Halloween Party Ideas and Themes

I wrote this article to hopefully give you a few new ideas and themes for your next Halloween party. Some of these ideas may sound old to you but I always try to put a different twist on it. Halloween parties can be a great time to let your fun, scary side come out. Think back to when you were a kid. What fond memories do you associate with Halloween? What scared you the most? Use those thoughts to create your ultimate plan for the best Halloween party ever.

Planning a theme for your Halloween party is a lot of fun in my opinion. Your only limited by your imagination. The classic "haunted house" theme will never go out of style. There are so many different ways you can go with it. Now I don't know what your budget is for the party but it does not have to cost a fortune to be effective. If your going to put on a haunted house, the local thrift stores can supply you with all kinds of inexpensive props. I found a creepy looking mannequin many years back at a junk store for ten bucks. It lasted for several years as a scarecrow that I made. I bought some used suspenders, a old flannel shirt, and some boots. I got some hay to stuff in around the plastic. I took a burlap sack and cut a simple, yet evil looking face in it. The whole thing cost me maybe thirty bucks to put together. I scared many with that creepy thing!

One year when we were back in high school, a friend of mine decided to go with a zombie party theme. It was one of the best Halloween parties I have ever been to. Basically, you tell all your guests to come dressed up as zombies. Decorating the house can be easy for this but if you want to get creative, make a cemetery in your yard. Cardboard cut outs of graves painted gray with names of your zombies is a fun cheap thing to do. Staple to branches or 2x4's and stick in the ground. OK, so what do you do for food? Well, what do zombies eat? Brains of course! You can take it as far as ordering gourmet monkey brains to serve to your zombie clan, but I don't think that would go over to well with most of us. What we did, was zombie brain punch. We made a very blood red punch and we ordered some of those brain ice cube trays from a catalog. It was a big hit with everyone. Not everyone that came dressed as a zombie, but we had at least twenty five of us. If possible, offer a prize for the best zombie costume, that way people will be more likely to dress up. Later that night we walked up and down a few of the streets in the neighborhood. It was great, people looking out their windows and seeing a bunch of zombies doing the "zombie walk" down the street. Put your own twist on this Halloween theme and take it to the next level.

Base the party around one of your favorite Halloween movies. Everybody comes as characters from the movie. Try to dress the house up with similar stuff from the movie. Re enact a scene from the film. This can work great for the kids. Our neighbors had a "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown" party one year. It ended up being more of a Cartoon Network party, but they had most of the peanuts characters. They bobbed for apples and had the Great Pumpkin make a appearance (my neighbor Joe in a huge pumpkin costume). It was a great time and a lot of fun for the kids.

This Halloween idea can work well for both kids and adults. If you have the money or just have access to many pumpkins, have a pumpkin carving contest. It gives the kids something active to do, with adult supervision of course. Offer prizes in different categories such as; creepiest, cutest, nicest, scariest, craziest, etc. The point is to have enough categories so that every child gets a prize. Now for the adults, you need to make things interesting. Have a adult oriented pumpkin carving contest. The most obscene pumpkin wins a bottle of booze. Again, put your own twist to it and have fun.

Now here is a idea I have had for some time now. I know it would be hard and expensive to put together, but one year I am going to do it. An evil, creepy clown circus Halloween party. Try to set the whole carnival mood. Set up some games to play such as; knock down the bottles, dunk tank, ring toss, cornhole, etc. Put your own gory twist on them. Serve carnival food such as; funnel cakes, candy apples, cotton candy, snow cones, french fries, sausage sandwich with peppers and onions, etc. You got to have at least a few killer clowns running around with seltzer bottles with blood in them, or maybe "Chuckles the Clown" escaped from the mental hospital last night. You can see where I am going with this weird Halloween party idea.

How about a creepy crawlies Halloween theme. No matter who you are, there is some form of bug or critter that will scare the pants off you. You can really play on peoples fears with this one. Hide fake prop spiders, rats and snakes in places that will get people jumpy. You can serve chocolate covered grasshoppers and ants. Spraying silly string spider webs at people is fun, but a pain to clean up. Try the fake bat flies down on some hidden fishing line trick. Whatever you do, don't harm any animals.

Another fun Halloween party idea is to have a seance. You could even make this the theme or highlight of the party. Instead of hiring a psychic, become one yourself. There are all kinds of fun ways to dress up as a seer, run with it. Perhaps you have a crystal ball or better yet, a ouija board. Have everybody get together at a table by candle-lite, and try to contact ghosts of famous people or anyone for that matter. You can set up almost any kind of scare with this idea. A word of warning! Although I have had fun over the years with this idea, you never really know what spirits you might let through. Even if you don't believe in such nonsense, playing around with a ouija board can make you a believer. I consider myself to be very skeptical, but have seen some unexplainable things over the years. Other times, we had a lot of fun with this idea and nothing weird happened. So use this scary Halloween party idea at your own risk!

I hope I have given you some new ideas to play around with. Halloween is one of my favorite times of year and I have been involved with many homemade haunted houses and parties. What I have learned in my time is that most themes and ideas have already been done. You just need a way to take one of those ideas, turn it around and make it your own. If you have any other ideas or themes you wish to share with us, please feel free to let us know in the comments section. Ultimately the best Halloween party ideas and themes are going to come from you.