Whether you’re
planning a party or heading over to someone else’s, these ideas are bound to
inspire terrific tricks and treats for all the family to enjoy.
DECORATIONS
You’ll want the place to look spooky. Of
course you can head straight to the shop to buy the decs, OR you can think
bats, cats, ghosts and pumpkins and let your inner-artist go! Whichever way you
do it, decorating your venue or a room at home for the occasion will be great
fun if you get the children involved. There are plenty of websites offering
ideas: Good Housekeeping and Parents have tons of
inspiration.
ARTS & CRAFTS
Scissors, tape, glue, card, bin liners, pens,
paints, paper, crepe paper, spider webs, tea lights and LED fairy lights, plus
- and this is key(!) - your imagination. That’s all you’ll need to bring to the
table. Frightening in itself? Don’t
worry, you can find witchy templates online everywhere at the moment… We like
the free downloadable ones here at tes.co/spookymakes
GAMES
Keeping the children entertained on Halloween
is simple, and anyway, by the time they’ve had their face paints applied and eaten tea,
there’s really only a short time before the trick or treating commences. Here
are some ideas to easily fill that time…
The
old-fashioned favourite, Pass The Parcel works a treat at children’s parties.
It can be adapted for Halloween of course, by simply packing it with spooky
contents. Why not layer Halloween tattoos inside, making yet another fun
activity to do straight after?
Hide
and Spook (for older children) is a favourite, and Halloween colouring sheets
from sites such as Activity Village are something that will keep the younger ones busy.
Blindfold
games are obligatory, as children love them. Obviously you’ll be planning a
spot of apple bobbing. According to a recent study, the apples to use are
Galas. They scored top marks for buoyancy, bite and stem length. Who knew?
An
intriguing game is to set a large bowl of jelly and place it on a tray inside a bin liner.
Blindfold the children, letting them take turns putting their hand into the bag
(and therefore the jelly). Ugh. How unnerving? Put
small treasures inside the jelly for them to uncover.
The
new Midnight Creatures book published last month is a pop up shadow and search game asking children to switch off the
lights, turn on their torch and spot the hidden creatures when they appear as
shadows on the wall. Or turn off the light
and turn on the torch and let their imaginations run riot with the help of a
set of adventurous ghost story dice. Both from Lawrence
King
FOOD
Pumpkin is great for carving
Halloween lanterns, but its sweet flesh makes it a treat to eat, too.
The smaller the pumpkin, the more flavour it will have. Why not try it in a
curry, risotto or sweet pie? Or for a children’s party, the flesh would make
super pumpkin cupcakes. Try with a
cinnamon cream cheese icing for a brilliant autumnal treat.
A cold buffet is easiest, with all the usual -
think sandwiches, crisps, sausage rolls, fruit, carrots/cucumber and dips.
Ideas for great kid’s party finger food (quite literally) could be sausage
bleeding fingers inside a ghost wrap, which can be made by cutting out ghost
faces in the soft tortilla, served with a red blood dip (think a tomato sauce
or salsa based concoction).
Turn ice cream cones upside down on top of a
turned out pot of jelly (add eyes to the ice cream scoop) to make a fun witch
for dessert.
A super way to serve the children’s drink is
to make a bowl of juice (punch style) with floating eyeballs or a frozen hand?
Pour water into a rubber glove, tie it off and freeze it. You’ll be able to cut
off the glove at the time of use, creating a foul looking ice statue.
COSTUME
Award-winning Morph
Costumes have a fantastic range of
horrifically awesome suits to terrify friends and family with on October
31st. We like the child-size glow in the dark skeleton!
This post first appeared on the Eden blog