# Party Planning



## HeatherEve1234 (Sep 5, 2008)

This year we're renting DDR (dance dance revolution - an arcade game where you try to match the beats with different steps) from a carnival supply place - I expect much hillarity. 

Last year we had a shot luge. 

Bon fire keeps people around, especially if it's a nice night. 

Adult games - a lot of people talk about "tempt your fate" games on here - see the other threads. I've never tried it.

Set your costume contest for later in the evening? If people want to win, they'll wait around - that's what bars do to keep people buying drinks. 

I find good food, drink, & conversation is usually the main focus.


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## GhostMagnet (Jul 14, 2009)

Last year we did the Tempt Your Fate game, that was fun. We had a fire pit outside, hot mulled cider and ghost stories. Karaoke in the den. We had nice prizes for the Costume Contest, we did that around 11pm and did a Midnight Monster drawing for a really nice prize. The theme of the party was Monster Bash, decor was classic movie monsters and scenes. I did some retro invites which included tickets they had to bring with them for the Midnight drawing. So, that's how I got people to stay around. That and jello shots.


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## Elza (Jun 21, 2004)

Definitely have games. A good one I have used and people enjoy is "Who Am I?" Famous names written on 3 X 5 cards. Without the guest seeing the card, pin one onto their back. They can then ask "Yes or No" questions from the other guests about themselves...Like "Am I a female?", "Am is alive?" to narrow it down until they get it right. You can make up your own rules as to how many times they are allowed to guess and not get it right, becoming disqualified with too may guesses. 

I also like putting objects in plain sight and have a list of clues for everyone to figure out what object the clue is talking about. I stole some good clue ideas from Bigfishgame's "luck of the Day" riddles. For example "I bat, but never hit anything and I am always next to a ball" - answer eyelash. Have them write down on a score card what object the riddle refers to. The guest with the most correct guesses wins. 

Another interesting game is to lay 9 books out on the floor making 3 rows of 3 to create a square. Two people or in on the trick here. Have one go out of the room (your partner), ask a guest to pick one of the books. Call your partner back into the room and then using a stick, witches broom or something similar, point to each book as you ask your partner if it was the book chosen. Here's the trick: If the book picked was the middle book in the middle row, then for every book you point to, always point to the very middle of each book. If it was the middle book in the top row, point the the top edge/middle of every book.

The more you have to do, they longer they will stay.


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## Leanan (Aug 6, 2009)

These are great ideas. I was also wondering what we could do to make it fresh... "Who am I" sounds like an awesome idea!


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## Halloween Princess (Sep 23, 2008)

We are lucky enough to have a basement that supplies party atmosphere. We have a pool table, air hockey, fooseball & darts. The middle floor is where the food & drinks are along with something on the tv (scary movies, Halloween specials, etc) for those who want to sit. 

We have not tried any organized games yet. We hold the costume contest at 9:30 or 10 so hopefully everyone has arrived (party starts at 8). But that does allow for the few who drive almost an hour to make it home at a decent hour. Music can also really set the mood. 

I want to try to have one new thing every year to keep it fresh. This year we found a bartener on craigslist for a decent price. Definitely wont be a recurring thing due to budget. I like the ice luge idea. I have also seen bobbing for shots (instead of apples) using those 1oz bottles of alcohol. If alcohol is not included in the party, look online for relatively inexpensive entertainment such as a caricturist, tarot card reader, etc.


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## Halloween_Mom (Jun 29, 2008)

*Party*

Ours is outside in the woods which makes for great atmosphere. Fire pit, tempt your fate game, costume contest, lots of decorations and, the best part of all, an outdoor scary movie...or two. Our screen is 16' x 9" and we have killer sound. Two parties with about 50 per party. HTH.
Kaye


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## Spirit_In_The_Night (Aug 8, 2008)

This year Rock Band will be brought out, along with Rock Band Beatles, so that way more than one guest can get into the action. Though, I have to look up bobbing for shots. Never heard of that one.


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## Frankie's Girl (Aug 27, 2007)

We do a couple of things in the "party game" category (and we usually get the last folks out of our house around 3am  but I think that's more because several of our group work night shift, so that's still early for them)

Tempt Your Fate game 
http://www.halloweenforum.com/party-ideas-experiences-recipes/70989-tempt-your-fate-party-game.html
A game where the party guests can choose to participate in. We did it with balloons last year. I hid small slips of paper in them with either a "fate is good to you" or "fate is cruel to you" and then had some small prizes for the good fates (like dvds, halloween themed puzzles, venus flytrap growing kits) and for the bad fates they had to perform something a little silly, like dance to the Monster Mash or eat a chocolate covered cricket.

