With Halloween just a week away, we thought we’d share a few ideas for spooky, simple party games that your little monsters will love to play and that require relatively little effort to set up:
• Ghost Hunting: Cut out ghost shapes from white cardstock or paper (allow about 4-5 per guest). Hide them around the house and garden and have your little guests find them. (If you have different age groups of kids, you may want to give the younger ones a head start.) This is also a great game to play near the end of the party and you won’t have to provide party bags full either. Glue a small treat to each ghost before hiding, give each child an empty party bag and let them fill it with whatever they find.
• Ten-pin pumpkin bowling: Partially fill 10 similar-sized plastic bottles with small rocks and gravel, so they will stand upright and not topple over too easily. (If you have time or are feeling creative, you can also decorate them to look like monsters.) Draw a scary face on a mini pumpkin – this will be the bowling ball. Line up their bottles and let the kids take turns knocking them over with the pumpkin, keeping score as they go. The child with the highest score is the winner.
• Yucky Dip: Scoop out a pumpkin and fill it with cooked, cooled pasta. Add small packets of wrapped candy or treats and mix well. Invite your little guests to take turns in the gross dip. Keep in mind that this can get tricky!
• The Haunted Jar: Fill a jar with small candies or toys and shredded white paper (note how many candies you put in!). Each child guesses how many items are in the jar and the one who comes closest wins the treats!
• Musical Monsters: Play spooky music and make your little guests move like monsters. When the music stops, they have to stay still; if they move, they are out of the game. The last monster standing is the winner!
• Trick or Treat: Cut squares out of paper. In the middle of the squares, write ‘treat’. On the other half, write ‘trick’ on one side of the paper and a simple activity (such as ‘clucking like a witch’) on the other side. Fold the squares up and place them in a bucket (or cauldron if you want to get creative). The children then take turns removing a piece of paper from the bucket. If they pull out a ‘treat’, give them a small prize. If they roll a ‘trick’, they must complete the task written on the back before receiving their prize.
• The Graveyard Game: This is a great game to play when you want to calm down the party. Your little monsters lie down in the ‘cemetery’ – the child who stays still the longest is the winner.
And finally, how do monsters predict your future? They read their scope of ‘horror’!