Halloween Party Ideas
What sets a party apart is a good theme. You can always go with the classic spooky Halloween party, but there are many other ways you can add a Halloween twist to your party theme. Some party themes are best for kids, teens, adults, or even all ages! Explore different Halloween party themes and choose one that you are in the mood for!
āļø September 27, 2021
Love movies? Why not go with a Movie Costume Party? Or if you are throwing a party for kids, you can throw a PokƩmon Go-themed Halloween party. There are so many Halloween party ideas that you can try.
Looking for Halloween party themes? Donāt worry! Weāre sharing our ultimate list of where you can get Halloween inspiration. Weāll even throw in some tips and tricks to help you decide which Halloween party theme is for you!
- š Ā Classic Halloween Themes
- š¦ Ā Halloween Movies
- š± Ā Halloween Mobile Games
- š» Ā Halloween Cards and Board Games
- š Ā Halloween Arts and Crafts
- šø Ā Halloween Food and Drinks
- šµ Ā Halloween Music
- š§ Ā Scary Activities
- š Ā Halloween Venue
- š Ā Special Occasions
Classic Halloween Themes
Letās start with the classics. These are classic Halloween party themes that will never go out of style. If you want to have a Halloween party that anyone can easily enjoy, these classic Halloween party themes are perfect!
1. Haunted House
Have you ever been inside a haunted house as a kid? Or have you watched a movie set inside a haunted house (Haunting of Hill House, anyone?) that absolutely terrified you? Think about those memories and try to make that creepy feeling you felt reality in your Haunted House-themed party. Thatās one way to make your Haunted House truly scary!
To turn your home into the creepiest Haunted House, go all out with the scary decorations. Give your house some dim lighting, play Halloween-themed songs, hang jack-o’-lanterns, fake bats and spiders, and cobwebs all over.
Make sure to prepare all sorts of decorations that will scare your guests! Once you have your base Halloween decor in place, you can add styrofoam tombstones, a fog machine, caution tape on the doors, and even purple motion lights.
Make sure to tell your guests to show up in their best ghostly makeup and costumes to not ruin the vibe!
Depending on the ages of your guests, you can adjust the spookiness level of your Haunted House from cute-scary for kids to blood-curdling terrifying for adults! I
2. Monster Mash Party
Let the monsters come out to play at your Halloween party! Throw a Monster Mash Party, and invite your friends to show up as different monsters. People can come as Dracula, Frankenstein, a mummy, a ghost, a zombie or goblin even! They can also dress up as dementors from Harry Potter, Gollum from Lord of the Rings, aliens, or Godzilla!
Want to add a fun game twist to your Monster Mash party? Try playing Never Have I Ever as your monster characters! Itās going to blow your friends’ minds trying to figure out which statements are facts or lies. Donāt get too caught up though. They’re all made up anyway!
For example, the player dressed up as Godzilla says, āNever have I ever…destroyed an entire city.ā
All the monster characters who have destroyed cities will need to take a drink. (ex. King Kong, the monster from Cloverfield, etc.) If none of the other monster characters have destroyed cities, then Godzilla drinks.
The game goes on until all the players have given a statement or until people get too drunk!
Need help making statements? Get ideas from our Never Have I Ever app!
3. Vampire Dinner Party
Have a fang-tastic Halloween and organize a Vampires-Only dinner party. Guests can come dressed as funny vampires (Dracula in Hotel Transylvania), sexy vampires (Lestat from Interview with the Vampire or even sparkly vampires (Twilight)!
The menu will be super easy. Just serve all the red foods that you can think of like pizza, spaghetti, cranberries, beets, and tomatoes. Donāt forget Bloody Marys too or Cosmopolitans! It will be fun to throw in garlic wreaths around the venue to keep your vampire guests on their toes!
4. Zombie Party
A zombie party is another Halloween classic that everyone loves! Guests can dress up like zombies from The Walking Dead or from Plants vs Zombies.Don’t worry! There is a zombie character out there for everyone!
Prepare for your zombie party by arranging party snacks for zombies such as zombie flesh cupcakes or spaghetti brains. Make sure to decorate your party area with fake blood, fake eyeballs, and bloody hands to make it look like youāre living in a zombie apocalypse!
