-
Step 1
Guests: Keep you party manageable. Your child's age is typically a good rule of thumb. If your child is 7, let his/her invite 7 friends. If your child is 3 or younger, invite their parent to join them. If you hav multiple children, let each of them invite three friends.
-
Step 2
Length: Keep it short. You want the end the party while everyone is having fun, busy, and want more. Typically keep it approximately two hours long. For older children (10 and older) you may consider expanding it to three hours. For younger children under 3 you may keep it shorter (1 hour) since the children typically have shorter attention spans.
-
Step 3
Invitations: Have your children make the invitations. For children under 7 you can buy inexpensive Halloween invitation, glue sticks, and silver glitter. Outline parts of the invitation with the gluestick and allow your children to sprinkle glitter over the invitation. Then have the child tap off the excess glitter and send. For older children let them make the invitations on the computer and print out. Make sure to request RSVPs within a week, include start and end time, and specify if this is a costumed Halloween party.
-
Step 4
Decorate: This can be inexpensive. Purchase butcher paper and hang it on the wall. Let your children decorate their own Haunted House (for older kids) or graveyard (for younger children) scene. For the youngest of the children (5 yrs old and younger)you may draw out the scene with a pencil and let the child color or paint in.
-
Step 5
Off-limits: Is there an area that is off limits? Hang criss cross streamers and cobwebs across the door openings.
-
Step 6
Balloons: Balloons can be inexpensive decor. Get a few dozen white and orange balloons. Draw pumpkin faces and ghost faces and toss around the house.
-
Step 7
Treats: Why not make the candy spooky. Put it in a black cauldron or bowl with a few plastic spiders thrown in. Have creepy ice cubes. Put plastic spiders in ice cube trays and fill with water, then put them in the drinks. Fill a latex glove with ginger ale and freeze it. Now place it in the punch for a spooky fright.
-
Step 8
Crafts: Keep things simple. Short structured activities can keep the party simple but fun. Jack'o'lantern crafts work for age 3 and up. Set up a station with mini pumpkins, markers, glue sticks and google eyes. Let them play and decorate these. Have another station for cupcakes with cupcakes and assorted candies (gumdrops, licorice, candy corn, and M&Ms). Let the kids make a creepy-licious cupcake.
-
Step 9
Games: Mummy-wrap- take toilet paper and divide the kids into teams; now have each team choose a mummy; when you say go each team rushes to wrap their mummy. Eyeball race- draw eyeballs on hard boiled eggs and have the kids race with a egg on a spoon.
-
Step 10
Go shopping: Make a list and only get items of the list this will help save money by avoiding impulse buys.
