The Best Way to Plan a Halloween Party

halloween party ideas

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So you’re looking to celebrate this year’s Halloween with the ultimate party? It doesn’t have to be a hassle with our guide to hosting the best Halloween party for you and your friends. No matter what your budget is, we’ve got ideas for everyone. 

The first thing you’ll want to to when planning your Halloween party is decide your budget. After that, you should figure out your guest list and the time and date. Then you can move on to the fun stuff! 
 
Give your Halloween party a theme, then decorate your venue and get your food and drinks sorted. You’ll also need to think about how you will keep you’ll keep your guests entertained with some games and music! Don’t forget the costumes either! 
 
We’ll go through all this plus loads more and give you plenty of idea along the way so you can plan the ultimate Halloween party. So let’s get started! 

Halloween Party Theme Ideas

A great way to give your Halloween party the edge, is to give it a great theme. Sure, you can still host an amazing Halloween party without one, but a theme will definitely help you narrow down your decorations and make it a bit more unique. So what are some good ideas? Here are our favourite Halloween party themes! 
 

Murder Mystery 

Combine this classic game with your Halloween party to create a night to remember! Turning your party into a murder mystery event is great if you’ve got plenty of guests and are looking for a way to entertain them all evening. They take a little bit of work but the results are definitely worth it! 
 

Movie Madness

Narrow down your Halloween party to a specific horror film or take inspiration from as many as you’d like! Ask your guests to dress as their favourite horror movie characters and decorate your house with props and decor inspired by horror cult classics.
 

Zombie Apocalypse 

Transform your venue into a post apocalyptic wasteland with this zombie theme. It works even better if you’re hosting you Halloween party outdoors and is the perfect theme if you’re looking to create an eerie vibe.
 

Sinister Circus 

If you really want to creep your guests out, a circus theme is sure to do just that! Dress up as a clowns and decorate your venue with bright colours. You can even hire a mini tent for your backyard if you want to go all out!  
 

Out of This World 

This Halloween theme is a great idea if you’re looking to try something a bit different for your party. It’s a bit less spooky than the others so is perfect if you’ve got guests of all ages coming to your party. 

Halloween Decoration Ideas

Once you’ve chosen your theme, you’ll need to start decorating your venue! You can purchase plenty of Halloween decorations for great prices online, either on Amazon, Ebay or party supply shops. 
 

Shindigz is a great online party supply store that you can use to find great decoration ideas with over 34,000 party supplies for every occasion and next day delivery!  

 

Stumps Party is another awesome party supply store offering custom event supplies and regular deals and discounts. 

 
If you’re feeling adventurous, why not make your decorations yourself? It’s definitely a cheaper option and will give your Halloween party a unique flair that your guests will definitely notice.
 

10 Best DIY Halloween Party Decorations

  • Hang witch hats from light shades using invisible string to make it look like they’re mysteriously floating in the air.
  • Throw a white table cloth over a small table and fill it in eyes and a mouth with black marker pen to make it look like a cute little ghost! 
  • Carve pumpkins and put them on your porch. Colouring in oranges with marker pen also works great if you want mini pumpkin decorations.
  • Cut out a spider web template using paper or hang some white string in the corners of the room to create easy cobwebs.
  • Cut out bats on black paper using a template and use white tac to pin them across the wall near a window.
  • Wrap a cereal box in paper and spray paint it grey then decorate to create DIY tombstones. Don’t forget to put something inside them to weight them down. 
  • Melt red crayons crayons over a white candle to create some creepy bleeding candles! 
  • Spray empty glass bottles with black paint and decorate them to make easy customised potion bottles. 
  • Add some old fashioned street signs in your garden on a post directing your guests to various spooky locations like Elm Street or Salem.
  • Hang a skeleton at the top of your porch so your guests get a fright when they look up! 

Halloween Party Games and Activities

Every great Halloween party needs some games to keep the guests entertained! Here are 7 of our favourite Halloween party games and activities that you can try out! 

Apple Bobbing

This is a classic Halloween party game that’s perfect for both kids and adults. 

What you’ll need:

  • Large tub
  • 5 apples per round 

How to play:

  • Fill the tub full of water and put it in a room where you don’t mind water spilling.
  • Add all the apples and let the guests take it in turn trying to bob for dummies without using their hands.
  • Replace the water after each guest takes their turns so it doesn’t get too gross!

Wrap the Mummy!

This Halloween party game is a bit messy but a lot of fun! It’s a quick game that’s guaranteed to get your guests laughing. 

What you’ll need:

  • Plenty of loo roll!