I hit places like Big Lots and other stores throughout the year looking for sales on horror dvds (you can pick up $3-$5 horror movies there) and found other neat little prizes and I had them draw a number slip out of a pumpkin box to match to their prize. They had to draw a number out of a coffin box to find out the bad fate too. It was fun to watch!

We also do a door prize every year, tied into the theme of the party. Last year we had a "surreal estate" open haunted house, and I sent out keys on skull keychains as part of the invite. On the invite, I had that the keys MIGHT open a locked door in our house for a prize... they had to show up and bring their key to find out. We had a closet door with a keyed lock put on, sent out a bunch of non-working keys, and one key that went to the door (keeping a spare key that would have been awarded in a random drawing of those present if the keyholder didn't show up). The closet had a light activated prop that triggered when the door was opened - a guy in chains hung from the clothes rod, who was the mysterious owner of the house that went missing... and a prize goody bag containing Halloween themed chocolates, dvds, books and other cool stuff. The hubby and I knew who had the right key, but we had them try the lock in order of arrival, and it was a highlight of the night with lots of people whipping out their keys and anxious for their turn. 

This year's theme is a funeral, so the door prize winner will be the beneficiary of our dearly departed at the reading of the will (random drawing of those present, name inserted into silly bequests and the like).

We do a costume contest as well. 

Oh! I also read tarot cards, and have a bit of a long waiting list to get through of our group, so that keeps people around as well. 

All of them we space out over the evening, so there's a nice ebb and flow in between the regular eating and drinking.

I have thought about hiring a tarot card reader so I can mingle more, but it's kind of fun for me. I also have been looking into a magician or an airbrush tattoo artist for future parties. 

Last year a friend brough over Rock Band, and we had several guests playing that most of the night. My hubby wasn't thrilled with it, because we have a small house and it took over the living room, but the guests seemed to enjoy it. 

Lots of things you can do...


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## DEE (Sep 1, 2009)

Jodi,

I usually have a few games ready for people to play, keeps them entertained so they are not just sitting around.
I set up a prop game using props from various scary movies, set them up throughout the house and the guests have to find the props and then guess which horror movie they pertain to, ie Freddy Kruegar hat and sweater and a Jason mask is Freddy versus Jason.
I also do a halloween trivia and print out several horror movie questions and hand them out and have people see how many they can answer. With these two games I do not use a time limit. When everyone has arrived I start those and then it gets people up and moving and checking things out. Usually go over the answers and hand out prizes at the end.
We do a pumpkin golf too, carve out a pumpkin face with a round mouth and build a ramp for it and have people try and putt the ball up the ramp and into the pumpkins mouth. You would not believe how much fun it is, seems easy but it is not.
A few ideas for you, hope they help.


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## Mistress Evilynn (Oct 11, 2005)

Dee I really like your golf idea!


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## Trinity1 (Sep 5, 2009)

All great ideas! The hubby and I had our first Halloween party last year and are planning one again this year. The only thing is, we both HATE party games. When I go to a party, I don't want to play party games...I want to socialize and eat and drink and just chill. Although I know that playing a game can count as socailization, it's not for me. It's funny and kind of interesting how different peoples ideas can be for what a good time at a party can be. We didn't do any party games last year and we had people stay pretty late. Although we do have a fire pit and had that going all night.


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## MBrynildsen (Sep 24, 2009)

We have been doing Halloween parties now going on 11 years. We have two kegs, 500+ jell-o shots, food, alcohol, live music, costume contest and then we decorate our entire house inside and out. Each year we do a new theme and we build most of our props by hand. Our parties have been known to last from 8:00pm till 7:00am the next day. We take anywhere from 3-6 months building our sets and props. We keep our theme a secret with exception of the build crew and the band since they have to coordinate with space requirements and equipment setup.


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## MBrynildsen (Sep 24, 2009)

Here is some pictures from the past parties and decorations.

Halloween 2008 - Darkness 
Halloween 2007 - Psycho Circus
Halloween 2006 - Blast from the Past
Halloween 2005 - Death
Halloween 2004 - Medieval Castle
Halloween 2003 - The Mummy Returns
Halloween 2002 - Fright Night
Halloween 2001 - Tales From the Crypt
Halloween 2000 - Pirate Ship
Halloween 1999 - The Jungle


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