Want to take your zombie party to the next level? Make it a zombie prom! Bring out the disco ball, play Michael Jacksonās Thriller, and let the zombies loose on the dancefloor!
5. Witches Night
If thereās a Zombie Party, you can also have a Witches Night. Dress up your venue with black cats, ouija boards, cauldrons with dry ice, and lights. Make sure to include a book of spells that your guests can have fun chanting.
Guests can come dressed as any witch, or they can dress up as their favorite witch characters. We have Sabrina the Teenage Witch, the Wicked Witch of the West from the Wizard of Oz, Elphaba from Wicked, Ursula from The Little Mermaid, and a lot more! Itās fun to dress up as the villains sometimes!
Donāt forget to serve your version of Witches Brew, and you can also have Witches Hair pasta, Jell-O worms, and cheesy chicken stuffed skulls. For desserts, witches will expect devilish chocolate cupcakes.
6. Masquerade Ball
You can go with a masquerade ball if you want something a little sophisticated for adults. The highlight, of course, is the mysterious masks that everyone has to wear! Your guests can go with large feather masks, beaded masks, or whatever elaborate mask they come up with as long as it’s not easy to recognize the person behind the mask.Itās fun for your party guests to not know who they are talking to.
Invite your guests to come in formal attire to make it a classy affair. Think black and gold for the decorations. If you want to do a little reminiscing, you can also go with prom attire for the dress code!Just make sure that people come in costume masks, not medical masks!
Halloween Movies
There are many ways you can include your favorite scary movies at your Halloween party. Itās even better if your friends are movie buffs too! Here are some Halloween party themes that will be a blast for movie lovers!
1. Horror Movie Night
Watching scary movies is a fun way to spend Halloween with your friends. You can do it indoors and curl up in your favorite pajamas with your friends. You can also have spooky treats such as pizza skulls or rice Krispie treat mummies or Halloween-themed drinks such as non-alcoholic Creepy Shirley Temples or Halloween Jell-O shots!
Another option is to hold your Horror Movie Night out in your backyard under the stars and some hanging lights. Thereās just something about a horror movie when it is being flashed from a beam projector onto a plain white screen/cloth that makes it feel old school and creepy!
If you are planning on organizing a Backyard Horror Movie Night, throw in decorations that match the theme of the movie that you will be watching. For example, if youāre watching the movie, Annabelle, try to place creepy looking dolls or antiques all over your backyard!
š¤ Suggested read: š Top 5 Halloween Games for Adults
Once you have your decorations set, include horror movie drinking games to make your movie night more exciting. Drink if someone dies within the first five minutes of the movie!
2. Movie Costume Party
Whatās a Halloween party without crazy costumes? If you and your friends love watching movies, why not use your Halloween party as a chance to become your favorite movie characters for a night? If you want a more obvious Halloween element, tell people to come as a horror movie character! There are a lot of choices that your guests can choose from. They can show up as the killers or villains in horror or slasher movies, or they can be the heroes or victims. It will be fun to watch how long people can stay in character for the night!
Want to add a fun activity to your party? Play a game of Halloween Movie Trivia Quiz! Test how well your friends know their horror movies with fun trivia questions!
Looking for inspiration? Check out our Party Trivia Quiz app.
3. Movie Theme Party
Using a specific movie as your Halloween partyās theme is another great way to go. You can easily pick a movie that is suitable for kids, adults, or both!
Here are popular movies that will be great for your Halloween Movie Theme Party:
4. Harry Potter
Harry Potter is an awesome theme for a kidsā Halloween party! Turn your house into Hogwarts. Ask your guests to come dressed as wizards. Make sure you have a Sorting Hat, broomsticks, golden Snitches, magic wands, and cauldrons. Donāt forget Bertie Bott’s Every Flavour Beans that will be a sure hit with kids!
You can also hang different objects with a nylon string so that they will look as if theyāre floating. The only thing left is for kids to have fun chanting āWingardium Leviosa!ā
5. Pirates of the Caribbean
Who doesnāt love Captain Jack Sparrow? A pirate-themed party is loads of fun especially when you add in a treasure hunt game for your guests! You can hide all sorts of cool treasures in your house or backyard!