How to play:

  • Split your guests into teams of three.
  • Each team must decide who is the “mummy” and who is doing the wrapping.
  • Set a timer for 1 minute and each team must wrap their “mummy” in loo roll covering them as much as possible.
  • You then decide which team has done the best job!

Pumpkin Carving Competition

This is a classic Halloween party activity that’s great for getting everyone involved in a bit of friendly competition. Simply grab a load of pumpkins so your guests all have one each and give them 15 minutes to carve a unique design, then you can judge the winner!

Ouija Board

This spooky Halloween party activity isn’t for the faint hearted! Set up a Ouija board on a table in a quiet and dimly-lit room with around 4-6 seats. It’s a good activity for later into the party when everyone gets a bit braver, but watch out for cheaters!

Spooky Charades

Charades is a party game classic, but you can put a Halloween party spin on it by taking inspiration from horror films, books and plays. It’s great because you don’t need anything to set it up and it’s really easy to play. 

 
What you’ll need:
  • Just your guests!

How to Play Charades:

  • Each guest needs to get in a pair. 
  • One person in the pair thinks of a book, play or film usually, but it can be anything you choose, just make sure people know the categories.
  • The player then tries to act it out without making any noise and their partner must guess what it is in under a minute.
  • If they manage to, they earn a point. 
  • Some common clues used in charades are: pretending to read a book, pretending to crank a movie camera, and pretending to sing.
  • You can hold up your fingers to indicate the number word you are trying to act out as well.

Who Am I?

This the perfect ice breaker game to play at a Halloween party and is great for large groups. 

What you’ll need:

  • Post-it note for each guest
  • A Pen

How to Play:

  • Write the name of a celebrity on a post-it note and ask each guest to put it on their forehead.
  • They must then ask yes or no answer style questions to try and figure out which celebrity’s name they’ve been given.
  • The first to guest to guess correctly wins!

Halloween Pictionary

Pictionary is the perfect game for a relaxed Halloween party with close friends. It’s a favourite for lots of people and has a great competitive edge. 

What You’ll Need:

  • Paper 
  • Pen
  • Timer

How to Play Pictionary:

  • Get into pairs and choose who is the artist and who is guessing.
  • The artist starts drawing a picture from a pre-selected secret list and their partner must guess what they are drawing.
  • If they guess in under a minute, the pair earns a point.
halloween party food

Halloween Party Food Ideas

Don’t forget about the treats too! You’ll need to make sure you put out some food for your guests to keep them happy and your Halloween party.
 
We think buffet style food is best. Since Halloween parties are mostly held at night, your guests will have already eaten their dinner so won’t need much food at the party. Which is great to keep the cost down! 
 

10 Tasty Halloween party Snacks

  • Caramel apples are a staple at Halloween parties. These tasty treats can be decorated as creatively as you’d like, are super easy to make and great for both kids and adults! 
  • Dip pretzels in white icing to make some cute magic wands that taste great and are really quick to prepare. 
  • Throw some popcorn in a cauldron style bowl for the easiest Halloween party snack ever. Add some edible glitter or chocolate frogs to make it even better. 
  • Prepare rice crispy cakes and add a touch of pink colouring to make them look like brains!
  • Carve out a small pumpkin, pop it on a tray and fill it’s mouth with guacamole and spread it on the tray to make a puking pumpkin surrounded by nachos and more dips. 
  • Cut peppers to make them look like pumpkins and fill them with cheese and chilli to create some spooky stuffed peppers.
  • Dip ice cream cones in black icing and decorate to make witches hats for quick and fun snack.
  • Don’t forget to make some pumpkin pie for a festive and tasty dessert option! 
  • Get creative and decorate cookies and cupcakes with icing and sprinkles. They’re always a popular choice and you’ll get the chance to impress your guests with your baking skills!   
  • Deviled eggs are a classic party food snack. They look great, are super tasty and don’t take long to prepare. They’re also perfect because they don’t need heating up. 

Halloween Party Drinks

Don’t forget to keep your guests refreshed with some Halloween themed party drinks! Make sure you serve non-alcoholic options to keep everyone happy. Here are our favourite Halloween party drink ideas to give you some inspiration! They’re all really easy to make, taste great and can be made in batches. 

Blood Red Party Punch

Ingredients per serving:

  • 50 ml vodka
  • 25 ml peach schnapps 
  • 100 ml cranberry juice

Simply mix all the ingredients in a beaker and add ice!

Poison Appletini 

Ingredients per serving:

  • 25 ml vodka
  • 15 ml sour apple liqueur
  • Juice from half a lemon

Mix all the ingredients in a cocktail shaker with ice, strain and garnish with an apple slice.

