This is my go-to guide for hosting the best Halloween Party for all ages.
Halloween is my favorite holiday—there’s no family pressure, you can do as little or as much as you want, and there are endless opportunities for creative baking and crafts. We throw a huge Halloween party every year for both adults and kids. The key to a successful party where both adults and kids can have fun is having lots of easily accessible activities and food for the kids so they can play independently. Here are some of the food, decor, and activities that our guests have loved.
If you’d rather jump to a specific category, use these links:
Food Drinks Treats Kid Activities
I. Food
Most of the food is easy to grab and graze upon. Since we hold this party from 4-8pm, we also include a large pot of chili and cornbread. I love making chili and cornbread, but there are only so many hours in the day and I always want to use that time for my more creative, festive foods. So, I buy the chili from the Costco deli and heat it up in a giant pot on the stove where everyone can help themselves.
A) Deviled Eggs
There are several ways to make spooky eggs. I always marble the whites with purple, red, or green food coloring. After the eggs are hard-boiled and cool, gently tap around the shell, keeping it intact but shattered. Fill a ziplock bag with water and food coloring and place it inside a bowl (because no one wants to clean up a spilled bag of food coloring water). Add the eggs and store them in the fridge for at least 8 hours. After they are peeled and rinsed, you will have creepy webbing on the white of your egg. Prepare the deviled egg mixture as you normally would.
Once you have your deviled egg mixture in a piping bag and neatly piped into the whites, here are some decorating ideas:
- Spiders: cut black olives in half the long way, placing one half in the center of each egg. Cut additional olives into strips and arrange them around the olive halves like spider legs.
- Eyes: cut olives into circles, placing one on each egg. The overall effect will look like a plate of bloodshot eyes.
- Skulls or Creepy Creatures: This last year, I used a silicone mold to make skulls. Using the mold of your choice (with designs between 1-2 inches), pipe the egg mixture into the molds and freeze until solid. Once frozen, pop them out and carefully place them on a pre-filled deviled egg.
B) Cheese and Meat Board
Halloween presents so many options for a cheese board. Here are a few ideas:
- Jack-O-Lanterns: use olives, pickles, or peppers to make jack-o-lantern faces on top of orange cheeses.
- Cut-Outs: using a Halloween cookie cutter, cut spooky designs from sliced cheese and place them on top of cheeses with a contrasting color (like a cheddar pumpkin on top of a wheel of Camembert or a mozzarella ghost on top of some aged Gouda. If you are short on time, this would be an easy way to turn a store-bought cheese board into a Halloween board.
- Trick or Treat Pairing: offer your guests pairings of Halloween treats with particular cheeses. Examples include goat cheese and twizzlers, aged cheddar and Snickers, aged gouda and caramelcorn, or manchego and peanut butter cups. Check out more ideas at Murray’s Cheese, the OG cheese experts.
- Decor Accents: don’t be afraid to throw some clean holiday decor into the mix – a mini pumpkin or fake spider is an easy way to dress up a cheese board.
- Seasonal Snacks: grocery stores have endless options of seasonal nuts, crackers, bonbons, candies, and more.
- Fresh Fruit: look for deep purple/blue fruits, like black finger grapes, blackberries, and blueberries, to add as a good accent.
C) Dips
Everyone loves a good chip and dip spread. It is easy to throw together, and both adults and kids like to munch on them as they mingle or play. There are so many great store-bought dips now, which can provide easy variety. I usually do a mix of store-bought and homemade. Here are a few of my go-to dips:
- Queso: I make queso on the stove and then keep it warm near the chips in a fondue pot.
- Crab Dips: This adds a high protein, healthy option to the mix and can be eaten with veggies or potato chips.
- Clam Dip: This was a favorite growing up. It is far from healthy but is so good with salty potato chips.
- Creamy Dill Dip: This is super easy to throw together in a pinch and works with both chips and veggies. Simply mix sour cream, dried dill, and seasoning salt to your taste.
- Roasted Carrot Dip: This is a great vegan option that goes great with raw or crispy veggies, or pita chips.
II. Drinks
For the party bar area, I like to set out a standard bar, along with a selection of beer/wine and two specialty cocktails. I typically ensure there is a scotch whiskey, a bourbon whisky, a vodka, a gin, a rum, a tequila, and some fun mixers (Fever Tree has some great options – grapefruit soda, yuzu soda, elderflower soda, etc.).
It’s also a nice touch to put out some garnishes such as citrus wedges, mint, rosemary sprigs, Luxardo cherries (the syrup they come in is also excellent mixed into a cocktail).
