Easy and Fun Halloween Party Ideas for Kids

Halloween is an exciting time for children. One night a year you are allowed to go up to people's homes and beg for candy. How can this not be a child's dream? But trick or treating is not the only way to celebrate this great holiday. Why not throw a fun filled Halloween party for the little ones in your life?

My neighborhood is filled with children. This makes trick or treating in our neighborhood a great attraction. So since it is such a great venue to trick or treat, my house is the place to be on Halloween. So each year before trick or treating, we invite all of the kids in our life over and have a Halloween party.

Invitations for your Halloween party can be quite simple. Remember that you are entertaining children so the invitations should be appropriate. There are several ideas that you can use. Of course you can always buy your invitations. This would be quick and easy and there are many ideas out there to choose from. However, if you want to make your own invitations, here are some quick and fun ideas to get your party started. Be sure to include all of the information including date, time, location and reason for the event in your invitation along with contact information for an RSVP.

A simple invitation idea is to fold a black piece of construction paper in half and decorate it with a Halloween scene. If your kids are old enough, this would be a great activity for them to help with. You could make each invitation a little unique but be sure to include the information above. Or you could get some foam stickers that are Halloween themed and decorate the card with them. Even younger kids could do this. Be creative, that's half of the fun!

Food at a Halloween party must be both festive and tasty. Making food for a Halloween party can be both easy and fun. Just add a little creativity to your everyday foods and your treats will be transformed into a scary morsels!

The food at your party can be divided into the two culinary basics, sweet and savory. If you are planning to host your party on Halloween and end your event with trick or treating, then obviously there is not a need to over do it with the sweet treats. But even a Halloween party followed by trick or treating needs a few fun treats to make it complete.

Savory

• Monster Faces. Monster faces are very simple to make. Simply take a pre-made pizza shell (or if you are very ambitious you could make your own) and allow the kids to make their own pizza. Set out pizza sauce, cheese and a variety of toppings. Encourage them to use the toppings to create faces. For example they can use long, thin slices of ham for hair at the top, olives or pepperoni for eyes, tomato slices for the mouth, pepper slices for a nose. The possibilities are endless!
  
• Spiders. Spiders are also very easy to make and can be used as just an appetizer or you can make several for a meal. All you need are some hotdogs and some spaghetti. Slice the hotdogs into half in circles. Break spaghetti noodles into about one inch pieces. Stick eight pieces of spaghetti around the circumference of the hotdog. Be sure that you put it in far enough that it won't fall out while cooking but will leave enough to show the "legs." Boil the spiders in water for about 6 minutes or until the spaghetti legs are cooked. Viola! Spiders. You can even serve it with a side of bug blood (ketchup of course!)
  
• Mummy Dogs. Mummy dogs are very easy and filling too. All you need is a package of crescent rolls and a package of hot dogs. I'm sure that they will be a huge hit with the kids at your party!

Sweet

• Wizard Wands. Wizard wands are fun, delicious and super easy to make. They are simply pretzel rods dipped in chocolate and covered in sprinkles.
• Jack o Lantern Cake. This treat was made one year for my nephew. His birthday is just days after Halloween so at our annual gathering, I surprised him with this cake. It was very simple and a BIG hit. Just prepare two cakes according to package directions in a bundt pan. When the cakes are cooled, carefully slice off the top of the open side of the cake (not the pan side) to make a flat surface. You do not need to slice a lot, the purpose here is just to make it flat to be able to combine the two cakes. Place a layer of frosting on the cut side of one cake and then flip the other cake so the cut side of that cake also meets the frosting. Then frost the entire cake with orange frosting. Then you can add a face with black frosting. For the stem, simply frost an ice cream cone with green frosting and place it in the hole of the cake. Very simple and will get rave reviews.
• Witches Brew. Witches brew is simply your choice of punch. A simple recipe is to mix a bottle of orange juice, cranberry juice and Sprite together. To add a little spook to your punch, you can create a frozen hand to float in the middle of your punch bowl. To make your hand, take a non-latex, powder free disposable rubber glove and rinse it out. Place a fruit snack in the finger tip of each finger and fill with water. Tie the end of the glove and place flat in the freezer. Just before your party begins, cut the rubber glove and peel it away from the frozen hand. Then float it in your witches brew. It will both keep the punch cold and frighten your guests!

What's a party without some fun? Halloween parties are one of the easiest types of parties to host. Here are some sure to delight ways to entertain all of the little ghosts and goblins at your event.

• Halloween Bingo. This is an easy game for kids of all ages. Simply copy a bingo grid with FREE marked into the center. Give each child a list of pre-selected words to choose from and have them fill in the boxes. For young children, provide them with stickers to place in each box so that they don't need any extra help in writing the words. You can have the different words already written on index cards to shuffle up and turn over when the game is ready to begin.
• Mummy Wrap. This one will be great fun for all. It may be a little wasteful but sometimes that's ok in the name of fun. Have the children get into teams of 2-4 depending on the number of children at the party. Give each team a couple rolls of toilet paper. Tell each team that they have to choose one person to be the mummy and the rest will be the helpers. Teams will have 5 minutes to "wrap the mummy" in toilet paper. The teams with the most covered or best covered mummy after 5 minutes wins.
• Pin the Broom on the Witch. This game is just a spin off of pin the tail on the donkey. Instead of using a donkey and a tail, use a witch with a broom.
  
• Pumpkin Decorating Contest. This is great for kids of all ages. Just get a small pumpkin for each guest. Provide children with all kinds of materials to decorate the pumpkins. Some ideas include paint, markers, and foam stickers. There are many ways of decorating the pumpkins but try to keep away from carving them since this could be very dangerous.
• Make a Haunted Ginger Bread House. When my kids built haunted houses, the house portion was already pre-made. All they had to do was use the assortment of frosting, candy, and pretzels to decorate. This is a great way to keep the haunted house building simple, especially for younger children. My only complaint was that they used super glue to hold the graham crackers to the small milk containers. So, if you choose to go this route, you may want to use frosting or some other natural adhesion so that the kids can eat the houses later! Also, be sure to completely clean out the milk containers before you use them.
• Scavenger Hunt. If you decide to do a scavenger hunt, please remember to put safety first. Do not allow children to go to different houses without adult supervision. Simply generate a list of items that they need to collect, with a limit of one (or maybe two) per house. The first ones back with their completed lists win.

Giving a gift bag is not a necessity, however for me it is part of the fun. Kids always love to get a little something when they leave a party. So what are some things that you can give for parting gifts? Some of them can be a part of the activities that you do during the party. For example the painted pumpkins or the haunted ginger bread houses.

However, if you want something in addition to this, there are some easy ways that you can put together an inexpensive gift bag. One year I found cute little Halloween cups on sale at Target. I just filled them with some stickers and a few little trinkets like spider rings and a little activity book. It was inexpensive and the kids loved them. If you are looking for really cheap favors, Oriental Trading is a great resource. You can buy large quantities to use for class treats, parties or save for next year's party. Happy Haunting!