Five Fun Halloween Game Ideas

When it comes to Halloween, the first activity most of us think about is trick-or-treating. That's certainly a big part of it, but what about those who are too old to solicit candy or just don't want to? And how about the parents who prefer that their children stay in one place on the holiday?

In these cases and more, Halloween parties are a fun alternative. They give us a chance to dress in costume and have a good time without going door-to-door. But in order for a Halloween party to be successful, there must be some Halloween-themed activities. Here are five games to consider for your Halloween shindig:

1. Pumpkin bowling – Bowling is a fun game any time of the year. But using pumpkins instead of bowling balls gives it a Halloween flavor. For pins, use empty 2-liter soda bottles. If you like, paint them white and draw eyes and mouths on them so that they look like ghosts. Then you can either fill them with water and freeze them or add a cup of sand or pebbles to help them stand up. Provide a prize for every strike, or for high scores.

2. Bobbing for apples – This is one game that has been featured at Halloween parties for many years. Fill a large tub with water, and add several apples. Have participants hold their hands behind their backs and try to catch an apple in their mouths. This can get messy, so do it outdoors if possible and keep some towels on hand.

3. Pin the nose on the jack o'lantern – Draw a large jack o'lantern, omitting the nose. Cut a nose out of black construction paper, and place a thumbtack through it. Blindfold guests, spin them around a few times, and point them in the right direction. The one who gets the nose closest to the right position wins.

4. Wrap the mummy – For this game, you will need several rolls of toilet paper. Divide players into groups of three or four, and give each group a roll of toilet paper. Each group designates one person as the mummy, and the other players do the wrapping. The first group to wrap the mummy using the whole roll of toilet paper wins.

5. Doughnut on a string – This is another oldie but goodie. Hang donuts from the ceiling with string. Each player must attempt to eat the entire doughnut without using his hands. The first one to finish his doughnut wins. For best results (and least mess), use plain doughnuts.

These games are sure to liven up any Halloween party. Your guests will have a hair-raisingly good time!

Halloween ‘Howl To’s’

(ARA) - As Halloween approaches, the seasonal "to-do" list, typically marked with finding the perfect costume and trick-or-treat route, is a bit more complicated with the growing need to protect the environment and manage household budgets. In preparing for your neighborhood ghosts and goblins, try these easy tips and tricks to "go green," and spend less on your families' spook-tacular celebration.

Howl to be Green

Incorporating small changes into your holiday preparation will go a long way to create an eco-friendly Halloween. Whether you're hosting a party or adding colorful flare to the home or office, take inventory of your decorations and go back to nature by using locally-grown pumpkins, apples or fresh gourds to create tabletop and front porch accents. Organic, pesticide-free produce is widely available at farmers markets, grocery and specialty stores and leaves little waste once the celebration ends.

Also look for ways to "re-use" your Halloween accessories. Cloth or canvas shopping bags and pillowcases are great alternatives to paper, plastic bags and more traditional plastic jack-o-lanterns used by many trick-or-treaters to collect candy. Gather fall-colored scraps of fabric, ribbon, buttons or food coloring and spend the afternoon with the kids decorating a recyclable trick-or-treat bag. Use the custom creation to hand out candy at your door and your house will be the hit of the neighborhood.

Howl to Save

Spend less this Halloween by using old or outgrown clothes, sports equipment or dress-up items to make one-of-a-kind costumes. Unpack your graduation gown and buy a gavel at a thrift or prop store to transform your trick-or-treater into a judge. Dust off a wedding gown or bridesmaid's dress, polish an old pair of pumps and grab a wig from a costume store and you've got a princess. Host a costume trading party and make sure everyone comes with old clothing or accessories to trade. Let the kids use their imaginations and see how many new and different costumes come to life.

You can also save by using recyclable household materials to decorate. Bed sheets hung from the ceiling or tree branches make convincing ghosts, as do balloons covered with a white sheet, tied with a ribbon around the neck and black felt tapped on for eyes. The sheets can be taken down, laundered and returned to the linen closet once Halloween is over.

Howl to Have Fun at Home

Consider baking at home this year to get everyone in the Halloween mood. Find unique recipes for Halloween treats that can be used as decorations or centerpieces before you indulge.

Gather everyone around and make creepy "edible eyeballs" with mini white powdered donuts, Life Savers Gummies, red icing and chocolate chips. Cover the hole in the center of the donut with a thin layer of icing and top with a gummy. Next, dip the bottom of a chocolate chip in icing before layering it on the gummy. Make the eyeball scary by drawing lines from the center of the donut to the outer edge with red icing. Finish the treat by poking each donut with a lollipop stick and arranging them in a bowl of candy corn to make a freaky yet tasty centerpiece.

Howl to Be Safe

Set the seasonal mood by decorating trees and sidewalks with lights and lanterns while making it easier for trick-or-treaters to find their way from door to door. Neat, well-lit landscapes make everyone feel more comfortable and confident.

Another simple way to help ghosts and goblins find their way door to door is to use makeup to finish a costume as an alternative to masks. Face paint makes it much easier for trick-or-treaters to see … especially at night.

Courtesy of ARAcontent

Halloween Bingo

Halloween (sometimes written as "Hallowe'en") is a traditional holiday celebrated on October 31st. According to some, the modern holiday of Halloween has its roots in the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain, which marks the end of the harvest season. The actual word "Halloween" (and the alternate form of "Hallowe'en") derives from "All Hallow Even", which means the eve of "All Hallows' Day" (known today as "All Saints' Day"), which is of course a date of Christian feast day in honour of all the saints, known and unknown.

