Halloween Party Activities for Children of All Ages

Organizing a Halloween party for your child is a great way to insure their safety. Halloween falls on a Wednesday this year. Because it falls on a school night many parents across the country will choose to have organized activities to insure their little ones will be in bed on time so that they can get up early school the next day.

A well thought out party plan can be more entertaining and just as fun as door-to-door trick or treating. Send out invitations at least 2 weeks before the party. Your child may like to make the invitations themselves. List the evening's activities in the invitation along with what time the party will begin and end.

Have a costume party; prizes can be given for the scariest, or funniest costume.

Ask the attending adults to dress up too; there is no reason why the kids should have all the fun.

Serve some scary foods. Such as, punch with eyeballs (peeled grapes) floating in it. Cupcakes decorated with gummy worms. Use food dye to make average foods creepy. Make deviled eggs and add green dye to the filling tell them they are rotten eggs. Be creative, the party food ideas are endless.

Dunking for apples is an American tradition; no Halloween party would be complete without this activity. Use a large container filled with luke-warm water to float the apples in. Make sure the container is not too deep for the child to get to the apples.

Provide Halloween party activities that are fun and even some even a little scary.

Carving jack-o-lanterns is a good idea, when all the children are done put a glow stick in each jack-o-lantern and turn off the lights. Set in a circle on the floor and tell ghostly stories around the lit up jack-o-lanterns. Remember you don't want the little ones having nightmares, so not too scary. Keep the stories age appropriate.

Have a spider hunt. The little ones really like this activity. Hide plastic spiders all around the party area, tell the children who ever collects the most spiders by the end of the party gets a prize.

Make a story interactive; keep the light very dim so that the objects you pass around cannot be easily identified. Use peeled grapes for eyeballs, cooked spaghetti for guts, cooked rice for maggots, cabbage leaves that have been lightly steamed for skin, a peeled tomato makes a good heart or if you're more daring use raw liver for the heart. Pass these things around the story while telling the scary story.

Have a graveyard treasure hunt. Make a graveyard in your back yard. Cut headstones out of cardboard or Styrofoam board. Make the epitaphs scary or funny depending on the age of the children; on the headstones write clues that lead to the treasures. Hide small toys and candy in various places in the graveyard. Create a spooky atmosphere by stringing some fake cobwebs through the graveyard, hang a ghost or body in a tree. At dusk take a walk in the graveyard letting the children take their lighted jack-o-lanterns as their only light source. Tell them the clues are located on the headstones, set back and let them hunt the treasure until it is all found.

If the children are older, preteen or teenagers play a game of Fear Factor. There are an abundance of foods at the supermarket that do not fit into the average American diet. Pick up some pickled pig's feet, clam juice, sardines, chicken feet, squid and whatever weird off the wall foods you find at the store. Challenge the contestants to eat these. The one who is brave enough to try each of the chosen selections gets the prize. Gross is a word you will hear over and over during a fear factor game.

At the end of the party send your guests home with treat bags and small novelties, like the spiders you used to decorate with.

Remember to keep the Halloween party activities suited to the age of those being entertained. Older children may like to be scared but the younger ones just want to have fun.