Witches Brew (non-alcoholic)

Ingredients per serving:

  • Lemonade 500ml
  • Small handful of Raspberries
  • Sugar syrup 25ml
  • Juice from 1/2 Lemon 
  • 1/2 teaspoon of edible purple pearl dust

Simply mix the raspberries, edible pearl dust, lemonade, lemon juice and sugar syrup in a cocktail shaker with ice, strain and serve. 

Jellyfish Shot 

Ingredients per shot:

  • 30ml Creme de Cacao
  • 15ml Amaretto
  • 15ml Irish Cream
  • Few drops of grenadine

Add creme de cacao to a shot glass and then layer amaretto on top by pouring it over the back of a spoon. Layer the Irish cream over the top of the amaretto and then add a few drops of grenadine.

Radioactive Waste Shot

Ingredients per shot:

  • 15 ml Vodka
  • 7.5 ml Lemon Juice
  • 7.5 ml Simple Syrup (1:1 mix of sugar melted into water)
  • Sprinkle of green edible pearl dust. 

Shake all the ingredients in a cocktail shaker with ice. Strain into a chilled shot glass. 

Take a look at the 10 best party drinks and 10 best party shots for some more recipes!

Halloween Party Music

You’ll also need to get your guests dancing with some great music. It’s really easy to create your own playlist and play it at your Halloween party. All you’ll need is Apple Music, a mobile phone, AUX lead and some decent speakers. Check out our party playlist tips for everything you need to know!

Here are some spooky songs to get you started.

  • Thriller by Michael Jackson
  • Ghosbusters by Ray Parker, Jr.
  • Disturbia by Rhianna
  • Zombie by the Cranberries
  • Highway to Hell by AC/DC
  • Sweet But Psycho by Ava Max
  • I Put a Spell on You by Marilyn Manson
  • Monster by Lady Gaga
  • Demons by Imagine Dragons
  • Cannibal by Kesha
  • Kernkraft 400 by Zombie Nation 
  • Poison by Alice Cooper
  • Creep by Radiohead
  • Hungry Like the Wolf by Duran Duran

Apple Music is the perfect way to create a party playlist. It’s intelligent recommendation feature makes it really quick to add songs to create the perfect track list and it’s cross fade feature makes seamless song transitions. It’s only $9.99/ £9.99 per month and you can get a free 3 month trial to check it out. And don’t worry, you can use it on Android devices too!

Join over 50 million subscribers and sign up for your 3 month free trial today! 

Throw in Some Karaoke

Everyone loves showing off their singing talents (or lack of). So why not involve some karaoke at your party to keep you and your guests entertained? 
 
Your venue might already have a set up, but if not, then you can hire or buy a karaoke machine, some microphones and a screen for a pretty reasonable price online. You can purchase some ready made karaoke CDs as a package too. Some places even let you create your own set list so you can choose your favourite songs! 

Halloween Party Costume Competition

Encourage your guests to get involved in the fancy dress spirit by hosting a Halloween costume competition! Remind your guests about it on the invitation so they know about the incentive of putting the effort in. You can give out a small prize to the winner for an added bonus!

If you’re looking for some great Halloween costumes, then look no further than HalloweenCostumes.com. They’ve got all the fancy dress costumes you could ever need and ship to over 200 countries!

Need some inspiration? Head over to our post on the 10 best Halloween costume ideas to make sure you dress to impress. 

Fun.com is a online huge party supply store that has loads of great costumes to choose from!

best Halloween costumes

Halloween Party Supplies

You’ll also need some party supplies if you’re hosting your Halloween party at home. Here’s a checklist to make sure you don’t miss anything important!

  • Plates
  • Cups
  • Cutlery
  • Table cloth
  • Napkins
  • Shot glasses
  • Wine glasses

Ebay and Amazon are you great for party supplies and decorations. But you can also have a look at your local party supply store for some great budget ideas.   

Set a Budget

You need to make sure you set a budget for your Halloween party before getting too carried away with the food, decorations and drinks. It doesn’t matter if you’ve not got much to spend, just make sure you have an exact figure, then write it down and stick to it like glue. 
 
Once you’ve decided the amount you want to spend, you’ll need to track everything to make sure you don’t go over budget. 

Creating an excel document is the easiest way to do this. Simply use the formulas to track how much you’ve spent and how much money you’ve got left. This way, you won’t lose track and overspend! 
 
If you want some advice on planning your party without overspending, check out our quick tips to help plan a party on a budget

Finalise the Guest List

The first thing you’ll need to do when planning your Halloween party, is decide on your guest list. 
 
