that's inexpensive to create would be nice. Any ideas?
Next comes the activities. What should my guests and myself do? I plan on having a small party (about 8-9 guests, plus their significant others/guests)...so far all I have is pumkin carving (dorky, I know...but my group of friends and I will make it fun ) and tempt your fate. Any other ideas???
Lastly, when should I host the party? That is, when is the most optimal time?

Thanks for all of the suggestions!!!

Personally, I like to host my parties on the Friday or Saturday night closest to Halloween, so this year it'll be on Saturday, October 30th.

For a theme, the possibilities are really endless, so really what you might want to do is ask yourself what is it about Halloween that is inspiring for you this year. Are you thinking about horror movies, or haunted houses you've been to in the past, or ghosts and ghost stories, or haunted castles, or classic film/story characters, or maybe something like a circus/carnival, clowns, puppets, mummies, vampires... If you can throw out some ideas to us that interest you as far as a theme goes, we might be better able to help with coming up with cheap suggestions for decoration and/or ambiance.

As for activities, it's always a good idea to have a few different things planned, just in case one of them doesn't turn out to be all that fun. Last year, I had planned a game of RATS, which is like SPOONS, but with plastic rats instead, which is a great game, but people ended up over-thinking it so much that it was a big snore-fest! :P ...So, I am glad I had a couple of back up ideas ready.

Last year, I think there were something like 30-35 people who showed up at our party, so we had a pretty big group. I separated them into two groups, (trying to keep those who came together on opposing teams) and I gave each of them a big pile of junk, like pieces of wood, parts of props we never used for decorating, fabric, old clothes, just anything we could find laying around the house, and tape! And I gave them all 20 minutes to create a monster out of what they'd been given. This was a HUGE hit. It was hilarious too!

Another thing I did once for a party was that I bought the absolute thinnest toilet paper I could find, broke the party into two teams, did a little game amongst the teams to decide who would be "it", and then had the person who was "it" stand in the middle and I had everybody else wrap that person head to toe in toilet paper like a mummy. Each team member had a roll of tp, and they had to use all of it, and the first team to finish won the game. I think I had extra cookies or candies or something for the winners, I can't remember now.

I usually tend to get ideas for these thing by doing searches on google for party games and trying to adapt the games that I find to a more grown up audience, though that's not always necessary. hehe

I hope this helps! I'd be glad to offer more help if you can decide on a theme!

Oh, another thing I have done which turned out well for an activity was Halloween themed pictionary. That's cheap for sure, and fun!

Halloween is a theme in and of itself! I usually tend to base my parties around classic Halloween. Pumpkins, bats, black cats, witches, owls, skeletons, etc. Can't go wrong with the classics! In my opinion, superly themed parties tend to cost more, because you're looking for and buying specific items for that theme that you may not use again. If you do go with a theme, buy items that you can transform from year to year into other themes.

I'm having my party on October 23rd from 7-11 pm. I don't want it early in the month, but I also don't want to have it the night before Halloween. The closer to Halloween, the more people are going to be busy. And that = less guests.

I would suggest also having a costume contest. At least for best costume, since your guest list is small. Let guests know ahead of time that there will be a prize for best costume, and it'll inspire them to put a little more effort into it.

Yay can def vouch for the tp Mummy game - we did that and one poor person ended up being mummified from the head down ( everyone else worked feet up so their victims could breathe LOL ). Scary pictionary/ charades is a crowd please too.

We had our Nekkid bowling which got loads of laughs ( idea from this very site i think). we did it as a relay race . so you get a pair of tights men pop a small cucumber or simillar down mon eleg and tie the tights round waist so cucumber is near ankles and girls pop a small satsuma/ tangerine in each leg and then tie around chest but bend over so both tangerines can reach ankles then you use these appendages to knock a small ball down to a finish line.

I made a box of Fates - some nice some silly some naughty, we were a dinner party group of about 10 , so as Hostess if someone was out of line/cheeky etc i would call for a fate and they would have to do it. Occasionally i would call for the group as a whole to be judged and they would each take a glass bead from a bag when everyone has a bead you all reveal to group at same time and who ever had the dark glass bead was judged the sacrifice and had to do a "fate"

This year i am adding TR-ick of TR-eat. boxes will cover food items - some nice ( chocolate covered brazil nuts) = TR-eat , some horrid BBQ flavour meal worms or chocolate covered ants = TR-ick! . We'll do stuff like marzipan body parts. chocolate chillis etc..

we did apple dunking and i had planned to hang body part cookies from our archway but in the end used donuts, so you had to eat them with your hands behind your back while they were swing from string.

When people arrived last year i handed out scrolls warning that a murderer had escaped and was in the area - each scroll then said if he spots you - he'll wink at you and you have to die in a certain way - indicated on their scroll ( heart attack, stung to death by bee, posioned by drink, choke to death on food etc) the murderers scroll looked identical but said YOU are the murderer and explained how to kill the guests.

We gave team prizes and whoever guessed the murderer got a prize.

As for the theme. Find something you will enjoy working with. fairy tales seem popular this year - i just got some charity shop bears and a doll and turned them into a zombie goldilocks display now with 2 decapitated / gutted bears and a mad daddy zombie grizzly bear less than £3 for the lot :-)

Witch potions/ bottles are quite cheap / easy to knock up = do a search there are lots of threads on them with ideas for labels etc.

If you think you REALLY need a theme but are ob limited budget...well Halloween itself is a theme.. bats spiders pumpkins crows etc. we used cheapest black rubbish bags cut into lengthes to cover lots of walls - cheap and effective. then strung cobwebs over branches we fixed to curtain poles and added some bats and spider. no obvious theme as such but really brought the rooms together.

Good luck but most of all HAVE FUN!!

This year will be our 4th annual Halloween costume party.

Here are a few things we have learned from the past:

1) Having no activities planned other than costume prizes = bad! =D

2) Karaoke is fun for a little while, but the same few people tend to do all the singing and it gets boring after a bit.

3) Murder mysteries are a huge hit! We did a murder mystery from mymysteryparty.com last year and had a blast! It kind of forces people to mingle and have fun!

As for decorations, I agree with v_gan - the general theme of Halloween works really well. We have never had an actual theme for our party other than Halloween. Every year, I do a ton of mega clearance shopping after Halloween and get some of the most amazing deals on decorations, awards, treat bags, eat/drinkware, etc. and have built up a huge stash of stuff! I totally recommend going to Dollar Tree if you have one in your area. You can decorate both inside and out for super cheap! If you want a cemetary outside, they have gravestones made of foam, plastic skulls, body parts, spooky plastic fence, etc all for just $1 each! They also have pretty cool wall murals - I got a bunch of one that is spooky trees with gravestones beneath and will transform my hallway into a creepy haunted forest! =) They also have floor and wall decals (they are sticky) that are blood splatter that I will put all over in the bathroom to create a bloody massacre scene that is inexpensive and not too messy! If you have shower doors instead of a shower curtain, it is fun to light a few candles and put them in the tub with bloody hand decals on the shower doors!! =)

Good luck with your party! They are SO fun to plan!! Good job on planning early - I think I had less than a month to plan for my first party! =D

How 'bout beer pong with eyeballs? At our kiddie party we bounced painted ping pong balls into a basket ; most in under a minute wins. I think the adult version would suit me...

Dress Up Game: like hot potato only the one caught must reach into sack (no peaking) of costume pieces and wear it. Tiaras scarves funny glasses wigs hats belts etc. Took pics at the end

For me, lighting is everything. Low to no lights with ONLY Halloween lights illumination. Glow sticks, colored bulbs. Adults don't tend to play games but kids will. On a TV have a horror movie playing. Doesn't have to be gory. Buy a small pumpkin/squash and place it amongst your decors. Halfway through the party announce whomever finds it wins a gift certificate to a local restaurant or another fun store like Spencers ( for say $15 or $20 ).
Give everyone a pen and paper. They're to create a horror story. Number the papers. Limit each to 5 sentences. Example #1 sets the location, #2 names characters, #3 type of murder or mayhem, all the way to the ending. They each read their part when everyones finished. It's pretty hilarious.
I host my parties the weekend before the 31st.
Good Luck~!!

I've had 2 halloween parties a year for 4 years; one for kids and one for adults. I only do games at my kids party. Maybe you just need to consider the personalities of your guests....would they even want to play games? At my adults-only party, I usually have about 60 guests (ages 25-40) and games aren't well received except for costume contests and drinking games. My guests like to just dress up, drink, mingle and dance (we usually have a band) and my parties are hugely successful, growing bigger every year.

I posted a thread on a horror movie poster game here: Horror Movie Poster Quiz

~Heather