After you’ve put all that effort into preparing for your Halloween party you don’t want your guests sitting down yawning from boredom. It’s common for party hosts to feel compelled to shepherd their guests from activity to activity throughout the night to keep things moving along. I’ve done it myself and I can tell you it’s not fun at all. Save yourself the unnecessary stress by preparing a well thought out list of activities for your guests to participate in during your party. After all, you should be able to enjoy the party too!
Set Up A Seance Room
The first thing I like to do is to section off the house into different themed areas. We converted my brother’s living room into a mystical fortune teller’s room. First we laid black material over his coffee table. Then I bought a ouija board from Toys R Us and placed it in the center of the table. I printed out some old creepy pictures of people and placed them around the ouija board. Finally I sprinkled some candles and a few playing cards around it and voila! It was great because my guests took pictures at the table and even attempted to communicate with the spirits from beyond sometime during the night. You could lead your guests into the room and have a seance but don’t get too scared if the planchette starts moving on it’s own!
Need some more ideas for spooky themed rooms? You could turn one area into a haunted forest by placing bales of hay or dead tree branches against the walls. Similar to the seance room, you can decorate one area to look like a voodoo swamp. Paint some flat stones with witchy looking symbols. Then tie up some small twigs to resemble voodoo dolls and hang them from the ceiling. Of course no swamp is complete without hanging some Spanish moss around to give your room that extra spooky touch. Once you have the rooms themed be sure to take your guests through each area so they can interact with your decorations and truly appreciate them.
Organize A Haunted Scavenger Hunt
Another fun activity is to break your guests up into teams and dare them to enter the house alone in the form of a scavenger hunt. The main rule is that each team would have to visit each room to collect one “haunted” object. We gave them clues so they would only bring the one object we intended. The great thing was that each guest paid a lot of attention to all the props. For example when the team entered the living room their instructions were to stand in front of the table above and read from the witch’s spell book. When they finished they were supposed to answer the haunted phone. After listening to the message they were to search for the one object on the table to bring back outside.
As perfectionists we sometimes take so much pride in the artistry and carefulness with which we make and organize our Halloween decorations. By doing something like an interactive scavenger hunt, you ensure that your guests are going to take that extra time to appreciate all your efforts. I know that sounds a bit narcissistic, but all this work is really for the enjoyment of your guests. There’s nothing I like more than when a guest looks intently with wide eyes and mouth gapping at some Halloween decor I’ve created and says “Awww, that looks awesome.”
Let Your Guests Take Scary Pictures
Your guests have gotten all dressed up for the night so they’ll probably be in a very playful mood at your party. Use that good energy and invite them to take scary pictures in your outside yard haunt. We had a fog machine, zombie crawler and some gravestones with blue lighting which created the perfect backdrop for photo opportunities. Everyone had a blast taking turns posing for spooky pictures in the graveyard.
Host A Costume Contest
Make sure your guests know that you appreciate them dressing up for the night by announcing a costume contest. You can make your own little spooky trophies or buy a little prize to give out. The great thing is to get everyone to parade around so everyone can look at each other’s costumes. You’ll be surprised at how creative people can be. This is my uncle below and I was shocked at how cool his werewolf costume was!
There are a lot more ideas but the ones above are good to get you started. Of course you can always play Halloween music on bluetooth speakers and get everyone on their feet to dance. I think the party that changes things up with unique activities are always the most fun and memorable.
