These Halloween games for kids are easy to set up and don't require fancy preparations or specialized materials, so they are perfect for parents who want to focus on helping kids have a great time instead of making fancy decorations. The games are well suited for parties or informal get-togethers with friends during the Halloween season.
Because not all kids thrive in high intensity environments, most of these games can also be adapted for a non-competitive, stress-free Halloween celebration.
Mini Pumpkin Hunt
A mini pumpkin hunt is the Halloween version of an Easter egg hunt. Hide mini pumpkin outside or inside and watch kids race to find them. To jazz things up, use white, orange, and green minis. You can even add a few gourds to the mix.
Mini Pumpkin Balance Race
Everyone places a mini pumpkin on their head and races to the finish line! If the pumpkin falls off your head, you have to go back to the starting line and begin again. First one across the finish wins!
MORE: Halloween STEM Activities
Pumpkin and Spoon Race
This Halloween game is a twist on the classic egg and spoon race. Each participant is given a sturdy spoon (wooden spoons work great for this!) and a mini pumpkin. Participants must balance the pumpkin on their spoon and race to the finish. If the pumpkin falls off your spoon, head back to the starting line and begin again. First one across the finish wins!
Gourd Toss
You could play this game with beanbags but gourds are so much more festive! Gather a collection of small decorative gourds. Five is a good number. Cut holes in a large cardboard box in varying sizes, but all large enough to fit the largest gourd. Label each hole with a point value so that the smallest hole has the largest point value and vice versa.
Players get five turns to toss the gourds through the holes in order to get the highest score possible. You can see our non-Halloween version of this game here.
If you are feeling fancy, paint the box to look like a jack-o-lantern. Or decorate it too look like a monster!
Tip: if your party is for very young kids make the holes quite large so everyone has a good time without sadness and frustrations!
MORE: Halloween Rebus and Brain Teasers (great boredom busters during the party!)
Blind Pumpkin Drawing
Before starting, draw a simple jack-o-lantern face on a pumpkin. This face will serve as a model. Everyone gets a pumpkin and a marker. Blindfold the participants. Everyone tries to draw a face on their pumpkin while blindfolded. The winner is the player whose face most closely resembles the model.
Alternatively, to keep this game non-competitive, there is no judge and everyone just has a good laugh at all the lopsided faces.
Pumpkin Bowling
Set up 9 water bottles (empty tin cans will also work) as bowling pins. Roll a pumpkin towards the pins. Whoever knocks over the most pins after two tries, wins. If you are feeling fancy, you can paint the water bottles white and draw spooky faces with a black marker for 9 ghostly bowling pins.
MORE: STOP! How Not to Pig Out on Halloween Candy (but only if you want to)
Pumpkin Ring Toss
You'll need a large pumpkin with as tall a stem as you can find, and three rings. Use glow in the dark rings for a festive twist. Players have three chances to toss a ring around the pumpkin stem.
Pin the Bow Tie on the Scarecrow, etc.
For a Halloween twist on the classic party game Pin the Tail on the Donkey, tack a poster of a scarecrow on the wall. Give everyone a paper bow tie with a piece of double sided tape on the back. One by one, blindfolded players attempt to get the bow tie on the scarecrow in the correct location. Whoever gets the tie closest is the winner.
Fun variations could be "pin the hat on the witch" or "pin the femur on the skeleton," or "pin the tail on the black cat."
MORE: Halloween Audiobooks for Kids and Families
Hunt for Eyeballs
Got kids who love to get grossed out? Make a huge pot of spaghetti (this will be the brains!). Let it cool down and divide it into as many bowls as you have players. Hide an equal number of grapes (these are the eyeballs!) in each bowl. Blindfold each player, set a timer for 1 minute. Players race to dig through the noodles with their hands to find as many grapes as they can in the allotted time.
Tip: toss the spaghetti with cooking oil before it cools to keep it from becoming one giant stuck-together mass.
MORE: Halloween Printables for Kids (making thaumatropes is a great party craft!)
Gourd Ball
This is a non-competitive game. We play gourd ball every year to use up our leftover gourds and pumpkins and it is so fun! Take a peek at our game play here!
Donut on a String
Hang donuts from a tree branch, or from a door frame if you are indoors. You can turn this into a race to eat the donuts. To make it trickier, blindfold the participants! Play in pairs if space is limited.
MORE: Halloween Alternatives (and Additions!) to Trick-or-Treating
Mummy Wrap
Players break into teams of three. Each team designates one player to be the mummy and the other two players to be the wrappers. Give each team a roll of toilet paper On a go signal each team of wrappers races to be the first team to wrap their mummy in a roll of toilet paper. You can also play this with teams of 1 wrapper and 1 mummy.
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This article is fantastic! The games sound so creative and fun, perfect for a Halloween party. The tips are really helpful, especially for keeping young kids engaged. Definitely planning to try some of these!