Last Updated on December 19, 2022
We all know that kids adore Halloween. They get all the candy (sigh) and dress up in costumes. But as a parent, your involvement doesn’t have to end with pinning paper skeletons or carving a couple of pumpkins. Halloween can also be a fun time for adults! One of the main ways to enjoy this spooky celebration is to invite your friends over for a couple of games.
1. Scary Treasure Hunt
Think scavenger hunt and ghost house combined. The game can be simple or complex, confined to a single location or spread out across several locations. But make the clues interesting and the atmosphere extra spooky!
2. Bob for Apples
This traditional game can be a barrel of laughs. Without using your hands, the goal is to catch a floating apple with your teeth. You can time contestants and hand out prizes for the quickest apple catcher and the most apples retrieved. Keep a towel handy!
3. Halloween Movie Trivia
Halloween is notorious for scary movies so gather the clan and quiz their knowledge on classics like Hocus Pocus and the Halloween horror films.
4. Costume Competition
Offer your friends fun prizes to dress up. You can choose a theme or allow your guests to choose their own costumes. Put out snacks and drinks – then sit back and enjoy the show. You can even create a special stage or catwalk for contestants.
5. Write a Scary Tale
If your friends are creative and prefer to play a game that doesn’t require running after clues or biting at floating fruit, then why not create a story circle? Each person adds a piece to the story. In other words, they verbally deliver the next twist but honestly, they can add anything to the story. The only rule is to keep it spooky-themed!
6. Halloween Grab Boxes
The idea is to fill boxes or bags with gross-feeling things. Your guests have to feel the contents blind and guess what they are touching. You can use things like spaghetti and jelly. Mess with their minds by adding creepy labels. For example, label a box “eyes” and fill it with peeled grapes!
7. Fortune Telling Games
Grab a pack of Tarot cards or tea leaves and tell your friends their fortune. Dress up as a fortune teller and create a creepy corner where each guest can sit at a table and see what the future holds for them!
8. Sit Inside a Closet
Halloween night. Claustrophobia. The dark and isolation. Yep, asking each friend to spend a few minutes alone by themself in a closet might be a dare some are not willing to take – but a fun game nonetheless. Do you want to kick the creep factor up a notch? While someone sits inside the closet, everybody else has to moan like ghosts.
9. Broomstick Donuts
If your spooky crew votes not to bob for apples but would not mind a sweeter version of this game, then you can try broomstick donuts. The rules are kind of similar. Use a broomstick as a horizontal bar, string up a couple of donuts and see who can eat a donut the quickest without using their hands.
10. Mummy Invasion
This will cost you a couple of toilet rolls but hey, the results are hilarious. Divide everyone into pairs and give them several rolls. The idea is to create a group of mummies but do not hesitate to provide accessories. Go wild and weird – turn your friends into beach party mummies and take some photos!
11. Interview With a Vampire
Interview one of your friends but let them stay in character. In this case, as a vampire. Ask them questions about their bloody diet, eternal life and ability to turn into a swarm of bats. How do they do it? Ask for details! Why stop there? Interview a werewolf, a ghost or a ghoul!
12. Hold a Photoshoot
Go all out with your costumes and make things more interesting by creating different spooky backgrounds. You can use a professional photographer. But it is more fun to use your phones, pose in groups and share a ton of laughter. All for free. So, go ahead. Take that witch coven picture you have always secretly craved!
13. Murder Mystery Night
If your posse loves mysteries, true crime and clues, you can consider a murder mystery night. Don’t worry if you don’t have the time or patience to invent an entire storyline. There are plenty of sites online where you can download mysteries for free. Simply tweak it to suit a Halloween theme and you are all set!
14. The Grave Keeper
This is a game that can give you delicious creeps – if you really throw yourself into it. The rules are simple enough. One friend is the “Grave Keeper,” who stands while everyone else lies down on the floor. The goal is to stand up so quietly that the Grave Keeper doesn’t see you. The moment he or she spots you moving, you are out of the game.
15. Killer Wink
Do you want another creepy game? Draw paper lots to determine the murderer. The person who is secretly designated to be the “killer” must keep this fact secret. He or she “kills” someone by winking at them. When you see this person wink, you are dead and out of the game. If you see the killer wink at someone else, you shout “witness” and you win the game. However, if you falsely identify the killer, you also “die.”
16. Pumpkin Hunt
Think “Easter egg hunt” but with pumpkins. Choose several small pumpkins and hide them in good places around your home or garden. Get some prizes ready to give friends who find the most pumpkins, a special pumpkin and have some gifts for the rest too! Knowing that they will win something, regardless of how many veggies they collect, will make your friends happy to participate!
17. Pumpkin Bowling
Since pumpkins will never roll in a straight line, no matter how hard you try, this game is guaranteed to leave your gang in stitches. You might even develop a bizarre bowling strategy but whatever direction pumpkin bowling takes you, remember to hand out those prizes.
18. Spider Web Obstacle Course
Take a ball of wool or string and create zigzag type webs. To play the game, ensure that the “web” is level to the ground or horizontal. You can make the height of the web about calf-length off the floor. This will make the game just difficult enough to be engaging – but not so hard as to be frustrating. The goal is to make it to the other side without touching any strings.
19. Face Painting Contest
You can also hold a themed contest or let your guests choose which monsters they want to paint on someone’s face. But whether everybody is competing as skeletons or it is a proper monster mash-up, have fun and make sure that everyone gets a gift.
20. Ouija Board
A ouija board is a great way to add an extra dollop of spookiness to your Halloween party. Toted as a game that can contact and communicate with spirits, the board game is easy to use – and you might get some surprising results! A word of warning, though. Some people take the sinister reputation of this game very seriously. If some of your guests do not want to play, then that is their choice.