Halloween Party Games for Kids

Child playing a Halloween party game
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If you're hosting a Halloween party for kids, you'll need to plan some party games for them. Most of these games can be modified to suit different age groups, from young kids to tweens and teens. Some are more active and require moving around the party space while others are more sedentary. But all of them incorporate fun and slightly spooky Halloween themes.

Here are seven kid-friendly Halloween party games.

Halloween Feel Box

Create a spooky Halloween feel box using foods such as cold spaghetti ("worms") or peeled grapes ("eyeballs"). Put these foods in an opaque box, and then let kids feel what's inside without peeking. The kids will have a blast touching the "gross" items and trying to guess what they are. Once everyone has had a turn to touch the items and make their guesses, open the box and show them what's inside.

Eyeball Hunt

Cook a large box of spaghetti, and allow the spaghetti to cool. Put the spaghetti back into the pot, and add several marbles (representing "eyeballs") to the pot. Stir thoroughly so the marbles are buried. Then, invite each kid to dig into the pot and collect as many marbles as possible in 10 seconds. For an added twist you can assign points to each color of marble. Instead of counting the number of marbles collected, total the points earned by each player.

Candy Guessing Game

Fill a large glass jar with candy corn or another small candy. As guests arrive, invite them to guess the number of candies in the jar, and have them write down their guess. As the evening winds to a close, have the children help to count the number of candies in the jar. Whoever guessed the number correctly (or came the closest) wins the jar.

Candy corn in jars
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Halloween Word Scramble

This game has a lot in common with the classic word-creation game Boggle. Write the word Frankenstein on a large sheet of paper. Break the kids into pairs, and give each pair a piece of paper and a pencil. Set a timer for three minutes, and challenge the pairs to form as many words with three or more letters as they can from the letters in Frankenstein. When the timer goes off, have each pair read out their words. The pair with the most words wins. If the game is a hit, try it again with the word Halloween.

Zombie Game

For this game, one child is chosen to be "it" while the others must be expressionless zombies. The person who's "it" must try to get at least one of the zombies to smile, giggle, or laugh without touching that person. Silly faces, jokes, and similar tactics are all fair game, though tickling is not. Once a zombie smiles or laughs, that person becomes "it."

A child dressed in costume for Halloween
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Candy Corn Relay Race

This game requires a bit of space to play. Start by creating a relay course with start and finish lines. Divide the kids into teams. Then, set out a bowl of candy corn for each team at the starting line and an empty bowl at the finish line. The players must use a large spoon to scoop candy corn out of their full bowl and then carry it to the empty bowl to fill it. If any candy corn falls off the spoon while they're on the course, they must immediately pick it up and bring it back to the starting line bowl and start over with their spoonful. Once a player makes a round trip, they should tag the next player on their team. The team that moves all of their candy corn from the start bowl to the finish bowl first wins.

Costume Relay Race

First, set up a relay course with space for two people to run it at the same time. Split your participants into two teams, and give each team a suitcase or box with costume materials inside, such as a shirt, wig, mask, or other easy-to-wear items. A player on each team must put on the costume, run the relay course, and then hand off the costume to the next player on their team. The game continues until all players have had a chance to run the course. The team that finishes first wins.

children in Halloween costumes running
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