Prepare treasure chests filled with golden chocolate coins to wake the greedy pirateās side in your guests! You can offer eye patches, bandannas, or tattoos at the front door in case some of your guests forget or need to spice up their costumes!
6. Friday the 13th Halloween Party
Organize a summer camp-themed Halloween party that feels like Camp Crystal Lake in the horror movie Friday the 13th. This is a great party theme for teens or adults. Decorate your venue with items that you will typically find in a summer camp. You can put up vintage lanterns, plaid blankets, a small wooden boat with ice for your beverages, and hot dogs.
To create that Friday the 13th atmosphere, you can scatter fake blood and gore in some areas! Donāt forget to include Jasonās hockey mask somewhere to up the horror factor!
Your guests can also enjoy sāmores and hotdogs over a campfire. For the games, whatās summer camp without Truth or Dare? If you donāt want to come up with your list of questions and dares, you can download our Truth or Dare app!
If you want to make your guests more immersed in the theme, you can also hand out Camp Crystal Lake t-shirts. Make your guests play lawn bowling or archery competitions so that they feel that they are really in a summer camp. Of course, that’s the calm before Jason goes on his killing spree!
Halloween Mobile Games
Playing mobile games is a great way to pass the time. It can even get pretty addictive for kids, teens, and adults especially if a gameās cute characters have you hooked. Remember Super Mario? Mobile games with cute characters and colorful settings can inspire all sorts of Halloween party theme ideas! Just tweak your decorations to include scary elements, and you are set! Here are some mobile games that could be the theme for your next Halloween party!
1. PokƩmon Go
If you grew up watching the original PokƩmon animation, playing PokƩmon Go must have been wild for you! Aside from going revisiting a childhood icon, you get to bond with your kids while playing it on your phones! Now that the initial hype of PokƩmon Go has died down, kids are also playing with PokƩmon Go trading cards these days!
If your kids love PokƩmon, throwing a PokƩmon Go-themed Halloween party is easy enough to do. Thanks to its popularity, PokƩmon party decor and other merchandise are easy to find. You can also go with a DIY approach if you want to do things on your own and save on costs.
Have fun turning paper lanterns into cute PokĆ©mon characters, and make sure to serve PokĆ©mon-themed snacks and goodies. Remember to add decorations of ghost PokĆ©mons, cobwebs, and spooky decor since itās Halloween! Just make sure that there is a space where all the kids can gather and play with their PokĆ©mon Go trading cards.
2. Super Mario
Parents may reminisce about playing Super Mario Brothers on their old video game console or PlayStation when they were young, but kids today know Super Mario from playing Mario Kart Tour or Super Mario Run on their phones or on Nintendo Switch!
Whatever the case is, holding a Super Mario-themed Halloween party will be a sensation with both adults and kids! Similar to PokƩmon Go, there are many Super Mario decorations, printables, and DIY tutorials that you can use. Guests will love walking into your version of a Super Mario World!
Get creative with the decorations! Try to add details such as a Mario Kart-inspired candy buffet, or set up Luigiās Power Up Pizza Station! Kids can have fun making their own pizza!
Another thing that you can do for Halloween is to organize a Super Mario-inspired Trunk or Treat activity! Just dress up the trunk of your car with Super Mario-themed decorations, and make sure to have lots of candy when kids arrive!
3. Rubikās Cube
Rubikās Cube is another game that most parents would have grown up with. You might have even introduced it to your kids as a fun brain teaser! Like many other classic games that have been given a modern twist, you and your kids can also play Rubikās Cube on your phone!
Rubikās Cube is such a timeless game that you can even turn it into a fun kidsā Halloween Party theme! You wonāt have a problem with decorations because all you need to do is to make sure that the Rubikās Cube colors (red, white, blue, yellow, green, and orange) can be seen everywhere!
Dress up your venue with balloons, plastic cups, and streamers that come in different colors! For your food, arrange to have an awesome Rubikās Cube cake and colorful candy and fruit skewers representing the Rubikās cube colors!
Tell the party guests to come dressed in Rubikās Cube colors so that everything is color-coordinated! Kids will love the bright and colorful atmosphere!