Specialty Cocktail Idea 1
The Blood and Sand cocktail screams Halloween Party. It’s also very easy to make a large batch that your guests serve themselves. Place a big jug of these near your ice bucket with some compostable cups and a dish of pre-skewered Luxardo cherries. Detailed recipe here.
Specialty Cocktail Idea 2
The Blood and Bubbles is another exceedingly easy crowd-pleaser. Simply put out a few bottles of sparkling wine, along with syringes filled with Chambord. This is a spooky twist on a classic pairing. It is also easy for guests to serve themselves – just pour some bubbles and add a syringe of Chambord. The syringe can be used as a cocktail swizzle stick after they dispense the dose of bloody sweetness.
Responsible Hosting Tips: When serving alcohol at a party with children, take steps to ensure it is kept out of reach of the little ones. I suggest having a dedicated kids’ station for easy-to-grab snacks and juice boxes. Do not store alcohol and non-alcohol drinks in the same cooler. In addition to the kids’ station, I use a cooler for just non-alcohol canned, bottled, or boxed drinks. Then, I have an adult snack station – a bar area with all the fun adult drinks, close to all the more sophisticated food that will likely appeal to adults. This serves to not only keep the alcohol separate from the kids but almost guarantees that adults will be congregating in that area to ward off any kids who might get curious about those drinks. It also keeps the adults eating, which is key while enjoying a tipple.
III. Treats
There is nothing more fun than making Halloween treats. I usually have a mix of homemade, semi-homemade, and store-bought to create a treat buffet. Like the alcohol, I put this in the same area as the adult food, so there will always be adults around to police any children from going nuts.
Black Cocoa Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting: These cupcakes are delectable and provide the perfect canvas for lots of spooky decor. Using a flat piping tip and some candy eyes, I made mini cupcakes into little mummy bites that were a big hit. With the other half of the batter, I made full-size cupcakes using really cute muffin papers and edible toppers.
Sugar Cookies: I decorate some of these but leave most blank as an activity for the kids. The key to baking great sugar cookies is creaming our butter and sugar well (until white and fluffy) and cutting/baking from really cold dough (achieved by rolling out the dough and chilling it on a flat sheet).
Spider Cookies: Take a basic peanut butter cookie recipe and bake small round cookies. Straight out of the oven, top the cookie with a small Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup. When fully cool, draw on legs with melted chocolate or chocolate frosting, and don’t forget to add the eyes.
Monster Rice Crispy Treats: I make my treats with the recipe on the box, but add a little salt and vanilla to elevate the flavor. Once they are cut into rectangles, dip one end in melted chocolate and add large candy eyes.
Witch Hats: These are super easy semi-homemade treats. Melt some purple melting chocolates, dip the top of an oreo in the chocolate, top with a Hershey’s Kiss, and coat the brim of the “hat” with sprinkles.
Creepy Cake Pop Treats: There are so many fun silicone molds out there now. I picked up a few with bats, pumpkins, owls, and Jack Skelington. I made my easy cake pop mix, froze them in the molds, and then used the molds to coat them in melted chocolate.
Googly Eye Treats: With the chocolate you already melted for the witch hats, add candy eyes, chocolate drizzles, and sprinkles to your other favorite treats – I love using black and white cookies, chocolate-dipped caramels, and pretzels.
V. Kid Activities
Kids get such a kick out of having multiple activity stations (as well as being able to take something home with them). The key here is to make these activities easy for kids to do without adult supervision.
*Party Tip: As both host and mom, it can be very challenging to juggle both roles and do both well. Do yourself a favor and hire a babysitter or two to help watch the kids so that you can play host and enjoy yourself.
Pumpkin Decorating: To simplify this station, set out your pumpkins and decoration items so there is no carving required (you’ll thank me later). I like using pumpkin decorating stickers and plastic decor that can be added by pushing a post into the pumpkin. I usually go to Trader Joe’s and load up on a ton of pumpkins for this activity (they have the best prices). To make the pumpkins pop, we also like to paint the pumpkins different colors a day or two before the party. We use acrylic paint and large sponge brushes to make quick work of this.
Cookie Decorating: I make a ton of sugar cookies and prepare a lot of piping bags with different colored cream cheese frosting (it tastes better and is easy for kids to work with). I then created a cookie decorating station with lots of candies and sprinkles. You would be surprised how long kids will spend decorating their cookies!
Craft Corner: I put out a big bucket of washable markers, stickers, fake eye stickers, and jewel stickers. I then put out coloring sheets, monster-making kits, black velvet Halloween coloring pages, and blank paper masks.
Boo Buckets: This is a bit extra, but I love doing it and the kids go crazy for it. I get the dollar pumpkin buckets from Target and a variety of different toys to put in them. We set it up like a buffet and the kids can walk down the line building their own Boo Bucket.
