Halloween Party Themes

Your Halloween party can be as simple or complicated as you like. You don't have to have a theme at all - you can let people dress however they want (and you can enjoy watching what they become on the one day they can be whatever they choose!). Whether you decide to be conservative and decorate with crepe paper streamers and balloons, or go all-out with a complicated theme, you'll find plenty of ideas here at Paradise Organized.



Action Heroes
Blood & Gore - Frankenstein and Dracula
Colonial - powdered wigs, buckled shoes, long dresses
Colors - Everyone dresses in the same colors or combination of colors. The food and decorations must match the color scheme
Costume Party
Dead Rock Stars - Rent a karaoke machine and invite your guests to come as their favorite dead rock star (Jim Morrison, Johnny Cash, Janis, Jerry Garcia, Lisa “Left Eye” Lopez, Luther Vandross, Ricky Nelson, Frank Zappa, Mama Cass, Karen Carpenter, John Lennon, etc.
Decadent Party - Have everyone draped in lots of costume jewelry. Serve elegant foods and set the stage with black and white decor, a black wreath, black bats; use a top hat as an ice bucket (lined of course).  Set a candelabra on the table and use quick-drip candles (be sure the surface is protected). Float candles and roses in a punch bowl full of blood-red water. Use white gloves to make place cards. (See HGTV for directions). Set ravens and black cats around the house.
Famous Monsters of Hollywood
Famous People
Favorite Decade
Favorite Song
Gender Switch Party - women dress like men and vice-versa.
Graveyard - everyone dresses like ghosts and zombies. Serve Graveyard Cake.
Harry Potter - stars and magic wands, crystal balls...luminarias studded with stars

Hats Off! - Guests wear hats only as their costumes - a comfortable solution for hot & humid Guam nights.
Historical Figures
Jack-o-Lantern Party
Luau - Hardly different from day-to-day life on Guam, but fun.
Masquerade Ball - Send invitations attached to a decorated mask. Everyone dresses in ballroom clothes and white gloves and wears a mask
Mausoleum - everyone dresses like zombies. Decorate with spider webs.
Murder Mystery - This can be interactive—and great fun. As everyone passes through, give them clues and let them figure out 'who done it'. Either use a Murder Mystery game or write it yourself and then decorate around it. Clue ( the board game) is great because everyone has played it and most have seen the film. Have your guests dress as the butler, another as the maid, someone can be Professor Plum, etc.
Orange & Black - everyone dresses in orange and/or black; decorations are all orange and black, food is all orange and black...
Scary Movie Party From The Exorcist to the Jason movies and more, there are so many to choose from - or put them all together, and you’ve got one easy theme. Using movie posters and assigning roles to your guests is a good start if you decide to highlight a group of films. Or you can pick just one film.
Sexy Costume Contest
Star Trek
Star Wars
The 50's The 60's   - poodle skirts, malt shop decorations
The 80's
TV Westerns - use Dirty Harry or Roy Rogers for your invitation, and hand out sheriff's badges at the door (or include them in your invitation). Guests could come as cowboys or cowgirls, Indians, outlaws, preachers, schoolteachers, or Miss Kitty.
Witches & Warlocks - Start with a witch, hat and broom entrance. Inside the house almost anything goes. crashing witch on your lawn, or a nose diving witch. Adult beverage in a witch cauldron cooler and spread some witch votive candles around the room.


60's (Hippie) Theme Party:
This party is especially fun for those of us who are the original "flower children"

Invitations - A peace sign on the cover
Decorations - In addition to regular Halloween decorations, add anti-Vietnam posters and protest signs, lava lamps and black lights (far out!),  hang beaded curtains from doorways, incense and lighted candles (especially in bedrooms and bathrooms); play 60's music (Doors, Donovan, Bob Dylan, Byrds, Stones, Beatles, etc.)
Activities - call everyone "man" and flash the peace sign, chant "Hell, no! We won't go!", play 60's trivia games, hand everyone a single daisy as they arrive,
Costumes - wear long bell-bottom hip-hugger pants, psychedelic colors, a long hippie wig, bandanna headband, round tinted eyeglasses, and paisley. For some more ideas, visit e-How.
Food/Drink -


Cartoon Characters:
For a light-hearted party, try having everyone come as a cartoon character - either all from one show, or let your guests choose their character.

Invitations:
Decorations: Use Sunday cartoon pages to paper the walls of your main room.
Activities:
Costumes - Any cartoon character - from Bugs Bunny to a Super-Hero
Food/Drink: Serve foods featured in famous cartoons: Brontosaurus Burgers from the Flintstones, or heaping bowls of spinach from Popeye. Pass out bags filled with candy, cartoon figures, or comic books



Haunted House:
A classic Halloween theme. Call it a Monster Mash - and play "haunted house" songs all evening.

Invitations -
Decorations - Scattered body parts, spider webs.
Activities -
Costumes -
Food/Drink -




Pumpkin-Carving Party:
Here's a party that will please all ages. Just set up some work areas, have some easy finger foods, and play some Halloween music.