There are many other online or mobile games that you can turn into a fun Halloween party theme! Check out our Latest Games and Apps, and get ideas for your Halloween party!
Halloween Cards and Board Games
You can get inspiration from card games and board games too! It will be fun to play a giant life-sized version of your favorite board games!
1. Haunted Casino Night
A Haunted Casino Night may not be as glamorous as a regular Casino Night, but itās way more exciting! Or should we say terrifying? Decorate your party venue to look like a rundown casino. You can add cobwebs, spooky good luck charms, hanging spiders, and red lights to make it feel more sinister. Make your venue more fun with playing cards and casino chips as decorations too. Itās even cooler if you can put up life-size playing cards!
Ask your guests to come as rich ghost casino players. Even if theyāre ghosts, they can play blackjack, poker, or roulette while still looking fabulous! Try to add details such as an eyeball for the ball on your roulette wheel to make it creepier! For your dinks, you can give out black and red-colored drinks.
2. Board Game Themed Halloween Party
Have an awesome time turning your favorite board game into a party theme for Halloween! Choose a board game and recreate it as a life-size version that kids, teens, and adults will love! You can choose board games such as Snakes and Ladders, Monopoly, Life, or any other board game where you need to throw a dice to move on the board.
Take a DIY approach and use tape and cardstock to create the steps in your giant board game. Donāt forget the giant dice too! Aside from the life-size board game, dress up the party venue as well based on your board gameās design.You can add decorations such as pumpkins, skeletons, brooms, and other scary things to make your party into the Halloween edition of your board game!
3. Halloween Game Night
Donāt want to limit your Halloween party to just one game for the night? Donāt worry. You can have a Halloween Game Night, and enjoy various games instead! Dress up your party venue as a creepy haunted house where people need to play games to escape. That will keep your guests on their toes! Make sure to choose games that fit your guestsā personalities so that everyone has fun.
Mix up your board games with card games to create a fun program for everyone. You can choose from board games such as Pictionary, Taboo, Monopoly, etc. For card games, try playing poker or the more exciting Circle of Death or Kingās Cup drinking game! If you donāt want to use playing cards, you can also play using our Kingās Cup app
Halloween Arts and Crafts
Do you like doing arts & crafts with your kids or taking on DIY projects? You can come up with great Halloween party ideas based on arts & crafts!
1. Halloween Craft Party
If yes, why not throw a Halloween Craft Party? There are so many craft projects that you can do for Halloween such as making decorations, artworks, and even food!
Just prepare the supplies and snacks, and youāre set! If youāre throwing a Halloween Craft Party for kids, you can have them make paper bag monster puppets, lollipop ghosts, or pumpkin popsicle stick door hangers. There are many Halloween craft ideas that you can do!
2. Pumpkin Carving Party
Whatās Halloween without pumpkins and jack oā lanterns? Prepping your pumpkins for Halloween can be a fun party for kids and adults. You can buy small pie-size pumpkins and let your guests carve their own jack-oā-lanterns. For kids, you can have them decorate their pumpkins using markers, stickers, or other materials. To make your party cozier, bring out pumpkin spice lattes for adults and Halloween treats for the kids!
3. Fall Flower Arranging Party
Your Halloween party doesnāt always have to be scary. If youāre into crafts and want a less spooky Halloween vibe, you can look into arranging a floral arranging party. Itās not for everyone, but if you have friends who are into crafts and flower arranging, this will be a fun way to spend your Halloween. To prepare for it, visit your local flower market and pick some flowers. Make sure to prepare Halloween-themed food and drinks too!
Halloween Music
Music as a party theme can inspire a lot of party ideas. Pick songs that suit the vibe that you are going for, and just have a fun Halloween night singing and dancing! Here are music-themed parties that you can use for your Halloween party.
1. Music through the Generations
Generations-themed parties are always a hit and can easily be tweaked to become Halloween parties. You can turn a 70ās disco theme into a Groovy 70ās Halloween party, or make 80ās retro into an 80ās Zombie Party, or turn your 90ās pop theme into a Ghosts of the 90’s Party!
