Looking for the perfect Halloween party theme? Here is our Ultimate List with party ideas for an adult Halloween party or a kid’s Halloween party. Do you want to go !BIG! this year? See the themes that are all about decorations. There are not so scary party themes & parties based on food. Of course, there are lots of costume party ideas, but some without the need for costumes too. What’s your pleasure?
Costume Party Ideas
Dress as the Thing You Fear the Most
It will be interesting to see what everyone dresses as! Bonus is that you either don’t have to decorate (just make the room dark) or use standard Halloween decorations.
The Zombie Apocalypse is Real
If it was real, would you become a zombie right away, be a zombie hunter, or be a bomb shelter dweller? Everyone dresses accordingly. Food & decorations like a zombie party or in a bomb shelter.
Monster Mash
This is a dance party. Everyone dresses as their favorite monster. Play the song Monster Mash several times, with prizes after. Use standard Halloween decorations & monster themed food. Use a Spotify Halloween playlist to keep it simple.
Pirate Murder Mystery
The Pirate Murder Mystery kit* for 10 people has invitations that tell guests to dress as a famous pirate with a character script. Menu ideas included. Everyone works to solve the murder mystery first. Takes about 2-3 hours to solve.
Halloween “Wedding” Dinner & Dance
Choose a bride and a groom. Everyone dresses in tattered suits with top hats, and dresses with zombie, Dia de los Muertos or skeleton face paint. Room decoration as Goth Wedding is important. Regular wedding dinner.
Circus Murder Mystery – Can Be Virtual
The Circus Murder Mystery kit* comes with a USB for printables. For 4 – 20 players. Play in real life or over Zoom or Skype. Host can play. Game can be replayed.
ABC Party (Anything But Clothes)
This party is recycling at its finest. Everyone gets creative pulling together a costume out of anything they can find to recycle. Give out prizes!
Alien Invasion
Everyone dresses as aliens and the venue is decorated like the mothership. Anyone who shows up not in costume is the abductee! (This is not permission to torture them for not playing along.) “Alien food” is served.
Angels & Devils
Ask couples to dress one as an angle and the other a devil. Singles dress as either. Decorate one side as heaven and the other as hell. (Use a fan with cloth flames to look real.) Devil Food Cake & Angel Cake on each side, etc.
Zombie Famous Dead People
Ask everyone to dress as a famous dead person, zombified. Hand out pens & paper. Guests take turns acting as their famous dead person for a few minutes. Everyone write their guess on their paper & score how well they did. Prizes for best costume, acting, guesser.
Elvis is in the Building
Party guests dress as their favorite version of Elvis. Everyone takes turn lip syncing to their favorite Elvis song. (Get that pelvis going!) Serve peanut butter, banana & bacon sandwiches.
Fun But Not Scary Halloween Party Ideas
Banksy R Us
Everyone wears white shirts. Give everyone a different color of glow in the dark fabric paint*. Use black light LED bulbs in all of your lighting. Have a dance party with glow bracelets & everyone writes on each other’s shirts all night. Want to keep the glow in the dark art shirt? Display it in a t-shirt frame*. Make glow in the dark food.
Escape Room – No Decorations Required
With Escape Mail* guests ages 10+ solve different types of puzzles (choose beginner, standard, expert level) in an unfolding story in an “escape room” style. Each clue flows to the next for an amazing ending. No costumes or decorations needed.
Backwards Party
Everyone dresses backwards & have a fashion show. We have printables, games and backwards food ideas, too. There are backwards decoration ideas, but you don’t have to decorate at all.
Jack-o-Lantern Carving
No need for costumes, and use usual Halloween decorations. Have tools, pumpkins of different shapes and colors available, carving templates, and lots of pumpkin flavored food. (Or have a watermelon carving party.)
Wanna Trade?
Have you heard about the guy who traded from a red paperclip up to a house? October 31st is the day when you can knock on every door in town and they’ll answer! Get a group together, divide into pairs, hand out orange paperclips or pens and set a time limit. At the end meet up for a Halloween party and see what everyone was able to trade up to – vote on the best trade. Everyone give $5 to the pair with the best trade. Then nosh.
