- Party Games

Harvest the Candy Corn

Materials Needed

a large bowl

candy corn

Chopsticks

smaller bowls or plates

Fill a large bowl with Halloween candy corn and place it in the center of a medium sized table(a round table if possible). The table needs to be big enough so that 3-5 kids can stand around it with some elbow room and small enough that all of them can reach the center of the table during game play.

Give each of the players a pair of chopsticks and a small bowl or plate, paper plates work just fine. The object of the game is for the kids to pick up a candy corn from the bowl in the center of the table with the chopsticks and place it on their bowl or plate which is in front of them. Set a timer for around two minutes and turn them loose. Once the time has expired the kids get to keep the candy they collected and the next group gets a chance. After everyone has had a turn the guest that collected the most candy corn is the winner.

If your Halloween party guests are too young or for any reason unable to use chopsticks you can play the game with small spoons instead.

Print Full Game Directions & Materials List »

“Howl”-o-“Scream” Contest

Materials Needed

Area to get loud in

Get back to the fun and funny basics of Halloween with a good ol’ fashion screaming contest. Have all your guests stand in an open area (if outside make sure it’s not too late to upset your neighbors). Have each player come up to the front of the crowd, and on the count of 3 do their best imitation of a Halloween horror scream (think B-movie type thing).

Now, since many boys may not want to “scream like a girl” you can offer them up their own howling contest. Have the male guests come up and instead of scream, give their most realistic howling at the moon routine. You will be surprised how competitive the guys will get with this, some will really give it their all.

For a bit of humor you can offer each contestant a “personalized prompt” to get them in the mood to scream, such as for a fashion diva guest you could say “You leave the house and realize your shoes don’t match your outfit! 1, 2, 3… scream!” or for the fanatic book lover in the group you could say “You come home and find all of your book shelves have been rearranged. They are not in alphabetical order anymore! 1, 2, 3…. scream!” Not only will this be very funny for your other guests it makes the game much more personal and fun for the screamers, too.

At the end either have a select group of judges choose a winner, or have all the guests vote on the winner. You can also make up different awards for the “Best Scream,” “Loudest Scream,” “Most Realistic Howl,” “Most Blood Chilling.” You can be as creative as you want with the awards and winners since the real fun is in the contest!

Print Full Game Directions & Materials List »

Musical Pumpkins

Materials Needed

Orange construction paper

Scissors

A way to laminate the pumpkins

A device to play music

(Optional) Crayons or colored makers

Cut pumpkins out of orange construction paper and get them laminated, making sure you have one for each of your party guests. Tape the pumpkins to the floor in a circular pattern. To start the game have the kids stand on one of the pumpkins and play some Halloween themed music. As the music plays the kids move from one pumpkin to the next. At a random point stop the music and the kids must race to be the first person standing on one of the pumpkins.

It is a good idea to start with one pumpkin for each kid just so they have a chance to understand the game before the competition starts. After the trial run remove one pumpkin and repeat the process. The kid that is not able to be the first standing on a pumpkin is out. Repeat the process until you have a winner. Once you are down to one pumpkin and two kids left, place a chair about 5 feet away from the last pumpkin and have the kids circle around the chair.

If you would like to add a fun craft to this game, provide crayons or colored markers and let the kids decorate the pumpkins before you laminate them.

Print Full Game Directions & Materials List »

Choose The Adventure Storytelling

Materials Needed

A flashlight

This is a really easy storytelling idea that takes hardly any prep. Have the kids sit in a circle and turn the lights down very low. For older kids, who will be okay with being more scared, turning off the lights and just using the flashlights works even better.

Let everyone know this will be a scary tale, but one THEY have to help make up. Use the flashlight as a way to show who’s turn it is and have the person hold it under their chin for a nice eerie effect. Have the storyteller start the story off with a simple prompt such as “50 years ago, on the very night, a horrible murder took place.” For younger kids you can keep it lighter with “One Halloween night, long ago, an evil witch was hatching a plan. One that would stop Halloween forever!”

The storyteller then hands the flashlight to the person on his right and that person has to add to the story, such as “… The murder happened in this very house and was reported to be the gruesomest anyone had ever seen…” or “… The witch called all the ghosts and goblins together to help her with her plan. Everyone came to the meeting but the little ghouls since their ‘mummy’ said it was too late to go out…” You can choose any idea to start since most of the time the kids will take it in it’s own direction.

Keep passing the flashlight to the right with the guests adding to the story as it goes around until it is completed. Have someone tape the story and play it back at the end if possible. It’s a great way to hear the story in full and to get a good laugh at the same time. You will be surprised how good some of the stories will be when heard again.

Letting the kids get creative makes for a really fun time, and some good laughs. You will get some hillarious stories, and some really scary stuff, too, but most of all the kids will have a great time and so will the adults.

Print Full Game Directions & Materials List »

The Dizzy Mummy

Materials Needed

toilet paper

(optional) a stopwatch

Break your party guests into teams of two people. Before you tell them how the game is played ask them to decide which one will be the mummy and which will be the wrapper. After all of the teams have chosen the roles of each member bring out the toilet paper, you need one roll for each team. You can have all of the teams go at once or one at a time and use a stopwatch to determine who is fastest.

The rules of the game are simple. The wrapper holds the roll of toilet paper with one finger in the hole in each side so that it can be dispensed easily. The mummy take the end of the roll and stands a few steps from the wrapper holding onto the toilet paper. You start the game and the mummy has to spin around in place while holding the end of the toilet paper. The paper should start to wrap around the mummy as they spin, freely coming from the roll which the wrapper is holding. If the paper breaks, the wrapper can help the mummy get started again. The mummy keeps spinning until they are completely wrapped in the entire roll of paper. The team that finishes the quickest wins and is award a prize.

Disclaimer: This game may not work well with guests who have been drinking adult beverages.

Print Full Game Directions & Materials List »

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.

Print Full Game Directions & Materials List »

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.

Print Full Game Directions & Materials List »

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.

Print Full Game Directions & Materials List »

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.

Print Full Game Directions & Materials List »