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Pumpkin Seed Spitting Contest

Materials Needed

  • pumpkins seeds
  • measuring tape
  • You are going to want a lot of pumpkins seeds, around 10 per party guest. You can save the seeds from the pumpkins you make into Jack-o-lanterns and dry them or buy them from the grocery store.

    Use a string or tape to make a starting line for people to stand behind while spitting. The first contestant selects three seeds from a bowl and attempt to spit them one at a time, as far as possible. Repeat the process until all of the guests have had a turn and then the first person starts the process again. Each guest should end up getting three turns of spitting three seeds so nine total attempts.

    A judge tracks where the pumpkin seeds land and keeps up with who currently has the longest attempt. Have a tape measure handy so you can measure the distance if you are not sure if one attempt is longer than another.

    Once all guests have had their turns the person who spit the seed the longest distance is declared the Halloween pumpkin seed spitting champion and awarded a prize. If you have kids playing you might consider awarding separate prizes for the youngsters.

    Sunlight, Moonlight!

    Materials Needed

  • an open space outdoors
  • Explain to the kids that for this game they are all little vampires who can move around freely during the night but must stop and hide from the sunlight. Pick one person to start the game as the caller and position all of the other kids on a line about 30 yards away from the caller.

    To start the game the caller faces away from the children and yells Moonlight! At this point the kids can move toward the caller as quickly or slowly as they like. The caller then calls out Sunlight and quickly turns around to face the kids. As soon as the caller yells Sunlight the kids must stop instantly and mime covering themselves up to hide from the sun. If when the caller turns around they see any of the children moving or not covered up, those kids are sent back to the original starting line.

    Continue play until one of the little vampires reaches and tags the caller. At this point the winner becomes the caller for the next game.

    Tip: If you have kids of varied ages playing, consider having multiple start lines with younger kids closer to the caller when the game begins.

    Halloween Jigsaw Puzzle Race

    Materials Needed

  • Halloween themed jigsaw puzzles for each group
  • Break your party guests into teams of three to five members each. Give each team a Halloween themed jigsaw puzzle in the box and a flat surface for them to assemble the puzzle. Give the party guests a Ready, Set, Go! and start the game. The first team to completely finish their puzzle wins. The puzzles themselves make great prizes to award the winning team after the game.

    In most cases the goal should be for the game to take 5-7 minutes so you can adjust accordingly based on the age of your guests. For kids be sure to select extremely simple novice level puzzles with very few pieces. For older kids and adults you can raise the level of difficulty some, but the point is not for the Halloween party to turn into a jigsaw puzzle party so try not to make it too difficult.

    Are You the Keymaster?

    Materials Needed

  • one responsible person
  • (optional) a shirt or jacket with a lot of hooks and pins
  • (optional) a small bag
  • When you have a Halloween party with adult beverages it can present a bit of a dilemma. You want your guests to have a great time but you also do not want them to get behind the wheel of a car if they are not able to drive safely. A great way to solve this problem and make it entertaining is to play the keymaster game at your party. It is really not a game, but it can still be fun.

    Choose a responsible person who is not drinking at your event to serve as the keymaster. As your guests arrive it is the keymaster’s job to take the car keys from anyone who is drinking alcohol at your party and hold them throughout the evening. When the guest is ready to leave the keymaster must deem them okay to drive and return their car keys.

    A great way to make it fun is to make the keymaster a costume to wear at the party. Take a shirt or jacket and attach lots of hooks, safety pins and ties. As the guests arrive and the keymaster takes the keys they are attached to the costume. The keymaster ends up being covered in keys and jingling as they walk around. If you choose not to go with the costume, a small bag or even a pillow case works great for keeping the keys.

    Zombie Tag

    Materials Needed

  • a blindfold
  • (optional) zombie mask
  • (optional) foam monster hands
  • Mark off a large area outside which will serve as the inbounds play area for the game. Clear away any sticks, rocks or other debris that would be easy to trip over or might hurt if someone fell down. Select one party guest that will serve as the first zombie and blindfold them.

    All kids that are playing the game must get inbounds and stay inbounds during game play. The zombie is led to the middle of the play area and as the game starts should shout out “brains“! All of the participants must immediately scream in response. The zombie moves around, shouting “brains” and tries to tag one of the other players based on hearing the responding screams. Whoever is tagged becomes the next zombie.

    If after a while the zombie has not been able to tag anyone, decrease the size of the play area; if people are getting tagged very quickly increase the size.

    For added fun: Consider adding a zombie mask and giant foam monster hands to the zombie outfit.

    Happy Spelloween!

    Materials Needed

  • A worksheet with Happy Halloween printed on top
  • Pens or pencils for all the players
  • Make printouts with the words “HAPPY HALLOWEEN!” across the top of the page. Underneath make three columns of blank spaces( _______ ) for the kids to write their answers.

