It’s September now, and time to knuckle down and plan the details for Halloween.
When the kids were younger we spent a few years living in Tokyo.
It was great fun – we lived across the road from their school – and there was a great community of expats, most of whom were American. So they really knew how to throw a cool Halloween Party.
One of the best parties was inside a small unit in the middle of Tokyo.
You don’t necessarily need a large house and yard to throw a good party.
The main thing I remember is how awesome their indoor decorations were, and how they kept a group of boisterous 6 year old boys entertained (before heading out to trick-or-treat).
The challenge this year is to design indoors halloween games that don’t unnecessarily spread germs between kids. Which does rule out the old stick-your-hands-in-spaghetti and straw-blowing contests.
Here are some great sites listing halloween games:
- https://tipjunkie.com/halloween-games/
- https://www.thespruce.com/halloween-party-games-kids-1357658,
- https://www.goodhousekeeping.com/holidays/halloween-ideas/g2618/halloween-games/
- https://www.countryliving.com/diy-crafts/g3476/halloween-party-games/.
There are my favourite ideas for indoor halloween games during Covid:
Halloween hunt
Hide something halloween-themed around the room.
It can be lollies, or small toys such as halloween eyes (decorated ping-pong balls) or even a piece of paper containing the word “halloween”.
The reward can be what you find (and keep a few aside to hand out to kids who didn’t manage to find anything).
Wrap the mummy
Form two teams, with each team picking a “mummy”.
Each child gets a 2 metre length of toilet paper, and gets to wrap the mummy. The two teams race to wrap the mummy the fastest.
Halloween pumpkin bowling
There are lots of ways to play ten-pin bowling at halloween, but the safest indoors version uses toilet rolls – they can’t really damage things when they fall.
Draw a halloween face on rolls of toilet paper, and stack them in a pyramid shape. Each child gets a turn at rolling a ball or pumpkin (real or paper-mache), to knock down the stack.
GigglesGalore has a great-looking version of mummy bowling with toilet-paper-wrapped bottles with eyes, and a toilet paper ball. Plus some excellent ideas for decorations.
Pin the spider on the web
You can’t get simpler than this – draw a spider web on a piece of cardboard and attach to a wall.
Everybody gets their own blindfold (for health reasons – crepe paper is good for this), and a spider with one-sided tape on the back). The closest spider to the centre of the web wins.
Halloween guessing game
Have a jar of lollies and get everybody to guess how many lollies are inside.
The winner gets to take the jar home (after sharing a lollie with everyone else first).
Spider Web
Get everyone to stand in a circle. Throw a black ball of wool from one person to another until a spider web is created.
Halloween I Spy
Place halloween stickers around the room for use as I Spy games.
With most Halloween parties for kids, you do usually go trick-or-treating before or afterwards. So that’s a good chance for them to work off steam.
If you do need ideas for prizes for some of the indoor games, here are a few suggestions for great kids craft toys:
Monster Tattoo Stickers – you can’t beat tattoo stickers to put in gift bags
Scratch Animal Masks – these are also good for wearing during parties, and as a cheap craft party activity.
There’s still the challenge of how to hand out lollies in a way that doesn’t involve a hundred hands going into the same bowl of lollies. I’ve been tossing around ideas for a lollie dispenser – that would be a fantastic craft project for kids to build – but that’s another post.
Have fun!