Simple Tips for Throwing a Halloween Party — “For Kids By Kids”

My daughter is all about parties. She always asks to have her friends over for a party, and at five years old, she really does care about the details. I’m assuming since I’ve been an event producer for about 12 years that she gets it from me. We’re sharing with you our essentials for throwing a Halloween Party—”For Kids By Kids.”

Decor

The key with all of these items is to keep it simple. We started outside and thought about what her guests would see as they came into the party. First, we decided to make handkerchief ghosts to hang from our tree. These are so easy and only require a few supplies that you could easily have on hand or find quick substitutes for. We started with 10 white handkerchiefs that I had on hand from a few Thanksgivings ago. I used these as napkins at that time and knew they would come in handy again some day! We also used white rocks from an old fishbowl, floral wire, and scissors. My sweet girl put the rocks in the middle of the hanky, and I wrapped the “neck” with the floral wire. We then took them outside and hung them on the tree.

Next, we decorated the front door. All we used there was toilet paper and tape. Voilà! We had a Mummy door!

We then moved our focus to decorating indoors. Taking four Mason jars, we covered them with some store-bought spider webs.  We also took a large candle I had, wrapped it in toilet paper, and added some eyes! The best part was that all of this decor only cost $3! The only thing we had to purchase was the spider webs. It doesn’t get much easier than that!

Food & Drinks

You don’t have to make anything complicated with kids. Just make it fun, and they will enjoy. For drinks, we put together a very kid-friendly Hot Apple Cider:  store bought cider poured  into the slow cooker; we added some cinnamon and kept it on low. Serve in glow in the dark cups (I had some leftover from an event I did). It was a big hit!

The food we served included these cute banana ghosts and clementine pumpkins. I originally saw them on Pinterest and thought they would make the perfect food for the party. They are healthy and were super-easy for my 5 year old to make. I had the bananas, chocolate chips, and clementines on hand. I didn’t have any celery, but I thought that rolled up baby spinach would be the perfect substitute. I loved them even more than the ones I saw on Pinterest! For me, the hardest part was letting my daughter do them herself and resisting the urge to make sure they were done perfectly. I think she did just fine, and she had a great time doing it!

Fun

Dressing up is fun enough all on its own for a bunch of 5 year olds, but we did want to plan a few other activities to keep them busy. We kept it simple with bobbing for apples and decorated pumpkins.  Make sure you use small apples for small kids. Macintosh apples work great, or you can just cut larger apples in half.

We picked up small white pumpkins at our local farm; they were 3 for $1. I had tons of craft items here, so I didn’t bother getting others, but you could certainly run to the dollar store and grab some Halloween stickers, googley eyes, etc.

Hosting a Halloween party doesn’t have to be complicated, cause you a ton of work, or cost a lot of money. Keep it simple and enjoy the fun!