You might have already figured out who’s coming to your Halloween party and if you have then you can skip ahead. But if you’re not sure, first think about how much space you have and go from there. Then think about the cost of the food and drink per person and decide on the number of guests you can afford to cater for. 

After you’ve decided how many guests to invite to your dinner party, decide exactly who’s coming.

Choose the Best Time

Since Halloween parties are usually held at night, you should aim for a start time of around 9-10pm. Most Halloween parties last around 3-4 hours. This is usually enough time for plenty of food, games and fun! 

We think Saturday is the best day to host a party at night, because your guests won’t have to rush back from work to get ready in time. But if Saturday isn’t an option, then Friday will still work well. Just remember to avoid weeknights if you’re hosting at night!

How to Host a Halloween Party at Home

Hosting your Halloween party at home is a great way to keep the cost down, but what if you don’t have a lot of space? Well, there’s no need to worry because we’ve got some top tips for hosting a Halloween party in a small space.

Get Rid of Any Clutter

The first thing you need to do to maximise your party space is get rid of all the clutter. Furniture or ornaments that don’t serve a purpose at your Halloween party need to go elsewhere. Moving clutter either upstairs or in a garage is a great way to help host a party in a small space.

Think About Re-arranging the Furniture

Stackable chairs are a great space saver. You can have them upstairs to keep your main party space free, and bring them out if more of your guests want to sit down. 

If your living room is square-shaped, rather than rectangular, it’s best to have all of your furniture on the edge of the room and your food and drinks tables in the middle to maximise the space. Your guests are likely to congregate around tables, so dot them around to spread people out. You can have a few different small tables to ensure your guests can move between them without creating a queue. 

But if your space is narrower instead, it can be a good idea to have one long table in the centre with all your food and drink. Then you can place chairs around the edge. This will create a flow around the area that prevents congestion when your guests are moving about. 

If you don’t have enough room for many chairs, you can always throw down some pillows and blankets. It’s a good space saver because more people can usually fit on a blanket than a bench and it’ll take up less room. 

Have Plenty of Bins

Make sure there are enough bins at various places in your house. Number one, it’ll make the cleaning up process a lot quicker. Plus it’ll stop more people getting up and moving around creating congestion if there is a bin near them. Having a lot of people moving about is what makes your area seem smaller. When people are sat down and settled, you’re likely to feel the effects of a small space a lot less. 

Stagger the Arrival Time

Another thing you can do that’ll help you host a Halloween party in a small space, is to stagger the arrival time. Having a large window for your guests to arrive, stops a massive influx of people at one time. This will make it seem like the area is larger, because trying to cram everyone in at once will highlight a small space even more. 

Halloween Party Invitations

So now you’ve got all the essentials sorted, you’re in a position to start sending your Halloween party invitations. But there are a few options to consider when deciding what format to send your invites.  

You can mail invitations that you’ve created using a Microsoft programme like Powerpoint or Office. This way is much quicker to create a lot of invitations and you can design them however you like without needing to know a lot about IT. 

Our favourite way of creating professional looking invitations easily is to use Canva. It’s a website that allows you to create a range of graphic design media using a range of ready-made templates. They look great, are really easy to create and you can print out as many as you need. 

If you want an easy and quick way of sending your invitations, make a Facebook event. It’ll allow you to add everyone in one go, and keeps a track of everyone’s response so you know exactly who’s coming.

Whichever option you choose, there’s a few things that need including on your invitations.

  • Date and time
  • Location
  • RSVP instruction
  • Theme (if you’ve chosen one)

Halloween Party Planning Timeline

So now you know everything you need to do to plan the ultimate Halloween party, but when should you do it? Here’s a quick Halloween party planning timeline to help keep you on track!

8 Weeks Before

  • Set a budget
  • Make your guest list
  • Book the venue
  • Choose a party theme

4 Weeks Before

  • Send your invitations
  • Create your menu
  • Shop for your party supplies
  • Decide on the music

1 Week Before

  • Plan any games and activities
  • Follow up with any guests that haven’t responded to your invites

1-2 Days Before

  • Shop for the food

Day of the Party

  • Prepare the food
  • Decorate your venue
  • Prepare the tables
  • Set up any games and music
  • Get your camera charged and make sure it’s got plenty of storage space available

So that’s it! Now you have plenty of ideas to plan the perfect Halloween  party. We hope you have a great time!

Don’t forget to take a look at our party planning timeline to make sure you’ve got everything covered. It’ll tell you everything you need to do at each stage of the party planning process so you can create an amazing party without any stress or worry about forgetting anything! It even includes a free printable party planning checklist to make sure you stay on track. 

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