How to throw an Amazing Kids Halloween Party

With two kids of my own and 5 niece and nephews, we have thrown some amazing Halloween parties over the years. 
With some organisation and some shrewd shopping, you can throw an unforgettable party that the kids will love and your guests will be talking about for weeks without breaking the bank.

Here are my tips for an amazing party

Decor.
You can pick up some great Halloween decorations without spending too much. 
Check out Poundland and Wilkinsons for cheap decorations.If you throw a party every year then it's worth spending a bit more money on decorations and putting it in storage. 
We have hanging ghosts and talking spooky signs that we have kept and reused.
It's important to remember not to go too scary if you have little ones coming to your party.

It's also great to get the kids involved in making some decorations for the party and also a good way to keep them busy over the dreary October half term. 

Two of my favourite Halloween crafts are 

Cup case Spider webs,
They are so simple to make and look very effective when in the window

All you need is- 
Halloween themed cupcake cases (available at most supermarkets) 
a black marker pen
Little round black or white stickers
Laminator (optional)

• Fold the cupcake case in half, then half again and then a third time
• Use scissors to cut an arch at the top of the cup case and then snip three small rectangles at intervals down the cup case.
• Open it out and you should have a web shape.
• If you would like to make it a bit more durable, laminate from there.
• Place the sticker in the middle of the web. Then, get yourself a marker and draw a thick dot and fill it with black, and add 8 legs.

Monster Mobiles 
All you need is -                                                                         
Toilet paper tubes 
Googly eyes
Squiggly pipe cleaners 

Coloured card for the mouths
Paint
String or old wool
Colouring pens (optional)

• Firstly, paint your tubes and let them dry for a while. If you would like to decorate them with felt tip pens make sure that you do this before you begin to add the arms, eyes and mouths. 
• When the paint is dry and the decoration of the tube is done, poke a hole in either side of the cardboard (using a pen or a skewer) and poke the pipe cleaner the whole way through to create the pair of bendy arms. 
•  Have your child glue on a bunch of googly eyes. The more eyes you add, the funnier the monster! 
• While your child is glueing eyes onto their monster, you could begin to cut out the mouths. 
• When this is done, you can begin to make the monsters mobile. Loop the string or wool around each pipe cleaner on the part that runs through the toilet roll, and loop it there! 

Costumes 
Costumes are an important part of a Halloween party and so much fun for kids. 
You don't need to spend a fortune on costumes. 
There is a great selection available online and in supermarkets; here are some of my favourites this year- 


This little bat is the most adorable baby costume I think I have ever seen!. It almost makes me want to have another baby so I can dress it in this outfit. It is free delivery too which is very helpful, and also is on amazon prime so you can get it last minute. This adorable outfit is available at Amazon



This costume is really good for young girls as it strays from the typical idea of young girl's costumes, it's not a cat, it's not a witch and it definitely isn't tame. Looking through different costumes for girls this is definitely my favourite and is available at George at Asda for £12 

My favourite Halloween costume for boys (although girls could equally wear this!) is the dragon costume from Mark and Spencers. It is a bit pricey at £30 but in fairness could be used after Halloween for play so you could get some good use out of it. Available here

You could, of course, make your own Halloween costumes or just use face paints to create your own scary faces. In our family, we are al prone to reactions due to sensitive skin so I always buy Snazaroo. I find it covers well, is better quality and doesn't leave us with angry sore blotches the next day.
Available at Amazon here

Fake blood is always really cheap and can be very effective but again my personal advice is to avoid cheap brands to avoid a reaction or staining.                               

Food
The supermarkets will be full of fab party food as Halloween is a much bigger deal in the UK then when my two were little.I Iove spoiling my nieces and nephews with decorated cupcakes and treats from the shops but I also think making things at home is a really one thing to do and keeps the kids busy. 
All the major supermarkets have some great ideas for Halloween cooking, personally, I love Tesco's site as they have some great ideas and the site will automatically place the ingredients into your shopping basket.

I have a fab Halloween recipe for Chocolate Slime Tart you can view here 


I have found some great Tableware sets for Halloween, here are some of my favourites- 

This year Asda has a really cute 12 little Horrors range which includes plates, Bowls, paper cups, table cover and napkins. I really love the design, so colourful and child-friendly
Available here
There are 12 in each pack and I think £1 each this is a real bargain.

I also love this 20 piece set from Amazon. It's great because it has everything you need to serve food. 
It includes 1 Tablecloth, 20 Paper Plates, 6 Paper Platters, 24 Napkins, 2 Serving Tray, 24 Balloons and multi-shaped table Confetti (personally I hate confetti it makes so much mess and a pain to clean up!) to complete your decoration so fab if you are expecting more than a handful of guests
I really love the fun cartoony design on this set.
This set is available on Prime so you can get it the next day too. 
Available here 




 Party Games

As I've been 'mumming for over 20 years I have lots of ideas for Halloween party games. 
Here are some of my favourites

Wrap a Mummy
For this game, you just need cheap toilet roll and a timer. Put the players in teams of two. The aim of this game is who can wrap their partner us as a mummy the quickest. 
The winner should have their whole bodies covered in toilet roll with only a gap for their eyes. When we play this we normally pair an older child with a little one to make it fair, you may also be prepared to adjudicate as there is always debate on coverage with our lot! 

Pass the Goo
Make up some Green and /or red Jelly and set it. Once set place in a deep bowl with some plastic snakes and spiders (very cheap to buy) and some wrapped sweets such as little bags of Haribo. The partygoers will then sit in a circle and pass the bowl about like you would with pass the parcel. When the music stops the persons needs to stick their hand into the bowl to find a treat. Make sure you have some kitchen roll on hand to wipe hands as this is a messy game.

Pumpkin Bowling
This is such a fun game and you can get the kids involved in the half term by having them design the pins. To make the pins have 9 2L empty plastic bottles and decorate. You can use anything you like really to decorate we used tissue paper as we found it was easier for the kids to draw and stick things on. 
At the party set out the nine bottles (preferably in the garden so you have plenty of room) and use a pumpkin as a bowling ball. 

Pin the Spider on the Web
Draw out a spiderweb using a black marker pen on a large piece of paper (or the pack of some surplus wallpaper) get a large plastic spider, we got ours from Poundland and put a large lump of Blu-Tak on the back. Your blindfolded guest can then compete to get the spider into the centre of the cobweb.

Musical Games
This is just a spin on the traditional party games really but you can add a Halloween twist.
For example, musical statues can be called musical scares where the child makes there best scary pose when the music stops and also a popular one for us, pass the pumpkin where instead of a parcel you use a hollowed out pumpkin with lid. Place little bags of sweets or novelty Halloween toys like plastic spiders or snakes. 
When the music stops the child takes a treat. 
There are some fantastic Halloween playlists on Spotify for music for your games or you can buy a Halloween compilation such as this one here at Amazon.

Party Tips for an easier party

When buying prizes remember to only buy sweets and treats that are in wrappers

Buy party bags for each child to place their 'winnings' in to take home. this will prevent squabbling, sweet wrappers everywhere and children feeling sick

Buy a cheap drink dispenser with squash made up so you aren't constantly getting drinks for hot and over-excited children

Prepare a music playlist before the party starts and designate one sensible person to control the music. 

Designate a place in the house for little ones to sit and calm down

Make sure you allow for the weather when setting up your party in case it rains or is very cold, there's nothing worse than having lots of outdoor games that you cant play because there's no room inside. Last year we had an awning in the back garden which we surrounded with plastic Halloween door decorations from Poundland, they acted as a great barrier against the cold and looked really cool too.