Make sure costumes aren't the only thing awesome about your Halloween Party this year.
Halloween is just around the corner and one of the best times of the year to show off your creative side and have a ton of fun. We love this unique holiday and can’t wait to help you with your Halloween party planning every step of the way!
Halloween Party Planning Basics
1. Decide on a Theme
2. Get Started with Potluck
3. Coordinate Food and Drinks
4. Plan Some Activities
5. Create a Music Playlist
6. Decorate Your Space
Decide on a Theme
Will your Halloween party be kid-friendly? An adults-only scene? Scary, sexy, or funny?
There are lots of ways to throw a Halloween party, so decide on the vibe you want because that will set the stage for your guest list, decorations, and costume plan. You can set a specific costume theme for your party, encourage guests to be as creative as they want to be, or make it a costume-optional party to keep it low-key.
Halloween Hack #1: Costumes are instant conversation-starters, so consider inviting people in your different social circles to make new connections.
Sign Up for Potluck
There are a lot of things that go into Halloween party planning, which is why Potluck is so useful for this type of event. We make it easy to invite guests, delegate responsibilities, swap costume photos, and do so much more! Potluck app parties each get their own “Moments Page” that is a private photo feed for the host and guests to upload pics they took at the event.
You definitely wouldn’t want to lose any of those unforgettable costume photos! “Moments Pages” are the perfect way to relive your favorite times from the party with “likes” and “comments” to keep the fun going long after October 31st.
Coordinate Food and Drinks
Halloween food and drinks have a distinctive theme that guests typically expect when they show up to a party. When else is it totally acceptable to serve hot dogs disguised as severed fingers and meatballs that look like brains?!
Focus on easy, grab-and-go appetizers and decadent deserts for your food menu. Blood-red punch (either alcoholic or non-alcoholic) is also an essential part of any great Halloween party.
Halloween Hack #2: Serve your Halloween punch in a witch’s cauldron for a festive touch.
Have Fun with Games
Games and activities keep everyone entertained and having a great time in their costumes at a Halloween party. Depending on your party’s theme and vibe, you might plan a murder mystery to solve, arrange a spooky scavenger hunt, bob for apples, or gather around to tell ghost stories.
Halloween Hack #3: Start your Halloween games about an hour after the party starts to allow everyone to mingle a bit and grab some food and drinks first.
Cue Up the Tunes
Every great party needs a great playlist, and Halloween is no exception! It might surprise you how many Halloween-themed songs there really are out there, and you can find some excellent ready-made playlists online. It’s also fun to put a horror movie on TV in the background of your party to really set the mood.
Do Some Decorating
It simply wouldn’t be a Halloween party without Halloween decorations in the house! Fortunately, there are no shortage of festive finds at pop-up Halloween shops if you need a few extra pumpkins, ghosts, vampires, witches, and monsters. Fake cobwebs, a fog machine, and motion-censored ghouls are fun additions to a Halloween party scene too. Keep the lighting dim with colored lights, candles, and strobe lights for a spooky atmosphere.
Halloween Hack #4: To add a trick-or-treating element to your Halloween party, create some goodie bags filled with candy and trinkets for your guests to take home.
Halloween Party Checklist
1. Themed food and drinks
2. Candy and goodie bags
3. Party favors
4. Cups, plates, napkins, and utensils
5. Spooky punch bowl
6. Halloween decorations
7. Festive movies and music
8. Costumes and accessories