3 ways to hold a killer kids’ Halloween party on a budget
A double-decker cupcake carrier from Kohl’s.
An inexpensive way to decorate for your Halloween party is with tree branches and empty bottles.
By Aimee Heckel
Halloween is the perfect holiday for DIY-ers who lack the exquisite finesse of a trained seamstress. A torn seam just adds to the costume. A glue drip? Cover it with glitter or fake blood.
Halloween is also a great excuse to play around with party-planning, without the pressure of hosting a fancy New Year’s Eve dinner or a big wedding. Consider it event-planning training for the bigger holidays on the horizon.
Here are some tips, tricks, inspirations and ways to save money on your kids’ Halloween party. Who knows? You may just want to dress up like Martha Stewart this year.
1. Theme: Carnival.
Why kids will love it: Plenty of games, prizes to win and balloons.
How to do it: Decorate with colorful balloons and streamers. Set up Pop Goes the Pumpkin, and other carnie-gone-Halloween games. This game is easy and inexpensive to set up. Just blow up orange balloons and affix them to a foam board. Fill them with confetti or treats. Decorate the board as extensively as you want.
Use white holiday lights and tulle for easy table decor. Stick crooked tree branches in bottles and switch out regular light bulbs for red bulbs, which you can find at most dollar stores this time of year.
2. Theme: Mystery night.
Why kids will love it: The same reason adults would love it: the intrigue, anticipation and surprises.
How to do it: Send out invitations with only a large question mark on front and the time and date inside. Request that all guests come in masks. When they arrive, escort them through a dark maze around and through your house until they end up in the party room, where everything is covered in white sheets. Serve up snacks with surprises inside.
An easy and inexpensive idea is to wrap different things in Pillsbury dough: cream cheese and jelly, ham and cheese, pumpkin pie filling and cinnamon, Nutella — you name it. Plant edible surprises inside cupcakes, too. Give each gift a small white box with surprises inside. And of course, all games should be done blind-folded.
3. Theme: Creepy crafty.
Why kids will love it: It’s interactive and personal. Kids don’t come in costume; they make their own masks, adorn their own cardboard pumpkins and get to decorate their own cupcakes, too. You’ll love it because it’s an easy way to entertain a group of kids for a few hours.
How to do it: Pick three or four easy Halloween-themes crafts and set up stations, with an adult to help at each station. Play Halloween music and serve up “witch’s brew” while the kids follow their own Halloween inspiration. Pre-bake cupcakes and store them in a cupcake carrier, like this double-decker carrier from Kohl’s, $27.99. We also love this pink cupcake “carousel,” $35.99.
Save money at Kohl’s by using these coupons. Read more about saving money at Kohl’s here.
Save money on other purchases for babies and kids with these coupons.
Other articles you might also enjoy:
