[Sublime Nightmare]

So, my daughter has decided she wanted to base this year's party on the Salem Witch Trials. Since that is just too specific, I decided we will do witch hunts in general, using references from medieval times as well as Salem. To start with, we're going to do a Clue-type mystery scavenger hunt where kids will have to search for potion ingredients and cast spells to find the witches. I have an old playhouse that I will turn into a witch's shack. I'm thinking I'll have nooses hanging from a tree, a stockade prop from Oriental Trading for the photo booth and a witch burning at the stake using burning logs I made (using tutorials from here) and a flaming cauldron hidden in the stacked branches. I'm also trying to figure out how to incorporate a fortune telling, gypsy witch kind of area. I'm thinking one of those hanging tents with a table inside?

Stockade I bought from Oriental Trading

Inspiration photo for my burning witch. What I have in mind won't be this large, though.

My invitations. It's supposed to look like a spell book. The spine pulls out to reveal a box of items needed to cast spells, including a small potion bottle and copies of newspaper articles from the Salem Witch Trials. My invitation will be rolled into a scroll. I just haven't added that part yet. I'm not happy with the spell book binding, so I'll end up changing that.

Does anyone have any other ideas that I can do? I would really love to get some ideas for favors, too.

 

[Jenn&MattFromPA]

Everything is looking great! Your daughter is lucky to have someone who can pull together what she wants & I bet she's learning how to do that too!

How many people are you going to have coming? If you have smaller amounts, you might be able to do more involved favors, and if you have mostly one gender, you might be able to do something that you otherwise wouldn't if it was mixed genders.

Like, it would be pretty neat if you could give each guest a witch hat or warlock hat, and if there weren't too many, you could do some nice decorations on them. Another option would be to do a bunch of wands as favors, some of the ones that use sticks & drizzled on glue, for example.

I don't know the age group you have, but another favor option would be "witch familiars". You could shop the dollar stores & find crows, owls, rats, perhaps find a cheap cat & frog or make them. Then have the kids spin a wheel or choose a slip of paper out of a hat for which familiar is theirs. You could even have a craft option - once they get their familiar, they could personalize it with paint, glitter, feathers, fangs, etc.

Or yet another example of a fun favor (IMHO) - depending on the age, buy some cheap terra cotta pots (smallish) from the craft store. Get some dark Hallowen-type paints, some Spanish moss from the dollar store, and let the kids make little dioramas - buy some of the Dollar Tree Halloween Village tombstones, trees, figures or benches, and provide extra sticks, rocks & little rats or spiders. Then the kids can glue the moss into the pots & glue on a little cemetery scene or whatever. They could paint the pot or rocks too.

Anyway, keep us posted with the party planning! Sounds like a fun time!

 

[printersdevil]

Love this theme.

What about a Medievil type fortune teller. Sort of Morgan le Fey from Arthurian legends or even a wizard like Merlin.

Be sure to check out Saki.girls thread Gathering of Witches. She has a great Salem witch.

I will be watching this for sure since I always do witches!!!

 

[Sublime Nightmare]

So, Jenn, I guess I left out the details. My daughter is 13, son is 11. The party is held every year and has been for more than 6 years and is for the kids and their parents so it ends up being about 20-25 children and 15-20 adults. It's held outside every year and costumes are encouraged. Only the adults show up in plain clothes, although a couple of years were great when some adults dressed up, too. I try to get them to keep doing it, but the other parents don't seem to get into Halloween like I do. Every year we do a different theme because this is for my kids and their friends and I didn't want them getting bored with the same stuff year after year. I like the idea of familiars. I'll have to think how to incorporate it into the witch hunt game.

Keep the ideas coming! I depend on the forum every single year for input and advice. Everyone here is so creative!

 

[HalloweenKitten]

Sounds like a lot of fun!! Here's a witch game that kids could play. Put any spin on it you like.

Broomstick relay.
Divide guests into two teams. Hand each team a broomstick and a witch hat. The relay race begins with the first players in line for each team donning the hat and “riding” the broomstick to the finish line and back. The hats and broomsticks are then handed off to the next players in line who must also race to the line and back. The first team whose players all complete the relay wins the race.

 

[printersdevil]

They could also do a game that determines if they are a witch or not but drawing straws or something similiar. This idea came from Witch Hunters Barn on the Haunt Forum. I love it! It can be changed up in many ways. Here is a link to his explanation and graphic. See the information about the game that he calls The Pumplkin Judge Here is his graphic for the game

I am using this for TOTers this year and at my party for adults varied some, too. Saki.girl is also using a variation of it at her adult party.

Another fun thing that might work for you is a fortune teller game. I love this one. Since yours is a witch hunt, you could vary it to see if they have good fortune not to be a witch or something. If you can't use it this year maybe in another year. It is super cool especially for girls. However it could be modified to include good fortunes for boys, too. And it would have been good fortune to not have been found to be a witch during those times.

Madame Good Fortune

 

[The Red Hallows]

Just another reason I want to live in a neighborhood with a bunch of haunters. I love this!

 

[Greenwick]

I don't know the age group you have, but another favor option would be "witch familiars". You could shop the dollar stores & find crows, owls, rats, perhaps find a cheap cat & frog or make them. Then have the kids spin a wheel or choose a slip of paper out of a hat for which familiar is theirs. You could even have a craft option - once they get their familiar, they could personalize it with paint, glitter, feathers, fangs, etc.

This is brilliant! I'm gonna tuck this idea away for future use.