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How to celebrate Halloween at home

Will Gore

Posted on September 07 2021

Ghost treasure hunt for kids, featuring cut-out ghosts handing in a corridor, with black spiders web

Whether you are planning a Halloween party at home for your kids, throwing a bash for adults or just want to make sure your home looks the part for October 31 and the days leading up to it, here’s the Party Pieces guide to celebrating Halloween at home in a grand and ghoulish fashion. It’s packed with ideas for games, decorations, trick of treating and plenty more besides. Read on, if you dare…

Halloween game ideas

Games are essential for Halloween celebrations, and one of the easiest and most traditional ones to play at home is bobbing for apples. Put a load of apples in a bucket of water and then players take it in turns trying to grab one with just their mouths, and with their hands held firmly behind their backs!

A treasure hunt around the home or garden for homemade eyeballs (use ping pong balls) is another option, or you could let your kids get messy by hiding the eyeballs in slime or spaghetti for them to find while blindfolded. We’ve also got a ready to go Halloween Treasure Hunt kit if you want a little helping hand with the games.

Other options include adapting Pin the Tail on the Donkey to Pin the Nose on the Witch – get your kids to create a witch poster and nose for this. Young children will enjoy playing Halloween versions of popular party games: try musical chairs with appropriate tunes such as Monster Mash, Thriller and the Addams Family theme.

Pumpkin carving and decorating ideas

You can’t do Halloween without a pumpkin or two. Helping kids carve one is a fun activity to get stuck into. Once you’ve cut out the face for your pumpkin, get the little ones to cover it in glitter and plaster it with these Halloween stickers. Painting pumpkins is another fun way to make your Jack O’Lanterns stand out on your street. The main thing is to let their creativity run wild! For more DIY Halloween decoration tips, ideas and inspo, read our blog here.

Outdoor Halloween decoration ideas

Trick or Treating is, of course, the quintessential Halloween activity, so festoon your front door, path and garden with decorations worthy of a haunted house to spook any little monsters that come knocking. A Wooden Bat Wreath for your front door will set the tone nicely and you could add more bats with these stickers for your front window. White and black cobwebs plus plastic spiders will look creepy (and crawly!) on bushes and trees, and tie a foil skeleton balloon to the garden gate to really grab Trick or Treaters’ attention. If you want to go all out, this hanging Spider decoration and these LED pumpkin lights are just what your are looking for.

Indoor Halloween decoration ideas

When it comes to Halloween at home, it’s not just about the decorations on your front door, but it’s what’s on the inside that counts too. So go full house of horrors with an array of balloons, garlands and hanging decorations from our Halloween 2021 collection. Highlights include a Pumpkin Tissue Garland, a Spiders Wall Decoration and a Glitter Hanging Skeleton. This 'Boo' balloon will spell out what you’re celebrating, while stylish options for your Halloween scene include Honey Halloween characters and heads, Crepe Paper Streamers and these sparkling Pastel Glitter Hanging Bats.

For your balloons, this bunch of Halloween Ghost, Bats & Marble Latex Balloons, these cobwebbed balloons and a Halloween Balloon Garland with Spider Webs and Bats will all put the frighteners on your guests.

Halloween dressing up

Halloween is a great excuse to get dressed up, so have a box of easy accessories at hand for your family and guests. We’ve got witches' hats, bat wing costumes and sunglasses, and black feather crowns, plus a variety of headbands including cat ears, glitter spiders and more. Capture all the fancy dress fun for posterity with our Halloween photo frame.

Creepy Halloween food ideas

Prepping your home-based Halloween celebration will almost certainly involve putting on a spread. This is another excellent chance for you to do a hands-on activity with your children. You might struggle to get them to try any pumpkin soup you make with the remnants of the carving session, but the sweet treats we recommend in our Halloween party food blog will be extremely popular. The Spooky Ghost Muffins and Menacing Monster Cookies are a must! Serve drinks in these macabre Blood Pouches and make this Coffin & Zombie Arms Donut Stand a centrepiece for your party table. Other tableware options include these brilliantly illustrated Vintage Plates and Cups, Ghost Napkins and a Skeleton Grazing Board.

Film fright night

Film night is always a guaranteed winner for a stay-at-home party. Pick a family friendly movie to settle down in front of. Hotel Transylvania 4, the latest film in the hugely popular series is released on Amazon Prime on October 8. The adaptation of Room on a Broom (iPlayer) would be a fun one to go for. For an all-time classic, ET (Amazon Prime) is the one to choose, and older kids will absolutely love the original Ghostbusters (Amazon Prime). You’ll need some popcorn, of course, and these Boo popcorn boxes will help make your Halloween at home one to remember for your little devils.

Need more Halloween inspo? Read our blog listing our 10 favourite DIY decorations for October 31