How to throw a kids Halloween party – spooky, fun and fang-tastic.

Updated On: November 08, 2023 by   Sara Lynch

Ok so you’re in charge of throwing a Halloween party for a bunch of kids, now what? There is so much to think about and plan in order to host a spook-tacular Halloween party. With our tips and tricks (pun intended) you can ensure that your Halloween party goes down in history as a beloved childhood memory.

For a fang-tastic Halloween party, you need to organise: 

• Decorations  
• Food and drink 
• Music 
• Games 
• Activities

No matter what your budget, time or space is, you can still host a great Halloween party for kids and your guests. Read our party guide for some inspiration and guidance on throwing a frightfully fun kids Halloween party. 

Decorations for a kids Halloween party 

Halloween décor is essential to the success of a Halloween party. It sets the scene and lets guests know that Halloween is happening here. 

Much of the party for kids is in the cool decorations they only see on Halloween. There are so many creative ways you can decorate the place, from creepily placed cobwebs to blood scattered walls, make sure you create a home fit for Halloween. 

Some of the decorations you might want to use include: 

• Fake cobwebs
• Crime scene tape
• Fake blood
• Broomsticks
• Spooky bunting
• Cutouts of bats and monsters
• Creepy confetti 
• Pumpkins
• Black and orange balloons
• Halloween lights
• Halloween window stickers

Some party hosts even choose to decorate their party with life size Halloween figures like vampires, skeletons or ghosts. Check out this witch from Amazon who cackles at the sound of guests arriving. 

Where to buy Halloween decorations?

There are many more decorations you can use for spooking-up your Halloween party. Online stores like Amazon and local supermarkets should have a good range of Halloween decorations available, but you could also find them in fancy dress stores and in home retail shops. 

Make your own Halloween decorations

You could also make your own Halloween decorations for your party if you have the time and energy to do so. There are loads of suggestions online that you could follow, or you can get creative and see what you come up with yourself. 

Lots of the ideas online use household items such as string, black bags and paper for creating Halloween decor. It might even be a nice Halloween activity that the whole family could enjoy. 

Whatever Halloween décor you decide to go for, it will be sure to create a fang-tastcially frightening experience for all of your little guests. 

Food and drink for a kids Halloween party 

Halloween gives you a real opportunity to get creative with the food and drink served. You can easily creep out classic party food and make it visually entertaining for the kids to squeal at and enjoy. 

Some of the ways you might like to spook-up your party food include: 

Witches carrot fingers

Simply cut some carrots to look like fingers. It doesn’t matter if they look crooked and gross, they are supposed to look like witches’ fingers. Serve with salsa to look like they are being dipped in blood, or serve with any other dip that your guests will enjoy. 

Spooky fruit 

A simple yet great way to present Halloween finger food. You can use oranges to look like mini pumpkins – either paint a pumpkin face to their skin or peel them and top them off with little bits of celery. Bananas also make for great ghosts, you can dip them in white chocolate and top them off with chocolate eyes, call them Boonanas. 

Chuck a few eyeballs in for flavour

Ok they are not real eyeballs, but still very creepy. Throw some fake eyeballs into your party drinks and watch the kids pick them out and squeam. You just need to ensure that the eyeballs used are large so that they don’t cause a choking hazard. 

Any red type of juice is also a great way to serve “blood” to the kids at your Halloween party. You could use cherry or raspberry soda, cranberry juice or even berry cordial, anything but real blood!

Spider cookies

Another relatively easy Halloween twist on party food is spider cookies. Just take a batch of plain cookies and attach the spider’s body with melted chocolate, the spider’s body could be a malteaser, reeses piece or Lindt chocolate. Once you have the spider body secure, simply draw 8 spider legs with the remaining chocolate, an icing bag would work best for this. 

Let the cookies chill for a while in the fridge until the chocolate hardens. You can also add on edible eyes for that extra squeamish scare. 

Candy apples 

What Halloween party would be complete without candy apples? They are a staple of Halloween celebrations and a much anticipated yearly treat. Tesco’s offer a range of candy apples, topped with chocolate, candy, marshmallows or sprinkles. Although you could make your own candy apples, it will work out much cheaper and you can customise them depending on your guests’ taste. 

Another idea might be to leave the candy apples as an activity for the kids to enjoy at the Halloween party. Just simply prepare apples, lollipop sticks and toppings and let the kids go wild creating their own. It will create a great memory at the party and they can have fun making their own tasty treat. 

