Spooky Season
25 Halloween Party Games for Kids
- Written By
- Amanda Mushro
Super Easy Halloween Games
●Mummy Wrap: Put kids into small groups and hand them a few rolls of toilet paper. When you say go, they’ll turn one group member into a mummy by wrapping the toilet paper around them. The team that uses up all their toilet paper first is the winner.
● Zombie Laugh Challenge: Line a few kids up and tell them they’re zombies that cannot laugh. The other kids take turns trying to make the zombies laugh by telling jokes, dancing, and being silly. The last zombie standing and the one who made them laugh are the winners.
● Spooky Tic Tac Toe: Using painter’s tape to create the board, give one player candy corn and the other plastic spiders to play a spooky version of Tic Tac Toe.
● Halloween Heads Up: Write down Halloween words on a sticky note and give one to each child. They place the note on their head–without looking– and try to guess the word while others give them clues.
● Ghost Hunt: Turn lollipops into ghosts by covering them with a tissue, drawing a face with a marker, and securing with string. Hide the ghosts throughout the party space and send kids on a ghost hunt to find a sweet treat.
● Bobbing for Donuts: Start with a sturdy donut (you may need to taste test a few), and string the donuts onto a large stick or branch. Tell kids to put their hands behind them and try to eat their donut hands-free.
DIY Halloween Games
● Boo Bowling: Turn inexpensive paper towel rolls into ghosts by attaching googly eyes to each roll. Set six rolls up in a triangle formation, and using a foam pumpkin, kids bowl down the ghosts. When the party’s over, use the paper towels to clean up.
● Pumpkin Punch Out: For this game, everyone’s a winner. Fill plastic cups with small prizes and candy. Cover the top of the cups with orange tissue paper and use a rubber band to secure the tissue paper onto the cup. Arrange the cups into a pumpkin shape on a foam board, using glue to attach the cups. Finish by creating a pumpkin stem from green construction paper. Kids take turns “punching” a cup to reveal their prize.
● Sink the Spider: This DIY cornhole game will be a favorite of kids and adults. Start with two pieces of foam board that are painted black. Cut a large hole towards the top of the boards. Using a silver marker or ribbon, create a spider web around the hole and make legs for the board by stacking plastic cups and attaching them to the back of the board. Finish by making a spider from a large black pom pom or beanbag. To play, kids line up and try to sink the spider inside the spider web.
● Make a Monster: Set out googly eyes, pipe cleaners, and beads and give each child their own ball of playdough. Let kids get crafty and make their own monster out of the supplies or turn this into a take-home favor.
Outdoor Halloween Games for Kids
● Candy Corn Relay: Divide the kids into teams and give each team a bowl of candy corn for the starting line and an empty bowl for the finish line. Each player must use a large spoon to scoop candy corn out of the bowl and quickly carry it to the empty bowl. If any candy corn falls off the spoon, they must pick it up, bring it back to the starting line, and start over. The winners are the first team that moves all of their candy corn from the Start Bowl to the Finish Bowl.
● Ghost Tennis: Draw a ghost face on a white balloon and make tennis rackets by attaching paper plates to large craft sticks. Have kids see how long they can keep the ghost in the air using their rackets.
● Halloween Mystery Boxes: You’ll get plenty of funny reactions from this one. Using tissue or shoe boxes, cut a hole large enough for kids to put their hands inside but not see what’s inside the box. Decorate the outside of the boxes with construction paper and inside each box, place mystery items like eyeballs (peeled grapes), brains (spaghetti in oil), ghost pieces (mini marshmallows), or zombie hands (plastic gloves filled with flour). Label the boxes and have kids take turns feeling the items inside the boxes.
● Ghost Sack Race: Turn white pillowcases into ghosts by adding eyes and a mouth with markers or gluing on pieces of felt. Then let partygoers play a few rounds of sack races.
Halloween Games for Little Kids
● Monster Mash Freeze Dance: Create a playlist of your favorite Halloween tunes and tell kids and adults to show off their best dance moves when the music plays. However, everyone must freeze in their best monster pose when the music stops.
● Spooky Musical Chairs: Give musical chairs a Halloween upgrade by decorating the chairs in different Halloween themes and playing creepy music during each round.
● Pin the Eyes on the Monster: Put a spooky spin on a party classic. Draw a monster on a piece of poster board and create eyeballs from construction paper. Attach a piece of tape to the eye, blindfold kids, and let them try to land the eye on the monster.
● Ghost Tower: Draw ghost faces on white plastic cups and stack the cups into a tower. Using a small ball, see how many ghosts kids can knock over.
● Pumpkin Memory Game: Create a memory game by making different jack-o-lantern faces on orange paper plates. This is a great game for toddlers and preschoolers.
Halloween Games for Older Kids
● Pumpkin STEM Challenge: For this game, kids use STEM skills to plan and build structures using only toothpicks and candy pumpkins. Set this up as a station that kids visit during the party or as a competition to see who can make the tallest structure. If the candy corn pumpkins are too firm, gummy or marshmallow pumpkins are a great option.
● Haunted Boat Ride: Fill a large plastic tub with water and have kids build boats out of aluminum foil. Once they put their boat in the water, have them add small Halloween items (plastic spiders, mini pumpkins, plastic eyeballs) to see if their haunted boat can stay afloat.
● Witch Hat Ring Toss: Create witch hats by attaching party hats to small paper plates and painting them black. Secure the witch hats to a large piece of poster board and create rings from glow stick necklaces. Give each witch hat a point value and let kids toss the rings to see how many points they can get.
● Halloween Bingo: Always a party favorite, create Halloween bingo boards (or find one online to print) and use candy corn as the bingo pieces.
● Mad Scientist: Make a thick paste from baking soda and water and pack the paste around eyeball bouncy balls or other small toys. Pop them into the freezer and during the party, kids add drops of vinegar onto the frozen ball to reveal the eyeball.
● Bones in a Bag: Place a different number of candy pieces into five paper bags. Seal the bags and let each player take turns picking up each bag, giving it a shake, and guessing how many “bones” are inside. Next, they’ll place the bags in a row, starting with the bag containing the least amount of “bones” to the one containing the highest number of “bones.”
Getting into the Halloween spirit?
Try our not-so-scary Halloween party ideas (Think: witches' brew tea party and pumpkin painting), Halloween crafts fo r the artistically inclined, and slightly spooky treats to serve while mini are bobbing for ghosts.
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Halloween Party Decor
Amanda Mushro
Amanda is a writer and content creator. When she’s not hosting national and local TV segments, creating DIY and life hacks videos, or writing articles that cover parenting, lifestyle trends and everything in between, she’s at her favorite job, being a mom of three.