Halloween is a fun holiday to throw a party, and these ideas for decorations, treats, games, and trunk or treat car decor will make your party more fun for grownups and kids, too!
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DIY Halloween wreath.
Make this striped Halloween wreath to hang on your front door so that your guests will have an idea of what they’re walking into! See the whole tutorial by the Crafty Blog Stalker here: Halloween wreath DIY tutorial
Invitations and paper products.
The best place to get full suites of customizable invitations and paper products is Zazzle. You can personalize them before ordering, and get paper plates, napkins, thank you notes and other paper products to go with the invitations that you choose.
With Halloween-themed invitations, you can go grownup or a little more playful, depending on the tone that you want to set. The invitations in the collection above are clearly for an adult party, so if you’re looking for a more family-friendly theme this one might be better:
This collection is a little more playful because of the vintage pumpkin illustration. You can decide how formal or cute you want the invitations to be, and that will set the tone for the party.
Halloween party decor ideas.
This is a fun theme to decorate for, since there are so many options. You can go spooky or fun, or a combination of the two. For grownups it can be a darker mood, with goth elements and tons of candles and haunted mansion vibes.
Customized welcome signs.
Get a personalized welcome sign to greet guests at the entrance of the party. Match it to the invitations to carry the theme through the party.
Teal pumpkin signs for food allergies.
If you want to set up a station for kids who have food allergies, these teal pumpkin signs and treat bags will let them know that they can take those treats without worrying about allergic reactions! Teal pumpkins are the symbol for food allergy-friendly treats at Halloween, so having some non-food treats is a considerate thing to do.
Mini pumpkin table centerpieces.
During the Fall months you can get mini pumpkins and gourds at the supermarket or a local pumpkin patch and arrange them as centerpieces on your tables and buffets. Add some fall greenery and dried autumn leaves and you’ll have a seasonal display that’s easy to put together.
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DIY haunted house.
The Our Crafty Mom blog has a tutorial for a DIY haunted house that you can make from a thrifted dollhouse, or one that you have in your attic! (You know that there’s one up there.) See the whole article here to make a showstopper decoration for your party: Haunted dollhouse tutorial
Halloween mantel decorations.
Decorate the inside of your home for your party by adding a special fireplace mantel decoration. Add some seasonal foliage, candles, and a spooky painting for ambiance. Check out the full tutorial and supply list on Jordan’s Easy Entertaining here: Halloween fireplace decor tutorial
Halloween decor collection.
Orange balloon arch.
Get orange balloons and tie them together to make an arch or garlands that can be used around doors, or for a photo booth backdrop. You can get a variety of balloon arch sets on Amazon (affiliate link.)
DIY witch yard decor.
This is a really clever idea from Hunny I’m Home DIY. Use tomato cages and some material to make front-yard witches. These are a fun way to decorate your yard on a budget, and they look really cute. You could also do variations on these to make ghosts, or a combination of the two. See the full article here: DIY yard witches for Halloween decorations.
Pumpkin garlands.
Make a garland with pumpkin cutouts, or pieces of burlap. You can DIY this or get one on Amazon or Etsy.
Carved Jack-O-Lanterns.
The Crafty Blog Stalker has this photo tutorial on how to make a really fun stitched pumpkin to put on the front porch or inside your home. This is a fun take on the classic jack-o-lantern, and it will make people do a double-take! Stitched Pumpkin DIY Tutorial
Pumpkin vases.
Hollow out little pumpkins and make flower vases out of them. Use white pumpkins and orange together to create a nice assortment of colors. Or make this cute painted vase that you can fill with Halloween floral picks and Autumn flowers. The tutorial is on the Our Crafty Mom website here: Cute Halloween vase tutorial.
Trunk or Treat decorations.
Jordans Easy Entertaining has this fantastic idea to decorate the back of a truck with a glamorous graveyard for a Trunk-Or-Treat party, or to park in your driveway for regular trick-or-treating. See the whole article here to give you some ideas for your own spooky car decoration: Cemetery trunk decorations
Orange and sage green table runners.
Get some table runners in fall patterns or shades of orange and sage greens to create a pretty base color that you can put the fall themed items on. Click here to see some on Amazon (affiliate link)
Kid-safe spooky candles.
These DIY candles are completely kid-safe and easy to make, and you won’t believe what they’re made from! Find out on the Mimosas and Motherhood website here: DIY Halloween party candle decorations.
Spider taxidermy.