Your guests will love dressing up in vintage outfits with creepy makeup on while dancing to songs that may have even come out before they were born! Your party is going to be a spooky blast from the past!
2. Dead Rock Star Party
If you love rock & roll music, why not throw a Dead Rock Star Party for Halloween? You and your friends get to live your badass rocker dreams for a night! Guests can come as Freddie Mercury, Elvis Presley, Kurt Kobain, or other famous rock stars!
Roll out a red carpet on the way to your venue’s entrance, and give your guests the rock star royalty treatment that they deserve. Line your walkway with styrofoam tombstones of dead rock stars to make your house creepier!. Donāt forget to sing and dance your heart out in rockaoke (rock+karaoke) to get your guestsā heads banging to the beat as well!
3. Halloween Music Festival
Think Coachella meets Halloween. Sounds awesome, right? Thatās what you get when you host a Halloween Music Festival!
Tell your friends to bring out their guitars and tambourines, and to come dressed in avant-garde or carefree outfits. Spruce up your venue with jack-oā-lanterns and fairy lights, and make sure you have a stage for people who want to play music. Itās a night for music and some scares!
Halloween Food and Drinks
You can never go wrong when you get party inspirations from food and drinks! Adding a fun Halloween twist to your food and beverages makes it more exciting for you and your guests too! Here are some Halloween party themes centered around food and drinks that you can check out.
1. Halloween Brunch
While most Halloween parties usually happen at night, no oneās stopping you from having your own Halloween Brunch during the daytime. This only means youāre starting with your Halloween fun earlier!Get your friends together, and enjoy spooky food such as Halloween deviled eggs, Mummy brie, coffin-shaped Pop-Tarts, and other delicious Halloween-themed food over a leisurely brunch. Of course, every brunch needs to have mimosas. Donāt forget your pumpkin pie mimosas too!
2. Boos and Brews
Enjoy drinking craft beer, artisanal beer, and regular beer and the company of your friends when you host a Boos and Brews party.Of course, people need to come in costumes to make it a Boos and Brews Halloween party and not just a regular Beer Tasting Party. Make sure to throw in pumpkin beers too and Halloween-themed food for your guests!
3. Franks and Steins Party
Do you have mild October weather thatās perfect for a barbecue before it becomes too cold? Make the most of it, and host a Franks and Steins Party! Invite your neighbors to your house for a fun Halloween cookout. Throw in Halloween decorations too to set the mood. Parents, teens, and kids will enjoy a fun afternoon eating hotdogs and some games.
4. Halloween Mixology Party
Grab the opportunity to make the perfect Halloween drink and hold a Halloween Mixology Party! Make sure to provide all sorts of alcohol, glassware, garnishes for your guests.
Itās your chance to start brewing up some concoctions or Halloween cocktails while hanging out with your friends. The best part is that you get to drink each otherās concoctions too! You can look up recipes on how to make Witches’ Brew, Apple Pumpkin Beer Cocktails, Vampire Killer Martini, or Caramel Apple Sangria. Feel free to make up your unique Halloween drink too!
5. Caramel Apple Making Party
Who thinks of Caramel Apples when fall comes? If you and your kids get excited about Caramel Apples during Halloween, you are going to love a Halloween party that’s all about making Caramel Apples! You can even decorate your Caramel Apples with all sorts of toppings so that you have different flavors! Another great benefit is that itās the perfect excuse for an apple picking activity too!
Scary Activities
There are some scary activities that you can do anytime; however, they become much cooler when you do them during Halloween. Check out these scary activities for your Halloween party theme!
1. Murder Mystery
Organize a Halloween murder-mystery party, and show your guests a killer time! If you have ever played the board game Clue, then you know how this works. Create a story about the murder and assign characters to your guests. Donāt forget to tell your guests to come dressed up as their characters to make the mystery more real!
During the party, come up with games to share hints about who the murderer is. Make sure to dress up your venue based on your story too. Your guests will have fun trying to solve the murder!
2. Fortune Telling Party
Dress up your venue with candles, incense, tarot card decor, purple fabric for table covers, and shimmery scarves! You’re creating a mystical fortune tellerās tent for your guests. Donāt forget the crystal ball, Ouija boards, and magic 8 balls too!
