Halloween is one of my favorite holidays, maybe my favorite. Like a lot of people I look forward to Fall all year (I put together a whole post about getting in the mood for fall) and October especially, because both my birthday and Halloween pop up that month. I’m a horror movie junkie, prefer the cold to the warm, spooky baskets are THE BEST thing to happen in a long time, and do I even need to mention the food that becomes available in the fall?
Usually, I’ll go to a Halloween party hosted by someone else, but this year seems like a good time to host one at home for my family. No reason really… not like this year has been any different than other years, has it?
For serious though, I cannot really express how upset I am that the year Halloween lands on a Saturday is this year of all years. I mean OF COURSE it is, right?
Planning A Stay Home Halloween Party
This won’t be the first time I’ve hosted a Halloween party at home for family. I’ve done it before and it’s a chill way (no pun intended) to spend Halloween away from the usual crowds.
I put together some activities and snacks for the kids in my family and my parents. Since none of them will be doing normal trick r’ treating this year (we’ve all been pretty well quarantining since March and plan to continue) I figure I’ll do the same thing, but turn it up a notch.
Basically I’m looking at:
- Simple Halloween decorations (some DIY, some not)
- Easy Halloween dinner ideas and sweet treats
- Fun at-home Halloween-themed activities to keep the kids entertained
- And of course, this will all be taking place outside, so everything has to be outdoors-friendly
I also threw an outdoor winter party a while back which was an interesting experiment, and surprisingly relevant this year. So I’m planning to combine the outdoor winter party and the Halloween party to create an outdoor Halloween party this year.
SAEFTY NOTE: These are crazy times and gathering in groups is risky. My family and I have been quarantining together and we won’t be having anyone else coming over on Halloween. Please keep any Halloween celebrations as limited as possible to keep yourselves, your loved ones, and your fellow humans as safe and healthy as possible.
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Quick Links for All Halloween Party Items
Images and descriptions of how to use the items are included in the rest of the post!
- Witch hats
- Glow sticks
- Fishing line
- Pre-lit witch hats
- Faux flame lighting jars
- Wine topper candle holder
- Fancy purple lantern
- Fairy lights for faux fire pit
- Blacklight
- Blacklight reactive spider webs
- Faux gravestones
- Creepy graveyard decor
- Fog machine
- Halloween tablecloth
- Tiered drink fountain
- Bobbing for apple tub
- Pumpkin carving tools
- Projector
Here’s how I’m planning to throw an outdoor Halloween party for my family:
Decorations
To keep stress levels low (my stress levels letsbereal) I’m focusing on a some quick, easy Halloween decorations that will still create a really cool atmosphere for a stay-home Halloween party. Some of the decorations will be DIY, while others will be purchased and be ready-to-use. I have some cool decorations in storage already plus have found a few more online.
Glowing witch hats
I put together some cool hanging witch hats last year by grabbing some cheap black witch hats, fake candles, and fishing line. This year I’m planning to use the witch hats, but because this is more of a kids Halloween party I might use glow sticks so I can use different colors.
It’s a quick decoration that you just put together by:
- Sewing a string or fishing line through the top of the hat and tying that string to the glow stick on the inside.
- Sewing another piece of line through the top of the hat and either tying it in a loop (to hang off of hooks or nails) or tying it directing to beams or something.
Alternatively you could buy pre-made floating witch hats like this:
Spooky Lighting
I really like the idea of some of the party going on after dark, but with kids it may or may not happen. Still, I’ll have some fun with spooky lighting in the days leading up to Halloween. Either way I’ll get to enjoy the mood.
I have a couple of fire pits, so I might have one with an actual fire going and the other with some logs and fairy lights just for looks. Kinda like this:
I’m also thinking about how to add some “fog” to the fake fireplace. Maybe with water and dry ice somehow.
Spider webs and black lights
There are certain artificial spider webs that react well in blacklight, so I string some up around the sitting area and grab a black light to give the area a more creepy vibe.
Foggy Graveyard
I have a garden area out front that’s perfect for some fake gravestones and maybe a few extra… things popping up out of the ground. I don’t know if I’ll go super hard with the graveyard this year. The point isn’t to scare the kids (well… I mean it is… but still) too bad.
