Halloween Games
Halloween party games and activities
Halloween party games add entertainment to festivities. Everyone enjoys competition, creativity and crafts. Try planning some Halloween activities for your celebration.
Games Suitable for Any Age
Scavenger hunts, reverse hunts and storytelling are fun for any age. Create teams of four or five people for scavenger hunts and give them Halloween names, such as “Whacky Witches,” “Batty Bats” or “Ghoulish Ghosts.” Everyone gets the same time to find the identical items on a given list. (Put the list in different orders to avoid a rush.) Children must find items at the party location. Adults can find the items off premises. Everyone must return at a specified time. The team that finds the most items wins.
To play Reverse Hunt, divide the group into teams of four or five. Give each team a trash bag and twenty minutes to fill it with possible Halloween items. The host then calls out random Halloween-related items, and the first team to produce each item gets a point. Suggested items include: a tea bag for witch’s brew, black paper, something orange, a cat’s photograph, a black shoe, a stick or wand and a sugar packet to sweeten demons. Of course, you can add more of your own — let your imagination run wild! To play this game with couples, call out possible items in a purse, such as a black pen (witch’s ink), a battered coin, a black wallet, an expired credit card and a black or orange keychain.
Read or tell a Halloween story while everyone sits in semi-darkness around candles or a fireplace. Or, play a tape-recorded Halloween story for children and provide bells and instruments to create scary sound effects.
Halloween Games for Kids
Games are a requirement at a kids Halloween party — they help keep guests busy and organized. Have children decorate pumpkins and give prizes for the scariest and/or the funniest one. Encourage children to create a story about their pumpkin and share it. You can also make spooky experiments —for example, baking soda mixed with vinegar will bubble, and you can tint the vinegar black for added eeriness.
Bring a Halloween twist to an old favorite: Purchase two inexpensive, soft, orange dodgeball-sized balls. Using black permanent marker, draw a jack-o’-lantern on each ball. Then, put children into two teams. One team makes a circle, and the other stands inside. The outside team rolls the balls and tries to hit members of the inner team to eliminate players. When only one player remains inside the circle, he or she wins that round, and then the teams can switch.
Halloween Games for Adults
Adult Halloween games don’t need to be quite as structured as those for children, but they can add to the Halloween fun. Adults enjoy dancing, so play Freeze Dance with Halloween music; when the music stops, guests freeze in position, and anyone caught moving is eliminated.
Before the party, mail each guest an item to include in their costume. During the evening, have guests write down their guesses for the required element in everyone’s costume. The guest correctly identifying the most items wins. This works best with a smaller party.
Games are a great way to break the ice and keep guests busy at a Halloween party. Think of ways to add Halloween-themed elements to standard party games, or check online for lots of creative Halloween party game ideas.
