It is surprisingly easy to put together a Halloween party, even if you weren’t planning one. We certainly weren’t when The Girls insisted we have one last October half-term when we were in Belgium. They do say that necessity is the mother of invention, so here are a few simple Halloween party ideas that we used.
A party needs three things:
1. food
2. activities
3. dressing up.
For some parties, Dressing Up may just be putting on your best dress. In this case though, I had to conjure up costumes: a cat and dog. A pair of tights, one leg tucked into the other, and fixed to the waist-band of the skirt or shorts being worn made a great tail. I luckily packed the ear headbands, but it would be just as easy to affix paper ears to a regular headband (which I had to do later in the day when it was discovered that a pair of ears had been lost.) And I made good use of the eyeliner pencil I bought with me- the only time it was used on holiday- to add face make-up. I’m never doing it again though- how old does my then-five-year-old look?
The Activities required some thought, a lot of paper and some scissors. I came up with a programme of events, and worked a reasonable amount of Halloween-themeing into them without making them too scary.
Scavenger Hunt: I made a list of the common Halloween Motifs and had the girls go and hunt for them. Some things I found around the house where we were staying but the rest I made from good old paper and scissors. The spider’s webs are much like paper snowflakes to make, and a paper chain of ghosts needed little work beyond adding detail with a marker. I admit the skeleton may look tricky but it just took a paper plate, plenty of strips of paper and a vague idea of what a skeleton should look like!
Make Daddy into a Mummy: the classic game just needs a toilet roll and a willing mummy. In this case Daddy was the obvious choice.
Apple Bobbing: I haven’t played this since I attended birthday parties as a child. Apple bobbing was usually followed by bobbing for sweets in flour so that you end up with very messy faces. But we started with simple bobbing for apples in a bowlful of water. Again, as I was taking pictures, Daddy had to show them how to do it!
Treasure Hunt: I wrote out rhyming clues that ultimately led the girls back to the kitchen for their Halloween Reward: an edible spider, which took care of the Food element of the party. In reality the spider is a chocolate coin (unwrapped of course) with a few chocolate sticks for legs. I secured the whole thing to the plate with chocolate sauce.
Hot Chocolate: Daddy lit a fire and we all snuggled and drank hot chocolate as they sky got dark, and the cat and dog lapped it up!
Proof positive that parties don’t have to be big or fancy or complicated to be fun!
Go on! You know you want to tell me what you think!