Astronauts vs Aliens
Halve the group to be either aliens or astronauts. Have astronaut food (freeze dried ice cream* or peaches* for dessert) and weird “alien food”. Play Capture the Flag at night with glow in the dark gear*.
Humans vs Zombies
Have you heard of the college tag game Humans vs Zombies? It involves protecting yourself from becoming infected by zombies with Nerf Guns* or a tennis ball in a sock that you fling. All players begin as humans except one who is “Original Zombie.” Zombies tag humans and turn them into zombies. Zombies must tag and eat a human within a selected time span or they starve to death and are out of the game. Zombies tagged by Nerf ammunition or a tennis ball sock is stunned for a selected amount of time. Humans that are tagged become zombies. Play for a set amount of time. If all humans are tagged, zombies win. If there are humans still alive, humans win.
Cops & Robbers
Ask everyone to come dressed as either a cop or a robber. (Or divide the group to make sure there are some of each.) Don’t tell them, but this is going to be a competition. Hide the “treasure” and give each group clues to solve like a scavenger hunt. You can have a treasure for each group or one that they have to compete to find.
All About the Decorations
Haunted House
Everyone has to do the full-on haunted house at least once in a lifetime! Make a walk-thru with cobwebs, people dressed as ghosts & monsters to scare people, and touch & feel gross items. Give everyone an amazing treat at the end for being good sports.
Mad Scientist Lab
This is fun for adults & kids. You can go steampunk or lab coat & goggles. Make the food & beverages part of the lab experiments. Decorate scary like Frankenstein’s lab or like a regular lab with glow in the dark items. Try the escape room in a box* for ages 13+. You have 1 hour to escape the lab before the Mad Scientist turns you into a werewolf. Or maybe the Lightning Reaction Shocking Game* for fun & lab decoration. 14+
Edgar Allan Poe
Decorate a room like the early 1800s with a raven and other items from his poetry. Costumes and food can be from that era. Read some of his poetry. Watch YouTube video on his Macabre Death. See The Raven* movie with John Cusack
The Mummy’s Curse
Decorate a room as a mummy’s tomb with an open sarcophagus. (Decorate a room as a mummy’s tomb with an open sarcophagus. (Get the end of a roll of paper from a newspaper to line walls and make hieroglyphs on it.) Watch your favorite Mummy movie from the original 1944 to Brendan Fraser or Tom Cruise. ll of paper from a newspaper to line walls and make hieroglyphs on it.) Watch your favorite Mummy movie from the original 1944 to Brendan Fraser or Tom Cruise.
Enchantment Under the Sea
Hang balloons a shade of blue and white like bubbles and foil marine animal balloons* from the ceiling. Hang blue foil fringe* on the walls. Perfect dance party or watch Little Mermaid or Back to the Future with their Enchantment Under the Sea dance too.
All About the Food
Willie Wonka’s Candy Factory
Set up a candy buffet with lots of chocolate. Send Wonka Bars* with a “Golden Ticket” as the invitation. Guests don’t have to dress up, they can visit the factory. Watch your favorite Wonka movie as the entertainment. Easy, peasy.
Ghost Stories
Read ghost stories or Urban Tales depending on the age group. Serve a Halloween beverage at the beginning & then serve a snack in the theme of each ghost story. You can decorate with usual Halloween decorations or not. Costumes, or not.
Murder Mystery Dinner Kit
Purchase a Murder Mystery Dinner kit*, ask guests to dress as one of the dinner guests, and decorate per the instructions in the kit. Dinner suggestions are in the kit as well.
Fright Night
Guests can dress as their favorite horror villain, or no costumes. Serve food that looks like it’s covered with blood! Decorate with crime scene tape, chalk lines, and blood stains. Watch horror movies.
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Did you try one of the Halloween party themes? Add a photo in the comments. We want to see!
What party theme did we miss? Tell us what Halloween party theme is your favorite.
