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Throw A Spooktacular Celebration: How To Host a Halloween Party
The spooky season is drawing nearer, and if you're thinking of celebrating Halloween at home then there are some paranormal preparations you need to make! Throwing a Halloween party requires a lot of groundwork before the day even arrives in order to create the proper spine-chilling atmosphere, but don't worry - Spotlight is here to help. As your local themed party specialists, we know how to throw a great event, and Halloween is no exception. Check out our guide to find out everything you need to do to throw the ultimate Halloween party at home, from demonic decorations to horrifying Halloween costumes!
Quick Links
- Choose Your Halloween Party Theme
- Invite Guests to Your Halloween Extravaganza
- Spooky Snacks and Treats
- Decorate Your Space
- Eerie Entertainment For Your Guests
- Dress Up In Costume
Choose Your Halloween Party Theme
With a range of Halloween party themes out there, the first thing you want to do in planning your party is decide what kind of theme you want it to have. Do you want to have a free for all Halloween costume party where guests can come dressed as anything? Maybe a horror movie theme where people dress as their favourite slasher character? Or a magical Halloween where only witches, wizards and sorcerers are invited?
Whatever Halloween party ideas you choose, make sure to give your guests plenty of warning to ensure there's time to source or create costumes. Once you establish a theme you can then shop for costumes, decorations and plan your party food in advance making your party planning that little bit easier.
Top Halloween Theme Ideas:
- Horror Movies
- Witches and Wizards
- Harry Potter
- Scary Animals
- Spooky Circus
- Celebrities and Hollywood
- Pumpkin
- Zombies
- Vampire
- Aliens and Outer Space
- Fairy Tales
- Superheroes
- Spiders
Invite Guests to Your Halloween Extravaganza
Not only are invitations a handy way for your guests to have all the information they need on hand, but they are also a fun chance to get creative. For ease of creation and use, you can choose to send your invite digitally - either pull the information into a document and email it or get creative with a digital image program and send it via email or social media. You can also choose to go old-school and either print out or hand make each invitation by hand and then mail it to your guest's home address.
While the date for Halloween is always the 31st of October, you may like to celebrate on the closest weekend day to this date if it falls during the week, so it is still important to have usual details like time, date, address and RSVP information on your invitation. If you have a specific Halloween theme, make sure to include it here as well!
Make sure to invite your guests at least a month before your event to give everyone a chance to find the right costume. This also gives you enough time to see how many people will be attending to plan for food and other party supplies.
Card Making & Invitations Projects
Spooky Snacks and Treats
The food for a Halloween party is a fun way to help set the mood. Spooky snacks and desserts are a great way to add fun to your party. Try our Halloween baking ideas including:
Or create an entire table filled display of Halloween treats with our Zombie Feast Project. Many lolly shops also sell Halloween-themed lollies like worms, teeth and bat-shaped treats, which are great for topping up lolly bowls.
Halloween party foods like lollies, chips and drinks you can buy in advance, but baked goods, however, should be made the morning of the party so they're nice and fresh.
Decorate Your Space to Create the Perfect Ambience
When learning how to host a Halloween party, one of the most important factors to consider is decorations. Create a frightening environment for your friends and family to celebrate the spine-chilling holiday by decorating your space with lively ornaments, banners, posters and more. From your front garden to your living room, decorate every area of your space to establish your Halloween party theme.
Interior Halloween Decorations For Your Indoor Living Space
Set the scene on Halloween by decking out your space with Halloween party decorations. Make use of every inch of surfaces in your home for displaying decorations, including:
On Your Ceiling
You can hang banners, garlands and special decorations like small cages, chains and ghosts from the ceiling. Dangling bats, witches, spooks and crows are all great options for hanging from your roof, but make sure that they are high enough that people with pointy hats and large costumes can pass by safely underneath.
Maximise Wall Space
Spooky signage and flat buntings are perfect for hanging against the walls of your home. You can also find Halloween 'scenes', which are large paper or fabric depicting spooky vistas that are perfect for setting the tone in your home.
Decorate Your Furniture
Decorate your home furniture to really give your home a haunted house feel! Fake cobwebs are a great choice for this, as they can be draped over lights, chairs, tables and even unused appliances to create an air of stillness and disuse. You can also cover large couches and chairs in sheets dotted with fake blood to further immerse your guests in your haunted house.
Table Settings
If you will have guests sitting down to eat, you may like to create a Halloween tablescape. Classic Halloween colours of purple, orange and black and great choices for a tablecloth, but make sure your plates and decorations are different colours from the table cover so they stand out. A spooky web-style table runner, jack o' lantern candles and bowls of spooky treats are all great ways to set the scene - consider shopping for plates with Halloween iconography to create a cohesive look. For more table setting inspiration, be sure to check out our selection of Halloween tableware.
Floor Decorations
While you don't want your guests tripping as they move around, a few creepy props on the floor can work to great effect if placed carefully. Place a rubber rat just next to your couch, fake spiders atop your bathroom tiles and a severed rubber hand for smaller details that add a large impact on your decorations.
Outdoor Halloween Decorations For the Wow Factor
How you present the outside of your home on Halloween can determine how many trick-or-treaters you get, and it's also a spooky way to welcome your guests to your Halloween party. You can start putting up Halloween decorations a few weeks before the date, which is especially helpful if you have decorations in mind that can be a little tricky to put up. Fake gravestones and bones look great in the front yard - try putting a half-risen zombie or skeleton in the ground with just its head and arms poking out to really give your guests a scare!
