Tips for a Successful Halloween Party

Teenagehood can be tough when it’s Halloween.  You’re too old to trick-or-treat, but you’re still looking forward to Halloween.  What’s a teen to do?  Having a Halloween party is one option.  Read on if you would like some low-cost ideas for decorations, food, games, and movies.

• NOTE: Receive permission from a parent before starting any of these projects.

DECORATIONS

• Halloween Balloons. With a permanent marker and helium-filled balloons, draw ghost faces on white balloons, jack-’o-lantern faces on orange ones, and Frankenstein faces on green ones.
• Glow-in-the-Dark-Eyeballs. Cut out small circles and coat them with glow-in-the-dark paint.  When dry, use a marker to draw on pupils.  Attach these eyeballs to your walls with glue dots and turn off the lights!
• Creepy-Crawlies.  Make fake spiders with black pom-pom bodies glued to pipe cleaner legs.  Glue a white piece of yarn to one end, then hang your spider wherever you please.
• Snakes Dangling from Streamers. Twist together black and orange crepe paper, hang, and repeat.  To make a snake, cut a leg off a pair thin green hose, stuff it with cotton balls, and sew or glue the end shut.  Draw on a face with a marker, then let your snake dangle from the streamers.  (NOTE: As long as the hose is relatively thin and you do not overstuff the cotton balls, the snake is unlikely to break the crepe paper.)
• Candy Corner.  Line candies all the way around the edge of your party room for a quick (and mouthwatering!) decoration.

FOOD

• Pumpkin Pizza.  Papa Murphy’s offers special jack-’o-lantern pizzas starting October 21st.  They’re a must for any Halloween party.
• Candy Corn Chips. Arrange original Lay’s chips, cheese curls, and plain tortilla chips as shown to create a candy corn display.
• Jack-’o-Lantern Cupcakes.  Frost cupcakes with orange icing, then lay two chocolate chips sideways on the surface for eyes.  Place a chocolate chip in the center for a nose, then add more sideways chocolate chips for teeth.

GAMES

• What Are You?  This is a fun twist on “What Are You Doing”.  Players stand in two equal lines.  One player from the first line starts imitating something you could dress up as for Halloween (ie: a ghost).  The first player from the next line asks, “Who are you?”  The player from the first line can say any Halloween character he chooses--as long as it’s completely different from whom he’s really imitating!  The game continues on in this way until everyone has had the same number of turns.
• Treasure Hunt!  Before the party, write up clues which lead to different parts of your house/yard.  Make a map of the places your friends will go, coming up with Halloweenish names, such as “The Resting Place” for your bedroom, or “The Dark Cove” for your basement.  Put some candy or Halloween trinkets in a cardboard box for “treasure”.
• Wax Museum. This game is perfect for Halloween.  To start, choose one person to be the museum curator.  As soon as the curator leaves the room, the other players freeze into different positions, pretending they are waxworks.  When the curator comes back in, he walks around the different “sculptures” explaining to a fake audience what famous people the “waxworks” represent.  As the curator works his way around the room, the players must move around, either changing position dramatically or walking to a different part of the room (the curator, upon noticing the “waxworks” in different positions, can comment about this to himself: “That’s odd; someone must have reposed my sculpture”).  If the curator catches a “sculpture” in the act of moving (or laughing at his antics), that player is out.  The last player out is the new curator.
• Musical Pumpkins. Who says musical chairs can’t be fun for teenagers?  Draw and cut out paper pumpkins, remembering to have one less pumpkin than there are guests.  If you wish, attach a glue dot on the underside of each pumpkin, so as to secure it to the floor (the glue dots will keep the pumpkins in place, but are fairly easy to unattach when it is time to remove a pumpkin).  After arranging your pumpkins in a circular pattern, you’re ready to play.  Instead of sitting in a chair when the music stops, players must be the first to stand on one of the pumpkins.

MOVIES

• Wanna Watch a Movie?  If you would like to watch a movie at your bash, base your movie choice on who is coming.  Some teenagers (me included!) aren’t very keen on horror movies.  An idea is to watch a Halloween special from an old TV show, such as Little House on the Prairie, Bewitched, or The Dick Van Dyke Show.  My favorite is The Ghost of A. Chantz from The Dick Van Dyke Show.  You can request these digitally re-mastered shows by the season at Mid Continent Public Library.

ADDITIONAL IDEAS

• Have a costume contest.
• If you’re having your party on Halloween night, consider having it earlier in the day, perhaps right after school. Because Halloween is on a Wednesday this year, a lot of churches will have celebrations planned.  Plus, if your guests still want to trick-or-treat, as some teenagers do, an earlier-in-the-day party is perfect.
• Carve some jack-’o-lanterns.  Just make sure it is okay with your parents first.

I hope you enjoy your Halloween party.  And remember the two most important rules when it comes to parties: stay safe and have fun!

Anny Hiestand, Teen Blogger