Halloween means trick-or-treating and lots of fun, so if you’re planning a spooky party or playdate for the family this year, crank up the fun with these entertaining Halloween party games and activities for kids.
We’ve written about kid-friendly games to play in the fall but it’s time for a list of dedicated Halloween fun. Because we all know the perfect Halloween party needs the perfect mix of spooky, funny, and sweet.
These games are designed to be kid-friendly, but we don’t doubt adults will have fun watching or participating! Be sure to keep your eyes peeled for suggestions to turn some of these kid-friendly activities into 21+ games.
1. Toilet Paper Mummy
We know what you’re thinking… this isn’t mindful of the recent pandemic. We know toilet paper has been something like a hot commodity over the last year, but this game doesn’t need to use toilet paper, per se. A great and just-as-good alternative is newspapers. Either option is budget-friendly and still super fun!
Rules/Objective: Create teams of 3 (1 mummy + 2 wrappers). The goal is to create the best mummy in a limited amount of time. We find this game to be most competitive and entertaining with a shorter time limit like 3 minutes. The team with the best mummy is the winner.
2. Pop/Stomp The Pumpkin
This game is exactly what it sounds like — popping the “pumpkin” (orange balloons) by stomping on them. The catch: Each pumpkin is filled with something “spooky” or gross. Some ideas to stuff your balloons with:
– dirt
– fake spiders
– cotton and/or toilet paper
– orange jello
This game will get messy and loud! And you always want to make sure to include slips of paper with prizes written on them in some balloons.
3. Mummy Bowling
For mummy-themed fun, wrap up some plastic pins in toilet paper or newspaper and glue on some googly eyes for a fun (and spooky) round of bowling. You can purchase plastic pins from the Dollar Tree in the kids/toy section!
If you don’t have plastic pins, you could also opt for old plastic bottles such as soda bottles. Add a few rocks inside for additional weight/sturdiness if you want them to easily stay upright.
4. Frankenstein Bowling
Here’s another festive twist on bowling! Save your cans and paint the faces of Frankenstein characters and other popular Halloween characters (Beetlejuice, Wednesday Addams, etc.) before stacking them. You could also cover the cans with Halloween themed scrapbook paper.
5. Spider Toss/Spider Pong
This is a spooky twist on the traditional marshmallow toss. Use small black and orange toy spiders and white Styrofoam cups for the game. The objective: From a distance, see who can toss the most spiders into the cup.
This is similar to “Beer Pong” so, for an adult twist, use a mix of candy corns and plastic spiders and fill the cups with assorted beverages such as beer, vodka, tea, and water. The goal is to get the candy corn or spider into a cup.
Candy corn probably isn’t that tasty when soaked in vodka or beer! But that’s the fun in the adult version. You get to watch adults fish out tea-soaked candy corn then eat it… talk about entertaining.
6. Pin The Tail On The Cat
You can never go wrong with any version of “pin the tail” at a party. Whether you purchase a template online or DIY one, the goal remains the same: Pin whatever item as accurately as possible on the image before you, blindfolded.
Some renditions:
– Pin the Tail on the Cat
– Pin the Hat on the Witch
– Pin the Leg on the Spider
7. Bingo! Halloween Edition
Bingo is probably one of the most customizable games out there. You can print free printable Halloween Bingo cards online. Or you can custom-make your own cards with assorted images of ghosts, haunted houses, mummies, cats, bats, brooms, etc.
To make it more challenging, you could also include words on the cards such as common Halloween phrases (boo, trick-or-treat, etc.) and if someone says the word, cross it off!
8. “Pumpkin” Egg and Spoon Race
We always include an egg race on our list of party games for kids! We make this Halloween-ified by painting real eggs orange.
To make it even more challenging, create an obstacle course for participants by placing random objects such as Jack-o-lanterns, tombstones, black cats, and even a fog machine between the start and finish line!
9. Scavenger Hunt: Halloween Edition
Who doesn’t love a good Scavenger hunt? Simply hide a variety of Halloween-themed items throughout your home (bat, ghost, witch’s hat, etc.) and ask the participants to find them.
10. Halloween Word Search
Similar to our Halloween Bingo mentioned earlier, word searches are old-fashioned and super customizable so making a fun Halloween word is easy! Try to include a mixture of Halloween-specific words and phrases that aren’t too common.
The adult version could be a customized cryptic crossword puzzle. You could include clues from Halloween pop culture such as movies, TV shows, and music.
11. Eyeball In A Spiderweb
It’s like you’re looking for a needle in the haystack, except the needle is an eyeball and the haystack is a tangle of spiderwebs.
12. Telephone: Ghost Story Edition
Don’t we all love a good scary story? This is a great icebreaker game that takes a modern twist on the classic Telephone. A group of participants sit in a line (or circle) and the beginning player whispers a short ghost story to the person next to them. That person whispers what they heard to the next, and the pattern continues down the line until the last person repeats the story out loud.
The objective is to listen intently so the original story doesn’t change by the time the last person hears it. Almost often, the final story is nothing like the original story.
We also suggest creating some ground rules such as how many times a person can whisper to the person next to them. I’ve played a similar version of this and capped the amount of “whispers” to 3 per person to keep it fair. You could also space out individuals for extra “whispering” room.
13. Scattegories: Halloween Edition
A Halloween version of a classic favorite. Roll a letter of a dice and see what Halloween-themed words you can come up with without matching others.
EX: If you roll a “c” you can write: candy corn; cat; cauldron; etc.
14. Mafia (AKA: Werewolf)
This is a personal favorite to play all year long but also works great for Halloween!
Everyone gets a card that tells them if they’re a villager or a Werewolf. Everyone closes their eyes and the werewolves “kill” someone. Then the entire group has to decide who they think did it and one by one try to figure out who the werewolves are.
Other Halloween-themed renditions of this game:
– Villagers x Witch
– Villagers x Vampire
– Villagers x Zombie
BONUS! Fear Factor (Adults-Only)
If you’ve ever seen the TV show, this is a way to bring that to life! Get creepy challenge ideas (like touching actual worms or raw meat) or put out a plate of food that the team must eat without using their hands.
Since this is an adult game, you can do things that might be tougher and grosser to eat like blue cheese, octopus, and more.
You could also switch it up and do the same thing but make people actually name what they’re eating in this guess the food game.
