Halloween party ideas for kids: how to tackle your kid's first trick-or-treating

The end of October can bring a whole lot of spooky fun, but how can you make this holiday as stress-free as possible? Check out our Halloween party ideas, from decorations and games to costumes and food. If you’re taking this year’s Halloween fun for the kids to the streets, pick up some of our trick-or-treating tips too!

When it comes to Halloween decorations, use battery-operated tea lights instead of real candles with flames. They look just as good and are safer.

Halloween party ideas

Theme everything around classic Halloween symbols and your party will be a great success. We’re talking ghosts, witches, vampires, pumpkins… you get the idea!

Check out our top Halloween party ideas for kids:

• Games: bobbing for apples and eating doughnuts hanging on strings are classics. The kids can also work in pairs to create mummies, with one wrapping the other in toilet paper.

• Scavenger hunt: instead of trick-or-treating outside, you could hide treats around the house and garden and give the kids clues to find them. It’s like Easter meets Halloween!

• Food: we can’t talk about Halloween party ideas for kids without mentioning food! Stick raisins/chocolate chips on bananas to look like ghosts or put celery stalks in oranges to look like pumpkins.

Halloween decoration ideas

Pumpkins are usually at the top of any list of Halloween decoration ideas, but you don’t have to get involved with carving real ones if you’d rather avoid sharp knives! Paint paper plates orange and draw silly faces on them instead or use black marker pens on unpeeled oranges.

Making decorations can also be a great part of the general Halloween fun for kids, so set up a craft table at the party. They can make spiders out of pipe cleaners and egg cartons, ghosts out of toilet paper rolls and white paper, or mummies out of jars wrapped in bandages.

When the party is over and it’s time to clean up, keep multipurpose surface cleaners and good dishwashing products close by as they can tackle most messes. We like Handy Andy and Sunlight.

Halloween costume ideas for kids

You can buy any of the standard outfits – witches, wizards, monsters, devils and skeletons – but there are other Halloween costume ideas for kids that are cheap and fun to make. These creative Halloween costume ideas for kids will help inspire you:

• Cat: an all-black outfit just needs a pair of cat ears, whiskers drawn on with face paint (or eyeliner!) and a tail made by stuffing newspaper into one leg of an old pair of black tights.

• Zombie: a bit of red face paint or lipstick smeared over a white base makes for a scary-looking, bloodthirsty zombie. Add baby powder to the hair for a greying effect.

• Ghost: cut some eye holes in an old white sheet and you’re good to go! It’s a classic for a reason.

Halloween trick-or-treat tips

Here are our favourite trick-or-treating tips to help keep everyone safe:

• Visit houses of people you know, rather than strangers.

• Plan a safe route with wide sidewalks.

• Stay in groups.

• Take flashlights and be aware of candles.

• Ensure costumes are easy to walk in and don’t trail.

• Check sweets are in wrappers and aren’t a choking hazard before they’re eaten.

With these fun Halloween activities for kids and top tips, you’ll all be able to make the most of this exciting holiday while staying safe. Happy haunting!

• Try popular games like apple bobbing when planning Halloween activities for kids.

• Set up a craft table to get kids involved in making Halloween decorations.

• Be inspired by cheap and creative Halloween costume ideas for kids and make one yourself!