How to Throw a Scary Halloween Party

Dress the part to frighten guests at your scary Halloween party.

Knowing where to start when hosting a scary Halloween party can be confusing. Halloween stores offer a vast array of scary Halloween props and decorations but purchasing a random assortment of various items can leave your party looking silly rather than scary. Throw a scary Halloween party that people will remember for years by paying attention to detail and sticking to one scary theme.

Things You'll Need

• Invitations
• Light bulbs
• Decorations
• Food
• Costume

Instructions

1. Choose a theme for your scary Halloween party before you start decorating. Your theme could be a Victorian vampire Halloween party or a redneck zombie Halloween party or anything in between. The theme will help you narrow down your choices in decoration.

2. Send out invitations reflecting the theme of your party. For example, the Victorian vampire party invitations may be on parchment paper with a red wax seal. A zombie party invitation could be scrawled on a piece of ripped paper with a red marker and request that guests BYOB: Bring your own brains. Let your guests know on the invitation if the party is appropriate for children or if it is an adults only affair.

3. Set the mood for your scary Halloween party with the proper lighting. Replace standard light bulbs in your home with red light bulbs or black-light bulbs which you can find at novelty stores. Place a strobe light in one corner of the room for a scary effect but if you have guests with epilepsy attending the party, forget the strobe light as the Epilepsy Foundation warns that flashing lights can trigger seizures.

4. Decorate the party area according to your theme. A mutant spider party requires lots of cobwebs and large plastic spiders while an axe murderer theme is better served by assorted weapons hung on the wall and rubber severed limbs scattered throughout the area.

5. Set out scary Halloween themed foods and refreshments at your party. See the resources section of this article for scary Halloween recipes. Keep your theme in mind when choosing snacks as in serving drinks in test tubes at a mad scientist themed Halloween party or severed finger sandwiches at a chainsaw massacre Halloween party.

6. Dress according to the theme of your Halloween party so that you can greet guests as the frightening resident of the scary atmosphere you have created.

References

• Epilepsy Foundation: Photosensitivity and Seizures

Resources

• Disney Family Fun: Halloween Recipes