17 Halloween Party Game Ideas For Kids
Are you planning a Halloween party for this fun time of year? When October comes around do you start thinking about your celebrations? Halloween is almost as big as Christmas these days, with pumpkins, skeletons and ghosts filling the shops by the end of the summer, along with costumes and pumpkin spice lattes!
If you’re having a Halloween party you need to play some games! Whether it’s to fill the time before the food is ready or to keep the kids occupied before their parents collect them, here are some ghoulish games to play.
Here are a whole bunch of kid-friendly games for a Halloween party so when October 31st arrives you can have lots of fun at your Halloween party.
Ideas For Kid-Friendly Halloween Party Games
- Pin the Wart on the Witch’s Nose
You have probably heard of Pin The Tail On The Donkey, well this is a great variation on it!
Print up a big picture of a witch - if you are artistic you can draw one - and get lumps of green playdoh, blindfold each child and let them put a green wart on the witch’s face in turn. Whoever gets their wart the closest to the tip of the nose wins!
- Apple Bobbing
Apple bobbing is the traditional Halloween game.
Float apples in a bowl of water, and each player must try to get an apple with their teeth while their hands are held behind their backs. This can get messy! If it is warm enough it's best to do this outside.
- Apple Bobbing 2
Another variation on apple bobbing is to hang the apples on string and the players have to eat the apple. again without touching it with their hands.
If you can't get hold of apples with the stalks still attached, bore a hole trough the apple with a skewer and thread the string through.
You could also try this game with ring doughnuts, bagels or ring biscuits, which is a bit easier for younger children.
- Apple Peeling
Apples are a theme for Halloween as it comes so soon after apples have been harvested.
Seeing who can peel an apple the fastest is another traditional Halloween game. For safety always only let the children use a straight vegetable peeler rather than a knife for this game.
- Longest Apple Peel
See who can peel the longest continuous apple peel, also usuing your vegetable peeler.
Traditionally on Halloween night, a popular superstition is that if you peel an apple and throw the skin over your shoulder and it will form the initial of the person you are to marry.
You may feel that the kids are a little young to be considering marriage quite yet, but you could have the kids throw the peel over their shoulder and see if it resembles a letter.
- Musical Zombies
This is a spooky and fun variant on Musical Statues. Find some suitable Halloween Music - anything from Monster Mash to Saint-Saens’ ‘Danse Macabre’ goes down well with children, - and play this version of musical statues.
Instead of dancing the kids pretend to be zombies then must stand still when the music stops.
- Wrap the Mummy
This old favourite requires a little preparation, as you will need some bandages ready for this.
You could tear up strips of an old sheet, or use toilet paper or kitchen roll and see who can wrap up their friend the fastest.
This game requires a bit of teamwork, as you will need to get your partygoers to team up in twos.
- Halloween Scavenger Hunt
Scavenger hunts are great fun and for your can choose one with a theme sutable for the season, for example an autumn nature scavenger hunt.
Alternatively you could get them to look out for seasonal decorations such as pumpkins, skeltons, bats, cobwebs and more around the neighbourhood or hidden around the party venue.
- Sleeping Vampires
If things are getting a bit boisterous and the children are rather over-excited, you can calm things down with this gothic version of sleeping lions.
Get everyone to lie on the floor and pretend to be asleep lying silently in the crypt; the player who stays still the longest is the winner.
- Halloween Wordsearch Printable
Another calming activity for your party is this free Halloween Printable Wordsearch, which includes lots of spooky words relating to Halloween.
- Feely Box
If you've ever seen "I'm a Celebrity", where the contestants have to put their hand into a box to guess the contents, well this is the same idea.
Add plastic spiders, bats, creepy crawlies, small pumpkins, snakes and other spooky items into a box with just an arm-sized hole in it. They have to guess the items.
For an extra grisly touch, immerse the objects in slime or jelly.
- Halloween Colouring
Find all your black and orange pencils and do some Halloween colouring at your party.
These free printable Halloween Colouring Pictures will be a fun way to keep the kids occupied, especially for anyone who arrives early or as a way to cool down afterwards.
- Halloween Memory Match Game
Get everyone's brain working by playing a fun memory game with a cool Halloween theme.
Download this free printable game from From ABCs to ACTs which has lots of cute Halloween-themed images.
- Ghost Bowling
Ghost bowling is nice simple homemade game, which you can find the instructions for at Thriving Home Blog.
Decorate plastic cups with ghostly faces, stack them up and bowl with a soft indoor ball. See who can knock down the most cups with one bowl.
- Halloween Memory Tray
Collect a tray of halloweeny objects and cover with a cloth.
Remove the cloth for one minute while all the partygoers look hard and try to remember as many objects as they can. Cover the tray again.
The person who writes down the most objects in five minutes is the winner.
- Halloween Charades
Play a game of charades but select a list of favourite Halloween books, spine-chilling songs, supernatural plays, musicals, TV shows and Halloween movies to mime.
If you've not played before, here is how to play charades.
- Guess The Eyeballs
Fill a large see-through jar - either glass or plastic will work perfectly - with foil covered chocolate eyeballs, than ask all your guests to guess how many are in the jar.
The person whose guess is the closest to the correct number wins the whole jar of goodies.
If you are having a spooky little old Halloween party this October, this Free Printable Halloween Party Invitation To Colour would be the perfect way to invite all your friends!