Jordan’s Easy Entertaining has a tutorial on how to make these dollar store spider taxidermy frames. These would be a cool thing to make to scatter around your home during your party, or to hang up in a hallway where you have your family photos to see if anyone notices! Get the full tutorial here: Easy spider taxidermy tutorial.
Halloween party food ideas.
Planning the food for a Halloween party is going to be fun because you can use pumpkins in so many recipes. Choose to go with pies, or add some hot items in to make the food more savory. You can also have the traditional finger cookies and eyeball cookies, but savory options are good for this holiday because there’s so much candy to counteract that!
CANDY!!
If you’re having any type of trick-or-treat party, you’re going to have to have plenty of candy. You could limit this to the goodie bags that you send home with your guests, which might be a good idea if you’re doing a neighborhood trick-or-treating party. If that’s the case, stick to savory food at your party, and let people take their own candy home!
Get these printable candy wrappers to download for free in this article: Printable Halloween candy bar wrappers
Mini pies.
This is the obvious choice, and it’s going to be a popular one. A dessert buffet filled with mini pies or tarts will be a fun option for guests, and they’ll be able to try out a few different flavors. Add some fruit pies to the mix and have a selection for people to try.
Pumpkin cinnamon rolls.
These are SO GOOD, and you can make them at home to add to a dessert table. The recipe is on my baking website. Your guests will want the recipe, and you’ll probably have to make them again at some point, but you won’t be mad about it!
Pumpkin soup.
Make pumpkin soup in a crock pot so that guests can help themselves when they want a savory dish. There are a lot of recipes for pumpkin soup online, I like this one from Hebbar’s Kitchen. You can also dress it up by putting the soup in this pumpkin-shaped tureen from Aamzon (#ad)
Printable food labels and signs.
Mimosas and Motherhood has these printable Halloween signs and food labels that you can get when you sign up for the email list. You can use these for cupcake toppers, food labels on treat bags, and signs to put on food buffet tables at the party: Printable Halloween Food Labels
Pumpkin crudites and cheese tray.
Set up a cheese, cracker, and veggie station and make a cheese ball in the shape of a pumpkin. Put out paper plates and napkins and let guests help themselves.
Pumpkin cake.
Make this fat-free pumpkin cake recipe from my baking website, or put them in muffin cups to make pumpkin muffins. You can serve the cake iced with cream cheese frosting, or shape it into an actual pumpkin-shaped cake like in this tutorial.
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Halloween party games and activities.
Pumpkin painting.
Set up a pumpkin painting station with small pumpkins and acrylic paint so that guests can paint their own pumpkin to take home. This article from Fluxing Well has ideas for book character painted pumpkins, so if you want to have kids bring their favorite book with them you could do that for a fun theme. Read the article here: Book themed pumpkin painting.
Pumpkin patch hunt.
Set up a little pumpkin hunt using mini pumpkins if you can have the party outside. Hide the pumpkins around the yard, and paint one gold to give the person who finds that one a special prize.
Candy jar.
Get a large mason jar and fill it with small candies, then have guests guess how many there are, or how much it weighs. If you have them guess the number you’ll have to count them beforehand, so keep that in mind!
Halloween Scavenger hunt or Bingo.
Get Halloween-themed bingo and other printables to play at the party. Choose from a few varieties at Greengate Images, they have a lot of choices for Halloween and pumpkin-themed games to print and play.
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Halloween party favors.
Candy treat bags.
Give your guests more of what they want on Halloween, which is candy! If your party didn’t have a trick-or-treat activity then kids (and adults) will want to go home with some candy, and that could be your treat bags that you send people home with. If you did trick-or-treating as part of the event, you can send people home with customized candy in smaller amounts, like these custom peanut butter cups from Zazzle.
Cute ghost ornaments.
These cute ghost ornaments from WR Joy Grace would be a fun party favor, and your guests will be able to hang them up now and use them at Christmas on a tree, too!
Pumpkin keychains or magnets.
This cute spiderweb keychain would be a fun party favor that’s not candy-related, and can be used without it being too Halloweeny, but still spooky!
Halloween can coolers.
These Halloween can coolers are a fun and useful thing to give to guests. My husband loves getting these as party favors because he uses them on the golf course, so they’re a good gift for everyone!
Halloween parties are fun to throw, and there are so many things that you can do with the theme. I hope that these gave you some ideas!
For more niche holidays in October, click here, you might get some ideas for other parties you can set up!