Throwing a Great Halloween Party Without Losing Your Mind

Throwing a Great Halloween Party Without Losing Your Mind
by Caryn Swark


Halloween can be just as scary for parents as it is for kids. The idea of your children knocking on strangers' doors in search of candy can give you a worse fright than any ghost or ghoul. Fortunately, there's an easy alternative. Many children will be just as happy to celebrate Halloween in the comfort of their own homes -- provided there are friends, costumes, and plenty of treats!

Hosting your own Halloween party has many benefits. It allows you to control what your children are eating, involves them in activities beyond trick-or-treating, and allows you to socialize with other parents. It does, however, take a bit of work. If you're thinking of hosting a Halloween party, there are a couple things to keep in mind.

1. The Guest List

Let your children take an active roll in deciding who to invite, but make sure you set the limits. Do you want to invite the whole class? Are you hosting a neighborhood drop-in or a small party for close friends? Whatever you decide, let the kids have fun with the invitations. There are many printable Halloween pictures on the internet. Color them, fold them over, and you've got an invitation!

2. Decorations

What's Halloween without spooky surroundings? If you want to keep things quick and easy, stick with store-bought decorations. Spider webs made from cotton batting are cheap and readily available. Many other Halloween accessories are available, ranging from shimmery letters to talking mummies. Let your imagination take over. If you're of a more creative turn of mind, try your hand at making your own decorations. Pieces of cardboard can turn into gravestones, and old clothing can be stuffed to make a scarecrow. This is one area where the kids will probably have plenty of ideas and take the work right out of your hands! Throw on a CD of scary sounds, and you're done.

3. Activities

If you're going to fill your house with hyperactive children in costumes, you'd better have lots for them to do once they get there! Fortunately, almost any traditional party game can be adapted to a Halloween theme. For example, instead of pinning a tail on a donkey, pin a wart on a witch's nose. Instead of a "fish pond" have a "swamp dig." Bobbing for apples, an old standby, is now rather taboo due to germs, but you can replace it with apples (or marshmallows) hanging from strings. Blindfold the kids and let them bite the fruit off the strings. If you have nowhere to hang the treats, you can even stand on a chair and dangle them yourself. It's fun to watch, and the kids have a blast.

Depending on the ages of your guests, ghost stories are always a popular option. Even younger guests can enjoy a toned-down spooky tale. Provide covered bowls of "gross" things for them to stick their hands into -- peeled grapes, greased cold spaghetti, or tapioca. It's an old game, but the kids always get a shivery thrill from plunging their hands into something unknown.

Crafts are another option for any kids' party, although if your party is large, you will want to keep it simple. Search the internet for Halloween crafts, spread a plastic tablecloth on the ground or table, and let them go nuts! The nice thing about this activity is that not everyone has to do it at once: kids can come and go as they please. If you don't feel like doing crafts, why not decorate cookies? Store-bought cookies will work fine as long as there is a wide variety of icing, sprinkles, candies, and chocolate chips to choose from.

Also consider the parents at your party. While they will probably entertain themselves, you may want to have some adult party games in mind to encourage your grown-up guests to mingle.

4. Food

Let's face it: at a Halloween party, you're going to have candy, especially if you're offering your party as an alternative to trick-or-treating. But you can make sure candy isn't the only thing your children eat! Provide fresh fruit, crackers, meat, and cheese before you offer sweets. Pumpkin muffins make a unique treat for many kids. You can also make a "witch's brew" of club soda and different flavored juices. It's sparkly and tastes great, and it's much better than cans of pop.

Be sure to have a few sweet treats on hand -- after all, it is Halloween -- but you may want to consider giving out the majority of your candy as "goody bags" at the night's end. Of course, you can offer candy as prizes for games, or just put out bowls of treats, but your guests will probably want some candy to take home. To share the financial burden, have a potluck treat session: ask each guest to bring a bag of candy (such as the mini-chocolate bars packaged specifically for Halloween). While the party rages, you can dump all the candy into a pile and create treat bags, or have the kids do it themselves. This is also a fun activity for parents.

Your Halloween party doesn't have to be an alternative to trick-or-treating. You could have it the week before Halloween, or as an activity after the night's main event. But if you're looking for a way to keep your children safe, limit the amount of candy they consume, and give them a fun, memorable evening, a Halloween party just might be the way to go!