source: www.youthwork-practice.com | 2000 Games, Devotions, Themes, Ideas and more for Youth Work
only for private using

Halloween Party Games and Halloween Program Ideas

or: Halloween - the best opportunity for a scary party

Creating a Pumpkin Ghost
©: www.youthwork-practice.com

In the recent years in Germany, Halloween has evolved to one of the most popular occasions for a party. Thus, a proper Halloween party can be celebrated. Creepiness, of course, cannot be missed and gives an appropriate ambience.

Game ideas for a scary party

Pumpkin Bowling

Put up a few plastic cups. From a distance of 4-6m try to knock them over with a pumpkin.
Pumpkin Boule

A small pumpkin serves as a target. Each player now tries to roll his own pumpkin, beginning at the starting line, as close as possible to the target pumpkin
Pumpkin Transport (head to head, belly to belly)

Always two people get one pumpkin. Both people get to carry the pumpkin between either their heads or bellies. The objective is to carry the pumpkin for a certain distance without dropping it. Which team is most skilful, the fastest, lasts the longest?
The Halloween Pumpkin Hunting

The scavenger hunt, which you can set up either in the house or the backyard as part of your Halloween party. You need several small hollowed pumpkins in which you hide little notes indicating where you can find the next pumpkin. In the end, participants can expect a large, hollowed-out pumpkin, which is filled with many Halloween treats.
Pumpkin Dive

Pumpkin diving is a traditional game (more commonly known as apple diving), which is played at Halloween. You need several small pumpkins, which are placed in a bowl with water. Now all participants have to try to pick a pumpkin from the bowl without using hands. Therefore, players may only use their mouth. Of course, if you don’t have small pumpkins you can use apples just as well.
A crazy pumpkin game

This is a team game that is played around a table. The first player of each team gets a small gourd (not bigger than an apple) which he has to hold with his chin. Now he needs to pass the small pumpkin to his neighbour, without either of them using their hands. The winner is the team whose pumpkin arrives first at the last player.
The sticky cobweb

For this game, you need a large roll masking tape, black tissue paper or newspaper and a doorway or passage in the corridor.

Using the tape, stick spider webs at the door frame or passage. All the adhesive surfaces should point in one direction. The web should only be fastened at the top end of the passageway so that it does not rip prematurely. Then cut the paper into strips, all approximately the same width. The strips are then crumpled into balls. Now each child gets the same number of balls. The objective is to throw as many as possible paper balls on the sticky surface. Each ball that sticks counts as one point.
A horror story without end

After nightfall, the “horror story without end” is a good program point. The children sit in a circle, around a pumpkin lantern then the light is turned off, and a few candles are lit.

The game leader best - a supervisor starts to tell the story. After a few sentences, he breaks off, and the kid next to him must continue the story. So it goes around until everyone tells part of the story or invents something to it.

The horror story without end can be varied at will. For example, the story has to happen at a definite time or a certain place or be told freely.

The story of Halloween

The Halloween celebration is much older than most people think. Already, the Celts celebrated Samhain in the fifth-century BC. For the Celts, this was the New Year's Day, and they believed that the worlds of the living and the dead mingle with each other on this day and that the dead would try to take possession of the soul of a living person to go on living after death.

Thus, they were not recognized by the dead, people disguised with masks and went about with a loud roar. The Romans adopted this Celtic custom and incorporated into their own traditions. The following centuries disguising took on more of a ritualized role.

The Irish exported this custom.

Even the Catholic Church took on this tradition. The pagan custom was incorporated under the name of "All Hallows Evening" into the Christian faith. Especially in Catholic Ireland, the tradition has been intensively cultivated. The custom, to put up pumpkins, goes back to an Irish legend: The villain Jack Oldfield, it is said, was able to capture the devil. Because of his deeds, Jack, after his death, was denied, to enter heaven. However, he was also not allowed to go to hell because of his fraud on the devil. So that he could walk through the darkness the devil gave him a turnip and a piece of glowing coal.

The Irish emigrants took this tradition during the 19th century in their new home and nursed it even further.

However, because, in the United States, plenty of pumpkins were grown, they replaced the turnip unceremoniously with a pumpkin. From this Jack O'Lantern, a hollowed-out pumpkin with a creepy face emerged, which eventually developed into a lantern.

In the US, the festival quickly gained great popularity, especially among children. On Halloween night, they marched, dressed as ghosts or monsters through the streets, knocking on from door to door to receive candies. In the 1990s, the Halloween festival finally returned to Europe and is celebrated here just as much as in the United States.

Creating a Pumpkin Ghost

Creating a Pumpkin Ghost
©: www.youthwork-practice.com

The beet or pumpkin ghost is a traditional practice in some regions of Germany. Children need pumpkins or beets, which they, for example, get from a farmer.

Just in time for the Halloween festival, the turnips or pumpkins are hollowed out, and creepy faces are carved into it. Then a lighted candle is placed in the cavity so that the face of the pumpkin or turnip spirit glows in the dark.

In the evening, the children go from house to house, ring the bell and quickly run away and hide. Once the door opens, they say a verse as "We are the pumpkin ghosts, we are sent by our master. Please give us something for our pockets to nibble. According to ancient custom, the children receive sweets or some money.

Recipe for a creamy pumpkin soup

A creamy, spicy pumpkin soup cannot be missing at any Halloween party.

Following ingredients are needed:

2 kilos of pumpkin flesh
500 grams of carrots
1 kilo of potatoes
2 onions
2 tablespoons of butter
2 liters of vegetable broth

First cut the pumpkin flesh is into small cubes. Potatoes, carrots, and onions are peeled and cut into small pieces as well.

Now, the fat is heated, and the onions are sautéed. Subsequently, the broth is added until it all boils. Only then potatoes, carrots, and pumpkins, are added. The soup is seasoned with salt and pepper.

Then cook the soup for about 45 minutes, the heat can be reduced to a small flame. After about 45 minutes, the soup is pureed in a blender and seasoned. The pumpkin soup should be served hot, where it can be previously topped with the pumpkin seeds.

Decoration tips

Many Halloween fans turn their home in a downright creepy crypt for Halloween. This does not even need a lot of effort. It is sufficient, for example, when all the seats are covered with a white linen cloth so that the house looks old and abandoned.

To underline, the creepy mood, the furniture, and corners of the room can be draped with cobwebs. These are available for a few Euros on the market, often with the accompanying voices. In addition, a ghost or an uninvited visitor can be placed on appropriate spots. The visitor, for example, can be draped on the couch with old clothes and a blanket.

To make a ghost yourself, all you need is a balloon, a white pillowcase, a black felt-tip and a pen is necessary. First, inflated the balloon and inserted it into the pillowcase. Paint a creepy face on it, using a felt pen and place it somewhere.