While adults may be jumping on the Halloween bandwagon, first and foremost Halloween is a kid's holiday. Besides trick-or-treating and costumes, Halloween parties are one of the many activities that kids can look forward to each Halloween. If you are thinking of jumping in and hosting your own kid's party this year, one thing that you will need to think about is the games. When planning kid's party games, keep in mind that many games will only have one winner. So be sure to play enough games that every child can be a winner, or consider providing second and third place prizes to help avoid hurt feelings.
If you don't want to use candy for prizes, Halloween party favors and small toys also make great prize ideas. Ghostly musical chairs Almost everyone is familiar with the game of musical chairs, so you probably won't need a detailed expression of the rules. All you need is one chair less than the number of kids attending the party (so 9 chairs for 10 kids, for example).
Cover the chairs with white sheets and paint some eyes and mouths on them to make them look like ghosts. Line the chairs up or arrange them in a circle. To play the game, play some music while the children walk around the chairs.
When the music stops, the child left without a chair is out. Remove a chair, and keep playing until there is only one child left. Dress the scarecrow If you have some of dad's old clothing lying around the house, this is a fun game for kids. Divide the children into small teams, and give all teams some clothes for their scarecrow.
Jeans or overalls, flannel shirts, boots, gloves, and a straw hat are typical, though you can use whatever you have on hand. One child in the team is the scarecrow, and has to stand still while the others of the team put the clothes on. The first team to complete a scarecrow is the winner.
Meet my mummy For this one, you will again want to divide children into small teams and have one child volunteer to be the mummy (preferably a child who was not the scarecrow if you play both games). Give each team a roll of toilet paper, and have them wrap their mummy with it (you can also use rolls of streamers in Halloween colors if you would prefer). The first team done wins. Pin the nose on the jack-o-lantern Create a large pumpkin out of cardboard, or make one out of construction paper and pin it to a bulletin board. Paint or glue eyes and a mouth on the jack-o-lantern, leaving the area where the nose should be empty. Cut out several yellow triangles, writing the child's name on the front and placing a small piece of double-sided tape on the back.
Blindfold children and have them attempt to pin the nose where it belongs. To make the game more difficult, spin the child in circles several times before having them pin the nose on. Almost any child's party game can be converted to a Halloween game with a little creativity.
Of course, leave plenty of time for snacks and the ever-popular costume contest.
Paul Hulse is the webmaster of the Halloween Costumes store InCostume.com Please visit us for more information on our Kids Costumes