If you have one, decorate your front porch with jack o' lanterns and spooky banners. Because this area is undercover you can also add mannequins, spooky plushies and any other decorations you need to stay dry. Add a large spider and webbing over your front door to 'welcome' your guests into your haunted mansion!
DIY Halloween Decoration Ideas
Halloween is the perfect opportunity to flex your DIY muscles and create your own decorations! At Spotlight, you can find a huge range of craft supplies and project ideas. Some great ideas include:
Eerie Entertainment For Your Guests
Make it a party you and your guests will remember by planning entertainment in advance. From Halloween party games to party playlists, we have a range of Halloween party ideas that will have your party goers feeling the spook-tacular Halloween spirit.
Halloween Party Games Ideas
Party games are a staple at any celebration, but when it's Halloween you want to make them a little scarier than usual. We've put together our favourite Halloween party games that will have you and your guests entertained by scary activities.
- Scary Movie Scavenger hunt: With no prior knowledge of scary movies required, this game is great for all party goers to join in on the fun. This scavenger hunt involves hiding movie props around your home, then tasking your guests to find as many as they can and write them down. You can provide a list of the hidden props or to test your scary movie loving friends, have them go in blind looking for whatever props they can find! Whoever finds the most, wins! Props you can use include a hockey mask (Friday The 13th), a bloody knife (Scream or Halloween), a TV showing static (Poltergeist), a red helium balloon (IT), a raggedy ann doll (The Conjuring/Annabelle) or a VCR tape (The Ring).
- Hidden box challenge: This gruesome game is sure to get your guests squirming! You'll need three empty boxes with lids made out of an opaque material that can hold liquid, like styrofoam. Cut a hand-sized hole in the lid. Fill each box with a creepy substance, then ask your guests to reach in blind and guess what is inside! Many household items can feel horrifying when prepared correctly - try using peeled grapes in water for eyeballs, cooked and cut spaghetti noodles in soil for worms and oval-shaped stress balls covered in liquid soap for brains!
- Zombie race: If you've got space outdoors, this is a great one for competitive guests. Set up a small course in your yard and add some obstacles. Players must race around the course to the finish line, but there's a catch - they have to shuffle like a zombie! If players break their shuffle and look too 'alive' they have to freeze for three seconds before they can continue.
- Cookie decorating: Get creative with decorating your own Halloween cookies in on theme colours and designs.
Halloween Crafting Ideas
Not only do party crafts offer a fun and engaging activity, they also result in a memento for your party goers to take home and remember your Halloween party. From baked goods to artistic creations, you can have your guests unleashing their creativity while celebrating Halloween in style. If your party is before the night of Halloween, use this as an opportunity to create Halloween treat bags and boxes for your guests to use when trick or treating. You can find more Halloween craft inspiration online at Spotlight.
Scary Movies
When it comes to Halloween, we instantly think of trick or treating, costumes and of course scary movies! During your party you can have a scary movie playing in the background as guests converse using it to clarify the Halloween theme you're after. Or, you could throw a scary movie Halloween watch party complete with Halloween movie snacks. This is great for more intimate parties with a smaller amount of guests able to snuggle up on your couch when watching the movie of your choice.
Throw a bit of fun into the mix with each guest selecting a scary movie and putting all of their suggestions into a bowl to be randomly selected.
Create a Party Playlist and Have a Dance Party
It's impossible to have a party without a great playlist. Consider putting together a Halloween themed playlist. Commercial tracks like 'Thriller' (1982), 'Zombie' (1994), 'Heads Will Roll' (2009) and the Ghostbusters theme song (1984) are all great fun to dance to! You could even include a song recommender space on the invitations for guests to suggest their favourite Halloween soundtrack. For those looking for a sombre background soundtrack, find the official soundtracks from your favourite horror movies and have them playing in the background instead.
Halloween Party Bags and Party Favours
Another great suggestion amongst a range of incredible Halloween party ideas is having Halloween party bags for your guests to take home at the conclusion of your party. Set up a lolly table complete with Halloween themed sweet treats for your guests to build their own Halloween lolly bag to take home as a party favour. Alternatively if you find you may have extra time in the lead up to your party, you can make Halloween party bags in advance to your party to give to partygoers at the end of your Halloween celebrations.
Dress Up In Costume For Your Halloween Party
Picking your costume for Halloween is one of the most important decisions you can make for the spooky season, so it's important to figure out the theme you're wanting to wear or any additional Halloween costume accessories you may need. Are you dressing up the whole family in matching pirate costumes, is your friend group wearing matching Squid Game costumes, or are you splitting up the party into Hogwarts houses in Harry Potter costumes?
The last thing you want to be doing on Halloween night is running around trying to find a costume, so have yours ready to go early! Spotlight has a huge range of adult Halloween costumes and child Halloween costumes available for purchase online or in-store, or you can get creative and make your own! And don't worry if sewing isn't your strength, we've got a number of face painting and special effects projects that will have you feeling the Halloween spirit.
Leave getting dressed in your Halloween costumes until the end of your party preparations, as you don't want to risk getting food on your costume or damaging it during the setup process! If you want to add some makeup to your Halloween costumes as the perfect finishing touch, check out our spooky makeup tutorials for more inspiration.
Host the Ultimate Halloween Party With Spotlight!
Celebrate Halloween this year in style with your friends and family. We hope we've offered an insight for everything you need to throw the ultimate Halloween party at home. Explore our range of party decorations and party supplies online including the incredible Spooky Hollow range. Shop online, pay your way and we'll deliver straight to your door. Or, check out the range at your nearest Spotlight store. Make sure to sign up for our Spotlight VIP Club for access to exclusive offers and events.