    We’ve created a nice “Happy Halloween” word scrabble game sheet (get it here) for you if you don’t want to make your own. We also have a “Trick of Treat” version of the game (get “Trick or Treat” version here), too.

    The object of the game is for the kids to write as many words as they can think of with at least three letters using only the letters from Happy Halloween. For example correct answers could include hello, pay, and weep. Set up a timer with about four minutes and once the time is up the person with the most acceptable words wins. You can optionally also give a prize to the person with the word with the most letters, most creative word or the word that best fits the Halloween theme.

    Halloween Pumpkin Hunt

    Materials Needed

  • A Halloween candy bag for each guest
  • At least 6-8 pumpkins per guest
  • (Optional) Candy or small toys to award as prizes for pumpkins found
  • The rules of this game are exactly the same as an Easter egg hunt, except that you use pumpkins instead of eggs and Halloween candy bags instead of baskets. Hide the pumpkins around the house or outside in the yard. If the Halloween party guests are young kid make it very easy and increase the difficult of the hiding spots accordingly for older kids. It is a good idea to have prizes of sweets or small toys that the kids can get when they turn in the pumpkins they have found after the hunt. Having one or two special pumpkins that award a larger prize is a fun option.

    That is the easy part, the more difficult decision is what to use for pumpkins. If the budget allows a great option is using actual miniature pumpkins. You can select from several different colored pumpkins and have each award a prize from a different prize pool. But particularly if you are going to have a lot of kids at your Halloween party this option can get expensive quickly. Another option is to use inexpensive plastic novelty pumpkins, which can be found at most party supply store around Halloween. If you are feeling crafty you can make pumpkins out of construction paper and either decorate them yourself or add a fun craft to your Halloween party by providing crayons or colored makers and letting the kids decorate the pumpkins before the hunt.

    How To Eat Pied Worms

    Materials Needed

  • pie tins
  • whipped cream
  • plastic cups
  • a stopwatch
  • towels
  • Get one pie tin for each party guest. Put 8-10 gummy worms on the bottom of the pie tin and then add a layer of whipped cream. Add more worms and then top it off with more whipped cream. Make sure that you put the exact same number of worms in each pie and 2-3 worms are sticking out of the whipped cream when you add the final layer.

    The contestants sit at a table with their pie tins filled with worms and whipped cream in front of them and a plastic cup next to the pie tins. The object of the game is for the guests to take the worms out of the pie tins and put them in the cup. The catch is that they must keep their hands behind their backs and only use their mouths. Give them a Ready, Set, Go and they have 30 seconds to move as many worms as possible from the pie to the cup. The person who has the most worms in their cup is the winner and gets a prize.

    Obviously this game is best if played outdoors or in an area that is easily cleaned. A good supply of towels and other products for wiping down the players afterwards is highly recommended.

    Pick a Trick – Pick a Treat

    Materials Needed

  • Orange construction paper or foam
  • Container or bowl
  • Using orange construction paper or thin foam sheets, create at least 12 paper pumpkins, more if you are having a large number of guests or want a large number of “actions”. You will want to try to make them all exactly the same size and shape, as well.

    On 1 of them you will write the word “TREAT” (you can add more “TREAT” pumpkins depending on the number of guests and ease of winning you want to have – 1:10 is good odds), and on the rest you will want to write “TRICK” and a funny or silly action the person has to do, such as:

    1. Howl like a werewolf
    2. Walk like a zombie
    3. Do your best vampire impression
    4. Make a scary/funny/freaky face
    5. Cackle like a witch
    6. Do the “Monster Mash”
    7. Crawl about like a spider
    8. etc….

    This makes a great game for both adults and kids since you can tailor the “actions” to the age range of your guests.

    Put all your pumpkins in a bowl or container, a plastic witch cauldron or plastic trick or treat pumpkin is perfect. Have each player grab a pumpkin from the container and read it. If it says “TREAT” they get a small prize or maybe a small favor bag of candy and their turn ends, BUT if they get “TRICK” they have to do what is written on the card.

    You can have each guest keep choosing pumpkins and doing the “TRICKS” until they get a “TREAT” card, or you can just keep going round the room taking one turn at a time until you have a certain number of winners. Either way, your guests will have a ghoulishly good time, and plenty of photo opps.

    Mass Grave

    Materials Needed

  • a large dark area with places to hide
  • Explain to your party guests that for the purposes of this game one of them has been infected with a deadly, highly contagious virus and has until the count of 50 to live. Establish a large space outside with boundaries as the play area. The infected guest takes off in search of a hiding place while the remaining guests cover their eyes and slowly count to 50. Once the infected person reaches their hiding place they lay down and are considered dead.

    When the count is finished the other players must split up and search for their sick friend. When one of the guests finds the hider they are instantly infected with the virus and must quietly lay down next to the original infected person and die beside them. This continues until the last person finds the others in their mass grave at which point the late comer is declared the loser and serves as the hider in the next round of the game.

    Tip: This game is much better when played at night in a large area outside with as many lights as possible turned off.