How To Plan The Perfect Halloween Party!
So now that we all know what HALLOWEEN is all about, let us plan the Perfect Halloween Party! In case anyone missed out on the whole story behind this exciting holiday, please do check out our previous post!
Now let's get cracking with our Party Planning!
This is one party both kids and adults equally love to plan and celebrate! You can make the party atmosphere as scary as you wish based on the age group of your guests. You can also plan the party according to your budget. Here are some ideas that will help you in this process:
Young Kid Halloween Party
Kids love Halloween. What could be more fun than becoming a Hideous Pirate or a Pretty Princess for a day, and extort candy from absolute strangers?
Want to throw a fun party, here are some tips:
- Who could be better at giving you ideas about the kind of party they love than kids themselves! Check with your kids and try to keep up with their ideas!
- Some Halloween costumes can be scary. So for very small kid's party, you may want to note on the invitations that costumes should try to be as child-friendly as possible.
- Parties for very young children should be kept up to 1 - 1.5 hours. For older kids, 2 hours is quite manageable.
- The number of invitees depends on the location. While a party hall can accommodate a big group, keep the numbers down for parties at home.
Party invitations
Once your date and time are decided, you are ready to choose the appropriate invitation. This is one of the most important ingredients for a successful party since the invitations give the guests a preview of the party. Here are a few kid-friendly party slogans:
- No tricks only treat! Jack is hosting a Halloween feast!
- Tricks, treats and lots of yummy stuff to eat!
- Join us for some not-so-scary Halloween fun at Jill's Halloween party!
Decorations and party supplies
We all know there is an abundance of creepy and scary Halloween decor available. But that just won't do for this party. Luckily there's also plenty of child-friendly fun Halloween decor available. You can decorate with pumpkins, of course. Be sure to add some other fun Halloween supplies. Here are a few staple items for any party:
- Personalized Halloween Banners: A great big banner outside your home welcoming the guests, and promising them a good time before the party even starts! You can even hang one inside the house as an additional decoration.
- Balloons are a must for all parties! Choose classic Halloween colors like orange and black for your balloon bouquets. Make it even more colorful with more modern Halloween colors – black & fluorescent orange, purple and lime green.
- Crepe Paper - There is nothing more symbolic of a kid's party as much as crepe paper streamers hung all around a party room. This has the benefit of high returns for a low cost – just perfect! Don't forget those Halloween colors - black, orange, lime green and purple.
You got the supplies, now what?
Start with fun paper goods that make cleaning up easy, and adds bright colors to your room. Unleash the imaginative ghost in you and just go crazy, you simply can't go wrong – its Halloween!
The next step is choosing a fun centerpiece for the tables. Collect some pumpkins and gourds, and make a display in the middle of the table. An elegant centerpiece is a Halloween pumpkin bucket (you know - like the ones kids use for trick or treating) filled with candy.
Menu
Creepy Crawly Caterpillars: Thread green grapes onto a long wooden skewer until it’s completely covered. Add mini chocolate chips to each grape on the very end for eyes (use a little frosting or cream cheese for glue).
Pumpkin Pudding Cups: Cut the tops off navel oranges and hollow them out. Fill with pudding and use a permanent marker to make a goofy jack-o’-lantern grin on each one.
Green Goblin Punch: Use a juicer or blender to puree a combination of orange juice and pineapple juice plus a handful of fresh spinach. Instant green!
Banana Ghosts: Cut bananas in half to make two ghosts. Add three chocolate chips to each one, making a pair of eyes and a little mouth that looks like it’s saying “Boo!”
Halloween Cheese and Crackers: Buy slices of cheese and simply use any Halloween cookie cutters to produce pumpkins, witches on brooms, black cats and so on.
You can also buy or bake plain butter cakes, cupcakes & giant cookies and decorate it with your Halloween theme. It is a good idea to get kids involved – kids love to bake! Let them decorate the desserts for the party – all the better if the decorations don't make any sense as its Halloween! Kids, even toddlers can decorate cupcakes using candy corn, M&Ms, frosting and sprinkles. This could be one of the party activities/games in itself! Be sure to buy these items in enough quantities for all kids to take part. Be ready with your own brownie points loot bag as one thing is for sure – you will win loads of points from your kids and their friends!
Party games
There are so many great activities for Halloween that it will be hard to choose the best for your party. Here are some possibilities that you can think of for your party:
- Pumpkin decoration – this is suitable for slightly older kids. Set out the supplies for them to carve their own pumpkin. For younger kids, choose mini-pumpkins and give them a lot of stickers, markers, and glitter to decorate.
- Candy hunt - this is a great game for an outside party. You guessed it - it's basically an Easter Egg hunt with candy during Thanksgiving.
