Five spooky party games for Halloween
Whether you’re throwing a Halloween party or just want to keep use up all that energy from a sugary night of trick-or-treating, try these simple games.
It’s one of the most exciting nights of the year for children around the world, from America to Sweden, and even if you’re a grown-up, the Celtic festival (originally known as Samhain) feels satisfyingly like the moment winter kicks in.
If you’re throwing a Halloween party you’ve probably already thought about delicious party food, Halloween costumes, spooky music, and even Halloween table decorations. But there’s nothing like some silly party games to get things going with a swing.
Make a monster
This is a good party ice-breaker. Divide the guests into groups of about six or seven kids. Each group has 20 minutes to create a really fearsome monster from a collection of odds and ends.
Give each team a large piece of card. For decoration, provide sheets of coloured paper, magazines, fabric off-cuts, googly eyes, glue, markers, loo paper, bandages, wool and so on.
When they’re finished, you can award prizes for the funniest or scariest and hang them up as part of the decorations.
Pass the apple
Line up kids in two teams, close together, hands behind their backs. The apple is held under the chin, and passed to the next person in the team. If you drop the apple, your team starts again. The first team to complete the line wins.
Bite the doughnut
Hang ring doughnuts from a tree or a horizontal pole. The challenge is to eat them while keeping your hands behind your back!
Trick or treat
On 20 pieces of paper, write “trick” or “treat” (there should be mostly tricks and just one or two treats). On the back of the trick papers, write a silly thing to do – roar like a monster, cackle like a witch, walk like Frankenstein’s monster, name three things you’d put in a witches’ brew…
Put all the papers into a witch hat and pass it round the children, who should be sitting in a circle. Each child pulls out a paper and either collects a treat, or has to do the trick in order to get a treat. It might be a good idea to check the tricks before putting them in the hat, just in case they’re not safe or suitable!
Pass the parcel
Give the game a Halloween treatment. In between each layer of paper include a trick or a treat, written on a piece of paper, to add another level of excitement to the game.
TIP: If they want to go out trick-and-treating, read our 8 tips to make Halloween safe for kids