For more ideas on Halloween themed food and drink, check out this blog!

Music for a kids Halloween party

A party isn’t complete without a fun musical soundtrack. For a kids Halloween party, you can include some cheesy and spooky tunes to get everyone in the Halloween mood. Some tracks that you might want to include in your Halloween party playlist include: 

1. Monster Mash – Bobby Pickett
2. Jump in the Line – Beetlejuice / Harry Belafonte 
3. Ghostbusters – Ray Parker 
4. This is Halloween – Nightmare before Christmas / Danny Elfman
5. Oogie Boogie’s Song – Nightmare before Christmas / Ed Ivory  
6. Thriller – Michael Jackson 
7. A Put a Spell on You – Hocus Pocus
8. Come Little Children – Hocus Pocus
9. Somebody’s Watching Me – Rockwell
10. Scooby-Scooby Doo, Where Are You? – The Scobby Gang 

If you don’t have the time to individually select spooky tracks, you can just use a pre-made Halloween playlist on Spotify or use this video Youtube. 

Kids games for a Halloween party

Another big part of throwing a Halloween party for kids is ensuring that there will be some fun games in store. This will help create a memorable Halloween party that they will remember fondly for years to come. 

Some ideas for Halloween party games include: 

Bobbing apples 

A classic Halloween party game is bobbing for apples. Simply fill a large bucket or basin full of drinkable water and put a load of apples in it. Kids will then take turns to dunk their heads in the water and attempt to grab an apple out using only their mouths. 

This game is great for creating funny and chaotic energy. Some versions of the game also put small slits in the apples and fill it with loose change. If a kid picks out that apple, they will win all of the money stuck in it.  

Halloween Pinata 

Another great Halloween game that kids will enjoy is Pinata. It’s a game where you fill a hollow object with candy and let the kids beat it with sticks until it breaks and the candy falls out.

You can buy Halloween versions of a pinata such as a witch or pumpkin, etc. Amazon is currently supplying a Halloween spider pinata for just £15, but it doesn’t come with sticks to beat it with or candy to fill it with. 

Halloween Pinata is a great way to let the kids blow off steam and burn some energy, although the sugar rush that comes afterwards may counteract that benefit. 

Witches hat ring toss 

Another great take on a popular game is the witches hat ring toss. Simply lay out some witches hats and provide kids with light rings to toss at them. The aim of the game is to get as many rings as you can, land on the point of the witches hat. 

This game may bring out the competitive nature of kids (and perhaps adults). It’s a sure way to get people engaged and enjoying the party. You might also want to include some prizes for the winner of this game. 

Activities for a kids Halloween party 

For a truly memorable Halloween party, you could also include some activities that would be fun for kids to participate in. Halloween activities do not have to be demanding or exhaustive, but they do add that extra bit of magic into your party. 

Prize for the best dressed

A great way to celebrate Halloween for kids, is to offer a prize for the best Halloween costume. This will help build excitement for the party and encourage the kids to really think about their costume and what they want to dress up as. 

The prize doesn’t have to be a big one, even a small bar of chocolate or a couple quid will make a kid feel really proud of themselves and their Halloween outfit. You could also offer out some prizes for the most-scariest costume or the best dressed vampire etc. 

For some inspiration on Halloween costumes, check out this blog!

Best zombie impersonation 

Another way to guarantee some party laughs is to have a competition for the ‘best zombie impersonation’. Let the kids enjoy the spotlight for a couple moments whilst they try their best to act like a zombie. Even adults can join in for this one to make a funny fool of themselves. You might even want to set aside a couple of prizes for those who do the best zombie impersonations. 

Pumpkin carving 

Pumpkin carving is a popular activity that you can include in your own Halloween party. 

It’s a Halloween activity that everyone knows and it will give the kids a chance to show off their artistic talent, carving skills and creativity. 

Kids will need to be supervised by adults during this activity, especially if they are using sharp tools like knives. Let them get their hands dirty though and scoop out the pumpkin’s innards, it gross, slimy and perfect for Halloween. 

Why didn’t the skeleton go to the party? 

• Because he had no-body to go with!

Invite all of your little monsters’ friends and their grown-up monster parents to celebrate Halloween in spooky style. A Halloween party for kids is a great way to create long-lasting memories, even if you are a skeleton with no body!