Also a fog machine or a cauldron with some water and dry ice make things extra spooky. You might also want to add some green or purple lights that can glow in the fog to make the graveyard that much creepier.
If you choose to grab a cauldron with water and dry ice to make your fog you might want some of these water-friendly lights to create a glowing bubbly cauldron.
The Halloween Dinner Table
I like cooking. So I can end up going a little overboard when menu planning, but I love brain-storming it. Halloween dinners don’t have to be over complicated though, especially when it’s for kids. There are some great ideas out there for super easy and fun Halloween foods.
Pinterest is the king of brainstorming sites, especially for food. Here are some really cool ideas for Halloween food from there:
Easy Halloween Treats Video
Add a Halloween tablecloth to the mix and maybe some red punch (with dry ice for the fog effect? Can you tell I like dry ice?) and you’re really good to go. It doesn’t take much to make a cool Halloween dinner setup.
5 Fun At-Home Halloween Activities
If you’ve checked out my previous post on how to throw a winter party you’ll know about a few suggestions I have there for how to handle a party outdoors in colder weather, such as faux-fur-covered benches, fire pits, warm drinks, etc.
Bobbing for apples
Luckily Halloween can benefit from a lot of those things too. There’s one Halloween activity though that’s a little trickier in cold weather… bobbing for apples.
I have a couple of metal tubs that I’ve used for bobbing for apples in the past and one trick is just to use half cold water (like from the hose) and half hot or warm water so people don’t absolutely freeze when they’re bobbing.
Just an extra note for bobbing for apples right now… I personally wouldn’t do it unless all the people bobbing are quarantining together (which will be the case for us this year) as it’s possible it could increase the likelihood of spreading illness between all the bobbers. I’m not a doctor, but just a thought.
Pumpkin Carving
Carving Jack-o-lanterns is a great, classic Halloween party activity whether you’re a kid or grown-up. You just need some solid carving tools and newspaper or broken-down cardboard boxes to keep the carving area clean, and some candles, either real or battery operated.
I really like this set of carving tools. It’s for the profesh pumpkin carver:
Tip: You can break down some cardboard boxes (save some from things that are delivered to your house) and lay them flat on the ground or on a table to carve pumpkins on, so the mess is easy to clean up!
Check out this list of awesome pumpkin carving ideas!
Hide-and-Treat
After you’re done with pumpkin carving, take a handful of candy and place it in each hollowed-out pumpkin and have someone hide the pumpkins. Once they’re all hidden, release the carvers to go find their pumpkin with candy in it.
This way, everyone knows which “bag” of candy is theirs and you can still “trick-or-treat” without going door-to-door.
Tip: You may want to put a paper towel or something in the bottom of the pumpkin so the candy doesn’t get all slimy.
Making Slime
Making slime is my idea of a real-life horror movie, but for whatever reason a lot of people (kids especially) really like it, and it is a great at-home Halloween activity.
Halloween Movies on a Sheet
Another thing I really love doing during outdoor parties that last after dark is using a projector and sheet to put on a movie or something for everyone. Watching can either be an event all to itself or you can have something playing during the party just as a little something extra that adds to the mood and gives people something to check out if they want.
I’ve used this pretty cheap projector and found it works well:
You can use a Chromecast, Firestick, or something similar to control it from your phone and stream movies, or you can plug in a DVD player or game console and project off of those.
The sheet of course can be basically any sheet, and it’s very easy to find one at secondhand stores like Goodwill if you don’t have one.
If you’re throwing a party for adults there’s a big list of horror movies here you could put on for your guests.
If you have kids around, as I will, you may prefer something off of this list or a few of my personal favorites like:
- Mickey’s House of Villains Amazon | Apple
- Coraline Amazon | Apple
- Frankenweenie Amazon | Apple
- Hocus Pocus Amazon | Apple
- Nightmare Before Christmas Amazon | Apple
I’m planning to post some more details
I’ll be sharing more as I actually get to set stuff up so be sure to follow over on Instagram to see any stories and posts there.
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