Home Tip Tuesday: Tips on Hosting a Halloween Party

The first step is to decide on the "spookiness" factor.

You really can’t go wrong with a Halloween party—candy, costumes, guests, it’s fun! But hosting a great party takes a little more effort. The first step to success is deciding the “spookiness factor” of your soiree. Who will be attending, young children, teens, adults or a mixture of everyone? When families are involved, it’s a smart idea to adjust the scary level to the tolerance of your most timid guests. Teens may find cartoon ghosts and bobbing for apples a bit tame, but if the décor and activities are too frightening for younger siblings, the whole family may have to leave early. Keep a few surprises up your sleeve for more daring goblins once the little ones have had their fun.



Set The Date
With so many school and office parties and community events celebrating Halloween, waiting until the last minute to send invitations may spell disaster for your spooktacular event. It’s generally recommended to send out invitations 2 to 4 weeks ahead of the party date. But when you’re hosting a party during the busy holiday season, 4 weeks is a reasonable amount of notice. And don’t forget that invitations set the tone for your event. Planning a super-scary Halloween for teens? Make that obvious on the invitation so guests will know what to expect.

Set The Mood
Décor is always an important part of party planning, but it may be even more crucial for a special event like Halloween. Select decorations that are age appropriate, but don’t skimp. At Halloween, less is not more! Keep things simple by repeating a theme. Whether it’s pumpkins, scary spiders or monsters, carry the same theme throughout your party space for a cohesive look that won’t take a lot of time or stress to put together.

Be creative and have fun with décor and food.

Set The Table
Even grownups enjoy Halloween–themed party foods. Candy corn and fun-size chocolate bars are a must on any Halloween buffet table, but don’t let your imagination stop there. Wrap hotdogs in strips of canned pizza dough and bake to make “mummy dogs”. Turn baby carrots into witch’s fingers by “gluing” half an olive on one end with a dab of cream cheese. Cut a short slit on the ends of a cheese stick and flatten them to look like the ends of a long bone. With a little creativity you can turn healthy food options into something festive.

Set The Schedule
Not only does a good party begin and end on time, in between there are activities to keep guests entertained. Play party games, make a seasonal craft or watch a classic Halloween movie, but do plan a few activities that will help guests interact with one another and have more fun. 

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