Kid’s party entertainment at Halloween!

I love Halloween and all of the trappings that go with it. Fancy dress, Face Painting, Trick or treat, the works!

These are a few of my favourite games and traditions when entertaining children at Halloween.

Colcannon

This was one of my mother’s traditions at Halloween. We would have colcannon for dinner and hidden in the colcannon would be small tin foil parcels. These parcels would predict your future, we were told a rag meant you’d be poor. A coin meant you would be rich and a stick meant you’d be beaten. When it became my time to do this with my children I couldn’t bring myself to give my daughters a rag or a stick. 😱 Instead I searched the house for little things that could be wrapped and decided what they meant.

A little crayon means you’ll be an artist, a medal means you’ll be brilliant at sport, a button means you will work in fashion, a piece of chalk means you’ll be a teacher. You get the gist. You can sneak the parcels into their dinner (you know best about what they would love to find or love to be told) Older kids love the cash! My children don’t eat colcannon so whatever they are having for dinner on Halloween is where I put the parcels. Spaghetti bolognaese is on the cards this year!

Snap Apple

Instead of putting apples on a string for snap apple to bite try a party ring biscuit or a ripe pear the apples are so difficult. Measure the string so that item is at the same height as your child’s mouth.

Bobbing for cash 😆

Instead of bobbing for apples bob for split grapes or mandarin segments and most importantly coins. My children almost drown trying to get the cash!

Mummy game

Divide into teams one person to stand still and be the mummy while the others wrap them in toilet roll.

Find the dead guy

Using a container of cold oily pasta with some grapes thrown in and some little plastic soldiers. As the child is putting his hands into the unknown use a scary voice saying they are putting their hands into bloody brains and eyeballs to find the dead guy.

Frozen hand

Fill a surgical glove with water, tie then freeze. Place frozen hand in shoe box. In a darkened room let each child open the box and feel the dead man’s hand then carry on with the story and swap the frozen hand for your hand in through a hole in the shoe box. So when the child next feels the dead man’s hand its alive and grabs their hand.

Scary Story 😱

This was a big hit. You tell a scary story in a scary voice about a dead man whose body was chopped up into pieces. Then, using different foods for props, like grapes for eyeballs and spaghetti for brains, you get the kids to touch and feel them in the dark. It is always great fun. To play the Body Parts game, you turn out the lights and have the kids gather around in a circle. To begin, you tell them a short scary story about an old man who was murdered in a field not far from where you live. When they found his body, it was chopped up into tiny pieces. Ever since then, his ghost has haunted the area. Then you tell them they are going to feel the chopped up body parts. Using food for body parts, you pass them around to the children. You can use grapes for eyeballs, spaghetti for brains, a tomato for a heart, dried peaches for ears, thread for hair, sweetcorn for teeth, sausages for fingers and a stuffed glove for a hand….

Enjoy making scary fun memories,

Happy Halloween

love Saoirse xxx

Ideas for kid’s party entertainment at Halloween