Nowadays Halloween is celebrated in the United States of America, the United Kingdom, Ireland, to some extent in Australia and New Zealand. Additionally, the holiday is beginning to catch on in other countries such as The Netherlands and Malta, and many Latin American countries celebrate a similar holiday, "Night of the Witches" (Spanish: Noche de las Brujas, on the same date as Halloween.

There are many traditions associated with Halloween, including bonfires, costume parties, carving jack-o-lanterns from pumpkins, and of course trick-or-treating. Schools and community groups also celebrate Halloween, and group activities and games such as bobbing for apples and various divination games are popular. One activity that you might not have considered for the occasion is Halloween bingo.

Halloween bingo is just like normal bingo, except for you play using words or phrases connected to Halloween (such as "black cat", "candy apple", "ghost", "haunted house" or "witch") rather than numbers. It's easy to get such bingo cards - you can simply print them from your computer, either by using ready-made free Halloween bingo printables, or by using affordable but easy-to-use bingo card generator software (which can create any kind of bingo cards that you might want in effectively unlimited quantities).

By S. Tanna. For free Halloween bingo card printables, please go to http://www.bingocardscreator.com/bingo_holiday_halloween.php

To create your own custom bingo cards, please go to http://www.bingocardprinter.com/

Halloween Scavenger Hunt for Younger Kids

A scavenger hunt is a fun activity that not only provides a chance for kids to get outside before the weather gets colder, but it can help them think creatively too. There are a few different ways to do a scavenger hunt. Depending on where you live, you can have different kinds of scavenger hunts. If the children are too young to go on their own, you can team them up with older children or adults or even have small teams.

Nature Scavenger Hunt – If you live in a rural area or have a park near by, you could have a nature scavenger hunt. Make a list of things readily available that are safe for the children to collect, such as a maple leaf (maybe of specific color), pine cones, different color rocks, acorns, etc. Give each child or team a list and a paper bag to collect their treasures. You could even hide some things in the area they will be searching such as mini pumpkins or pre-wrapped treats.

Decorations Scavenger Hunt – This will take a bit more planning; yet can be a lot of fun. Go around your neighborhood looking for interesting and unique decorations. Make note of the address, name of the family or possibly stores. Then give a list describing the decorations and the children have to find the location where the decorations reside and write it down. If they aren’t old enough to write, be sure your teams are split with older children or adults.

Costume Scavenger Hunt – Sometimes businesses, malls or plazas have a Trick or Treat time earlier in the day and have their employees dress in costumes. List several different costumes they might find and see who can find the most costumes on the list. They could have the person sign their paper when they find the different costumes.

Photo Scavenger Hunt – If you have enough adults with either Polaroid or digital cameras, you can have a photo scavenger hunt. This is a good alternative to having the children gather things, especially if you live in an urban area where there may not be many things the kids can collect legally. Once all the teams are back to the starting point, they can compare pictures to determine the winner. This also allows for people to find the same thing and have a more specific list of items. This can be done for more than one age group, by having more obvious clues for the younger children and more difficult ones for the older kids.

If the weather isn’t nice, you can have an indoor scavenger hunt and hide things around the house. Some rules will need to be given such as if a door is closed, that room doesn’t have any of the items in it. Give clues for the items they are looking for and a bag for collecting. Candy, apples, mini pumpkins, small toys and Halloween themed items are great for indoor scavenger hunts and lots of fun for the kids.

7 Halloween Games for Kids

Part of the fun of Halloween is playing silly games. When planning the games, it’s best to keep the costumes in mind and plan things that will work around them. Games should be simple with easy to follow rules.

Bobbing for Apples – A classic Halloween party game has always been bobbing for apples, however some kids don’t like putting their face in the water or don’t want to mess up the make up that took a long time to perfect. One variation of this game is to tie the stems of the apples to varied lengths of string and then hang them up. Then the people have to put their hands behind their back and try to take a bite out of the apple. You can also play the game using marshmallows.

Mummy Wrap Up – Divide guests into small groups. Provide them each with a roll or two of toilet paper and see who can use the tissue paper to wrap up one of their teammates the fastest. The first one to complete their mummy using the entire roll wins.

Jack-o-Lantern Faces – Hang a picture of a jack-o-lantern on the wall and have matching face pieces cut out of black paper for the eyes, nose and mouth. Place sticky-tack on the back of the pieces. Blindfold each player when it is their turn and play the same as pin the tail on the donkey except players put the eyes, nose and mouth on the pumpkin face. Younger children can do just the mouth, while older children and adults can do the entire face for more of a challenge.

Ghost Hunters – Cut out several paper ghosts and divide the players into two groups. Have one team hide the ghosts around the room. The other team has to hunt down the ghosts. Play continues until all ghosts are found. The team that hunts the most ghosts wins.

Ghost Bowling – Collect ten empty one or two liter soda pop bottles (use the larger bottles for younger guests). Paint the bottles white and decorate with silly ghost faces. Use a small playground size ball as the bowling ball. If you can find orange ones, decorating them as jack-o-lanterns can add to the fun.

Upset the Candy Dish – Place chairs in a circle, facing in, having one less than the number of players. Whisper in each child’s ear the name of a favorite Trick or Treat candy. They will become this piece of candy in the candy dish. Have one person stand in the middle of the circle to be “it”. The child in the middle will call one or two types of candy. If the candy name that’s called is matches the one the children are, they should stand up and try to move to another empty seat. Occasionally, the child who is “it” calls out, “Upset the candy dish.” and all the players need to move to a new seat. If any of the candy kids can’t find a seat they then become “it.”

Pirates’ Treasure – Fill two small buckets with sand and place inside a larger washtub or box. Bury treasure in the buckets such as small prizes or candy. Each player receives a plastic spoon to dig for their treasure. Divide players into two teams. Position players around their designated bucket and tell them when to start. They dig in their treasure “chests” until every piece is found. The first team to find all their treasure wins.