You can either hire a local fortune teller to give readings during your party.Or you can act as a fortune teller and give your friends hilarious made up fortunes for the night! If your friends are interested, bring out books on tarot card reading and try to give each other tarot card readings!
3. Campfire Story Party
Itās always more fun listening to scary stories in front of a campfire. What can make it better? Roast marshmallows over a campfire while everyone is sharing their favorite scary story! Sometimes, you donāt always need to go all out for your Halloween party. A campfire story party can be a perfect Halloween night for both adults and kids!
š Suggested read: š Top 5 Halloween Party Games for Teens
Halloween Venue
When you think of your party venue, what kind of Halloween party do you imagine? Whether you are holding your Halloween party inside your home, out in the backyard, or in a bar or hotel ballroom, there are many ways you can decorate your venue to make it your dream Halloween party. Just imagine what suits your space and loads of fun youāre going to have come Halloween night!
1. Alice in Wonderland
What can you do in your garden for Halloween? Transform it into an Alice in Wonderland party venue!
First, arrange a Halloween-night tea party in your garden.Ask your guests to come dressed as Alice, the Mad Hatter, the Queen of Hearts, or any of the other kooky characters from Alice in Wonderland! Set out teas with finger foods such as key-shaped cookies, raspberry-filled heart-shaped tarts, or a catās smile cake. Add playing cards to the decor and organize a fun game of croquet or cards!
2. Haunted Forest
If you have a big backyard, you can turn it into a Haunted Forest for your Halloween party. Let your guests imagine what enchanted creatures lurk about in the Haunted forest. You can put up decorations such as unicorn skeletons, talking trees, dragons, and spooky skeletons.
Give your party a medieval touch and place metal goblets, candlesticks, pumpkins, cobwebs, and spiders on the party tables! A Haunted Forest Halloween party is the perfect party for kids to let their imagination run wild while playing outdoors. Tell kids that they need to come dressed as forest creatures to enter the Haunted Forest!
3. Carnival
Carnival-themed parties are fun all throughout the year, but Halloween makes it a whole lot creepier! If you have a big backyard or garden, turn it into a Halloween Carnival!
Use black and orange colors for your decorations to make it feel more spooky. Prepare Halloween-themed candies, cupcakes, and other food that your guests will love!
Want to make it scarier? Ask some of your neighbors to dress as circus freaks and clowns! Set up all sorts of carnival games and activities that kids will enjoy. You can make kids guess how many candy corns are in a jar, do face art with creepy designs, and have fake tarot card reading sessions!
Special Occasions
These special occasions fit just right in with your Halloween party.
1. Day of the Dead
Dia de Los Muertos or Day of the Dead is a Mexican holiday where family and friends gather to honor and pray for their dead loved ones. As part of the celebration, people dress up as skeletons and put on artistic makeup on their faces to make it look like skulls. These days, Day of the Dead has also become a great Halloween party theme. People can wear skull masks or makeup and wear flower headbands too. You can also have DIY projects to make floral displays, skull piƱatas, and sugar skull cookies and balloons. The skulls and skeleton design decor may look creepy, but itās actually about celebrating life and death!
š Suggested read: 500+ Halloween "Charades" Ideas for Spooky and Ghoulish Fun
2. Autumn Harvest
Autumn is a great reason to celebrate. If you donāt want to have a spooky Halloween with witches and ghosts, you can have an Autumn Harvest party instead. Itās a more cozy party that kids and adults will love.
Decorate your space with fall-themed ornaments such as bales of hay, pumpkins, and gourds. Prepare food such as pumpkin pie and apple cider that are just perfect for fall.
3. Oktoberfest Halloween Party
If you are planning a Halloween party and donāt have a theme yet, you can combine it with Oktoberfest to double the fun!
An Oktoberfest Halloween Party is a great way to bring you and your friends together if you just like hanging out and drinking! Lure them with all sorts of craft beers, and ask them to come in Halloween costumes!
More Halloween Party Ideas
Every great Halloween party starts with a cool theme. All you need to do is to pick one that you can easily organize and that your guests will enjoy! Want more party theme ideas? You might get inspired by our latest games and apps that you can easily tweak for Halloween!
