Food & Entertaining

Halloween Party Themes

If you’re planning a Halloween party for kids, teens, or adults, consider going with a theme. A theme party can make planning easier and spice up your gathering. Here are a few popular themes you can try this Halloween:

Ghost Theme

Try a scary but fun ghost theme for your next Halloween party. For decorations, string lights that look like miniature ghosts either outside, inside, or both. Adorn your home with spooky fake spiderwebs and bunches of white balloons. Make ghost lollipops by covering a Tootsie Roll pop or other round lollipop with a white tissue, secure with a black or white ribbon or piece of string, and draw on features with a black marker. Serve lime green punch and ghost-shaped cookies. You can even make a ghost cake using a specially shaped cake pan, or make a white-frosted sheet cake and cut the shape of the ghost out with a sharp knife. Create features on your cake with candies and decorative icing.

Pumpkin Theme

A pumpkin theme is good for younger children that don’t need anything too scary. Decorate with strands of pumpkin lights and adorn your yard and home with jack-o-lanterns. You can also fill your home with orange balloons with spooky faces on them. Give each child a pumpkin shaped basket and let them choose different candies from a variety of filled bowls. For a fun game that youngsters will love, try Pass the Pumpkin. Play Halloween music and have the children sit in a circle. Instruct players to pass a miniature pumpkin around the circle until the music stops. The person left holding the pumpkin is out. Repeat until one person is left. Make sure every child gets a prize at the end!

Spooky Food Theme

For a spooky food themed party, you’ll want to provide a variety of scary treats. You can try black cat, pumpkin, and ghost shaped sugar cookies. Or, make your own graveyard dessert. It’s simple — in a shallow, rectangular pan, make a layer of crumbled Oreo cookies to look like dirt. Then, set rectangular cookies upright in the “dirt” to resemble tombstones. You can even write messages on them with a fine tipped food marker or decorative icing. Add some gummy worms and ghosts made out of marshmallows for extra spookiness. One really fun addition to any food themed Halloween party is Hand Punch. To create the hand, fill a latex glove with water or juice. Freeze. Before the party begins, fill your punch bowl with lemonade and add green food coloring. Then, cut the glove off of the frozen “hand” and add it to the punch. It’s that simple!

Disney Theme

Little ones love a Disney themed party. Ask guests to dress up as their favorite Disney characters. Make cookies and cake that look like Disney characters. Play Disney movie trivia, and hand out goodies in Disney-themed gift bags. You can even provide a showing of a favorite Disney movie. You can even clear out the living room for a dance party to a Disney movie soundtrack CD!

Spongebob Theme

Every kid loves Spongebob! Ask your guests to come dressed as their favorite Spongebob character, or perhaps let them dress up in cute Spongebob onesies if you want a more uniform attire.

Serve blue punch and hand out goodie bags or party favors wrapped in blue and yellow cellophane. You’ll find a wide variety of Spongebob decorations and favors most anywhere, because it’s such a popular party theme. Make homemade Spongebob shaped cookies and play a game of Spongebob trivia. You could even turn all the lights down and hold a Spongebob video showing. Try showing the various Spongebob Halloween specials that have been shown over the years!