- Costume parade - a parade is great for a larger party in a hall. Inform parents to bring their cameras!
- Halloween pinatas – fill candies in a big bag, and give sticks to kids to whack it with - what a fun way for kids to get even more candy!
Party favors
Loot bags are always popular and a must for a Halloween party. You can start with a handcrafted personalized Halloween party favor bag, or shop online for a favor bag that matches your paper goods. Create your own pumpkin theme loot bag with an orange bag tied off with green floral tape. Then either fill it with a few fun Halloween toys, treats, or leave them empty and set up a trick or treat stations around the room.The favors will serve as a sweet reminder of a fantastic Halloween party. Have a perfect time at your child's Halloween party!
Teen Halloween party
Beware – now things are about to get SCARY – IERRRRR!!!
You have caught the Zombie Bug! Now don't just keep it to yourself, come on be generous – go ahead and spread it to your near and dear ones! As a party for teens, there is one simple rule - more people = more fun!
Your teen will have most of the say about who all he or she wants to invite to the party. Other details like costumes, invitations, menu and the party schedule also changes vastly from the tiny-tots party. There are more details to plan, e.g., budgeting for a DJ (or getting a friend to handle the scary music), have plenty of activities that are not planned for certain times, making the venue more scary than pleasant, having informal or even formal costume contests, etc.
Zombie invitations
Party Invite quotes :
WARNING! You are invited to a Deadly Zombie virus infected zone – accept the invitation at your own risk!
Come in a costume to DIE for, or else be ready to DIE!
You better check-in at the specified time, or else you can never leave!
Zombie Party Decorations and Supplies
Make your venue a perfect place for the undead by decorating with red (blood color) splattered decor and warnings to the uninfected:
- Personalized banner: In a large banner, declare your home to be the only safe part of the world for your friends and family. However, once they enter, they would be most horribly surprised by the number of bloodthirsty zombies wandering about!
- Blood Spattered Decorations: Make your home look like a recently zombie-attacked zone with blood splattered walls and floors. Do it the easy way with wallpapers and floor runners. Simply spatter red poster paint on wax paper and hang the sheets on windows and walls for a stunning effect!
- Quarantine: Quarantine parts of your home (like the bedrooms) where you “store” the undead! Block doors with caution tape, and create a “blood” paint splattered sign that says “Infected, Keep Out”. Improve the effect with a rusted chain wrapped around the doorknob as if you want the infected to remain quarantined!
- Keep Out: Warn your guests before they enter the quarantined areas with one of the above shown cool door covers!
Table Decorations
Impart your tables with the undead touch by covering them with blood red gauze tablecloths, and put one of these centerpieces to leave a ghastly impression!
- “Body parts” trophy: Fill a vase with plastic body parts. Add water with red coloring to create some very creepy masterpieces.
- Zombie “Flowers”: Fill a ceramic pot with dirt and half bury a plastic hand in it to make it seem as if a zombie is climbing from the grave. As an extra, paint the fingers red to make them look like they’re covered in blood.
- Skull Centerpiece: Fill a large glass bowl with plastic skulls and bones, with filler materials interspersed.
Menu
For such an awful party, the menu must be equally awful! Surprise your guests with these horrible dishes:
Graveyard Dirt: Add chocolate pudding, marshmallows, crushed Oreo's, and red gummy worms to make a gourmet's delight!
Red Velvet Cupcakes: These traditional cupcakes are a dessert of choice for a zombie party due to their color. Sprinkle an undead touch by putting a layer of red cake gel on top of the white cream cheese frosting.
Eyeball Fruit Punch: This traditional and hugely popular drink is prepared by mixing equal parts of Sprite and fruit punch. Add sanitized plastic eyeballs to create a creepy beverage every zombie will love.
Brain Cupcakes: Add white frosting on cupcakes in a squiggly pattern to create delicious brains cupcakes!
Zombie Playlist
The music selection you play at a party sets the mood for the entire party. With this Zombie Party Playlist, you are sure to make the undead rise from their graves and boogie all night!
Re: Your Brains – Jonathan Coulton
Monster Mash – Bobby “Boris” Pickett & The Crypt-Kickers
Superstition – Stevie Wonder
Howlin’ for You – Black Keys
Time Warp – The Rocky Horror Picture Show
This Is Halloween – from Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas
Ghostbusters – Ray Parker, Jr.
I Put a Spell On You – Screamin’ Jay Hawkins
Thriller – Michael Jackson
Black Magic Woman – Santana
Don’t Fear the Reaper – Blue Oyster Cult
I Put a Spell on You – Screaming Jay Hawkins
Highway to Hell – AC/DC
Werewolves of London – Warren Zevon
Bad Moon Rising – Creedence Clearwater Revival
