Last year a hometown Halloween celebration was tugging at my heart strings! I wanted to do an outdoor gathering of friends and neighbors to celebrate Halloween together as trick or treaters strolled around our neighborhood.
It was so much fun that I now look forward to doing this year after year (baseball permitting, of course).
Here is how you can make your house a special spot for generations too! Some preparation and love for Halloween is all you need!
How to get started:
I started with choosing "games" kids and adults could all enjoy.
Pumpkin Bowling
Candy Corn Countdown
Chopstick Challenge
Corn Hole
"Extras":
Outdoor Movie:
We also set up a movie projector to play "Coco" on the backdrop of our white garage door. You can get an outdoor movie projector (and screen if need be) from Amazon, there are options for all different budgets.
Popcorn:
We borrowed a neighbors popcorn machine for the ambiance but prepped bags of popcorn such as smart pop or skinny pop would be a great alternative to hand out in addition to candy!
Food & Drinks:
This is a chance to get creative! Personally, I did fun little tangelos that I colored with a sharpie (this is easy to do days in advance). I also made strawberry "ghost" with some white dipping chocolate and mini chocolate chips (these can be stored in the fridge a day or two in advance)! A bucket full of candy, some veggie platters and a cooler filled with a variety of drinks for all to enjoy! I bought some orange soda too that I transferred to a clear self serve dispenser for the cool orange color!
Tips on how to prepare in advance:
The key to saving money is preparation. For example my "pumpkin spice Latte bowling" was made up of delicious latte cups I washed after I throughly enjoyed! For another game make sure to keep two, two-liter bottles from a football watching party, just clean and dry them and set aside for later. Lastly, next time you order sushi grab a few extra chop stick packs!
Now you are ready to put your games together!
Easy to Prepare Games:
Pumpkin Bowling:
I hid tiny little rocks in the bottom of my re-purposed latte cups and purchased $5 bales of straw from Michaels (always use a coupon) to create the lanes! Grab an orange and a sharpie and wah-la you have a mini pumpkin (looking) bowling ball!
Candy Corn Countdown:
It's easy, empty a small bag of candy corn into the two-liter bottle you saved, then wrap the second bottle head to the other with some duck tape and ta-da! Set up a 60 second timer and let each kid have a turn! If they can transfer all the candy corn from one bottle to the other in a minute, they win!
Chop Stick Challenge:
Having a chop stick challenge is a fun and easy game for adults that think their use of chopsticks is better than it actually is! Its easy to do too. Use any left over candy corn and place it into one bowl, with an empty bowl next to it. Simply set a timer and see if they can transfer them all before the time runs out!
