The spooky season is fast approaching and if you’re planning to indulge in some Halloween high jinks, then look no further for some great ideas for ghoulish games and devilishly good decorations.

Decorations:

• To create the right atmosphere for your party you can invest in some ’scene setters’.  These are rolls of plastic sheeting with spooky scenes printed on to them and they are available from most online party stores for about £12 per roll.   However, if you don’t want to spend loads of money, why not create your own with some old rolls of wall paper.  Splash red paint to look like blood onto the unprinted side of the wallpaper or paint it black and draw on some spooky images in white chalk.  You could then use black sheets of acetate (available in most craft stores) and cut them into Halloween shapes (bats, witches, stars, etc.) and use white chalk to draw on the bones and put lights behind so that the bones shine through.  Alternatively drape the room with dark material and add some silver moon and star shapes.
• Give the room an eerie glow by using green light bulbs rather than standard incandescent light bulbs. You can find coloured light bulbs at most supermarkets.
• Make your own tape of spooky sounds and music. Tape the sounds of sinister laughter, a dog howling and a door creaking.
• Make some Halloween lanterns for the outside of your house by painting empty clean jam jars with white acrylic paint or glass paint.  Once the paint has dried paint black scary faces on to the outside.  Leave the paint to dry and then add a tea light to light up the spooky face.

Party Games

• Take five boxes and cut a hole in the front big enough for little hands to go through. Put bowls of various things inside each box like baked beans (monsters brains), jelly (bat droppings), rice pudding (vampire’s blood), bouncy balls or hard-boiled eggs in tomato ketchup (witch’s eyes), put the pretend names over the top and the children have to put their hands in and guess what they are. Have a bowl of water and a towel on hand to clean up.
• Eyeball Hunt - Fill a trug or a bucket with cooked spaghetti or noodles and stir in some tomato ketchup .  Draw some blood shot eyes onto ping pong balls and then bury them in the noodles. See who can find the most balls in the set amount of time.  You could also colour code the eyeballs so they have a different value for each colour.
• Mummy Wrap - buy some cheap rolls of toilet paper and split the partygoers into teams of two people.  Give each team a roll each and when the music starts one has to wrap the other team member in toilet paper.  The one with the best wrapped mummy in the given time, wins!
• Put a face on the Pumpkin - Draw out some large pumpkin shapes in orange paper and some pumpkin face shapes for eyes, nose and mouth in black paper for as many children as you have at the party.  Take it in turns to blindfold each child and get them to stick the face shapes on to the pumpkin.  The best face wins!
• Apple bobbing is always a great favourite but for children who don’t like putting their faces in water, why not hang the apples up on string and get them to put their hands behind their back and try and bite into the apples.

If you are planning a Halloween get together, our Party Planner is a handy little book in which to keep all the ideas, contacts and games for children’s parties in one convenient place.   With space to organise six parties, there’s sections for noting food ideas, shopping lists, entertainment, invitation lists, gifts and budgets.  The Organised Mum Party Planner is available from our website for just £4.99.  Click here for details