Invitations - cut a pumpkin from orange fun foam (craft foam) using a pumpkin cookie cutter as a pattern. Cut out eyes, nose & mouth - put party information on the pumpkin.  Or make one from orange construction paper, like you're making a valentine heart. BYOP means "Bring Your Own Pumpkin"
Decorations - Keep a pumpkin theme with colors as well as using pumpkins everywhere (carved and uncarved): as table centerpieces, on the floor, outside. Make a pumpkin totem pole.  Use miniature pumpkins as candle holders (for votives and holders) and use to light the way to your front door. Fill a wheelbarrow with pumpkins so guests can pick one to carve, or (better yet) have your guests bring the pumpkin of their choice. Offer a collection of patterns, and provide each guest with their own set of tools (including black markers if they choose not to carve). 
Activities - Your guests can choose to carve, sculpt, or paint their pumpkins.
          For the Carving Areas, cover the tables with newspapers or disposable plastic table covers, to make easy work of disposing of pumpkin insides. Provide a roll of paper towels on each table. Provide serrated pumpkin knives, scoops (ice cream scoops work well for hollowing the pumpkin), and bowls for seeds.
          For the Sculpting Areas, set out pre-cut veggies (carrots for noses, carrot tops for hair; broccoli, cauliflower, small gourds, etc.) and plenty of toothpicks for fasteners. Provide a glue gun as well.
          For the Paint Station, provide nontoxic craft paints, plenty of brushes and water.
         For fairness, have more than one judge (and have them wear a pumpkin hat); the easiest way to go is to come up with a small prize for everyone - best eyes, ugliest, cutest, most artistic, scariest, etc. - with one grand prize for the very best Jack O'Lantern.
 Food/Drink - Serve easy finger foods with a pumpkin theme, chili in paper cups, hot dogs, etc.



Pumpkin Festival:
 Why not honor the #1 icon of the Halloween holiday?

Invitations - A pumpkin-shaped invitation filled with candy corn, Halloween M&M's, or pumpkin confetti
Decorations - Pumpkin (or black & orange) door cover, a  pumpkin banner,  orange & black balloons, orange & black streamers, pumpkin toilet paper. Orange or pumpkin tablecloth, pumpkin centerpiece, orange & black (or pumpkin plates), orange beads as napkin rings, orange votive candles, pumpkin confetti. Small candy-filled pumpkins as favors. Decorate loot bags with pumpkins, and fill with candy for guests to take home.
Activities -  Pumpkin cookie-decorating contest; pumpkin piñata (fill it with whatever you like - doesn't have to be kid's candy); give everyone a flashing pumpkin ring to wear
 Food & Drink - Pumpkin candy (like candy corn), pumpkin dip, pumpkin soup, pumpkin cookies, pumpkin pie...you get the idea. Serve punch in a hollowed-out pumpkin (lined with a punch bowl, of course).



Skeleton Theme:
   
Invitations - black invitation with skeleton figure
Decorations - skull banner, skull window decorations, skeleton door cover. Hanging skeletons (life-size), lighted skulls.  Line windows & doors with skull light strings. Enhance mirrors with skeleton stick-ons. Use a black tablecloth (or a skeleton one); find some plastic skeleton goblets.
Activities - Have a skull cap for everyone to put on for photos.
Costumes - How about skeletons? For those who don't want to wear a costume, they can wear a T-Shirt with a skeleton on it, skeleton earrings, just a skeleton mask...
Food & Drink - Meringue Bones, Skeleton & Brain Dip, Breadstick Bones,  any food that you can decorate with plastic skeletons.


Spider Theme:
A fun and easy theme - for you and your guests.

Invitations - black invitation with spider and web; add  tiny spiders or black confetti
Decorations -black tablecloth (or a spider web design) spread with spider webbing.  Scatter glittery spiders across the table. Use spider web plates and cups, or black ones if you can't find spider-themed ones. Use orange & black Mardi Gras beads as napkin rings at every place. For the front door, cover it in black and tape spider webbing all over it.  Have hanging spiders of all kinds throughout the house.  Line windows with spider lights. Scatter plastic spiders on all the tabletops, tape to mirrors, hang webs from light fixtures.
Activities - Decorate loot bags with spiders and fill with candy
Costumes -
Food & Drink - attach small spiders to straws. Serve foods decorated with spider webs; serve black foods and beverages.



Star Wars Party:
This party will appear to all ages and can have a light-hearted air. 

Invitations -
Decorations - Glow-in-the-Dark Stars throughout the house and on the ceilings; Star Wars action figures;
Activities - Have a costume contest and award a light-saber to the winner. Show Star Wars movies. Play Star Wars Trivial Pursuit.  Have mock duels with light sabers.
Costumes - Just have your guests comes as their favorite characters from the Star Wars movies.
Food/Drink - Romulan Ale.




Vampire Party:
A vampire theme can be great fun, if everyone comes dressed as blood sucking evil creatures. 

Invitations -
Decorations - Drape all windows and sliding glass doors with black cloth or curtains. Hang rubber bats from the ceiling at a variety of different levels (some at eye level). Place a homemade coffin in the corner of the room. Dolls and ceramic statues with artistically placed blood droplets work well. Set the table with candelabras. Candles and dead vines finish the scene.
Activities - Sit around a candelabra and ask guests to share the stories of how they became vampires. Award a prize to the guest who tells the eeriest tale.  Be sure to have plenty of  eerie music in the background.  Rent the Buffy episode "Innocence" to see how the slayers celebrate Halloween.
Costumes - Vampires, bats, vampire-slayers, vampire victims,
Food/Drink - Ice cream tinted with red food coloring, red punch (with dry ice for effect)



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