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Ghoulish Games

• Apple dunking - the old games are the best. One way to make this more exciting for the kids is to make a big bowl of jelly to put the apples in. Definitely a game for the garden!
• Hands off my donuts! - tie a donut from the ceiling or a door frame and see who can eat theirs first. No hands allowed!
• Eyeball and spoon race – ping pong balls are very cheap to buy and with a sharpie or stickers can be made into an eyeball. You can actually buy these in the pound shop if you don’t feel creative! Perfect for a spooky egg – sorry, eye and spoon race!
• Monster freeze dance game - musical statues for little monsters.
• Pin the heart on the skeleton - there will be lots of skeleton decorations available to buy in local shops, or you could draw round a child and make your own!
• Tin can bowling game - save cans and paint or decorate to look like ghost/Herman Munster/cat/pumpkin/mummy etc. Stack them and bowl them over. This would also work with cardboard tubes.
• Spider races - Each player has a plastic spider and a straw. Blow the spider to the finish line. You could use any object for this.
• Truth or Scare - This can be made and adapted to suit your own children. Draw a 'Truth' card and answer a Halloween related quiz question, or a 'Scare' card to answer a question about things you are scared of or complete a challenge (eg, catch a spider). You’ll find some good ideas for questions here. https://www.playpartyplan.com/halloween-truth-or-dare-questions/
• Ghost busters - very cheap and simple to plan! Use plastic cups decorated like ghosts. Stack them high and knock them down with nerf guns or beanbags.
• What's in the box? - This is great fun because it's a little messy, kids love it! Players are blindfolded and have to put their hand into the box and decide what it inside. Ideas could be toothpaste, baked beans, jelly, tinned spaghetti, rice pudding, mash potato, shower gel, ketchup, jam, cooked spaghetti, pumpkin goo.
• Make a Mummy - OK, so you may not want to waste toilet roll BUT this is always great fun.

Scary Snacks

Having a little family party at home is definitely on the cards for us. Here are some quick and simple ideas to create some spooky snacks and treats. Make some of these to enjoy at your movie night or indoor spooky camping and get the kids involved. Some of these will be fun to make together.

• Use Halloween cookie cutters to cut sandwiches, tortilla (bake it to make it crispy), fruit and veg etc.
• Jelly worms - tie together a bundle of drinking straws and place in a tight fitting class or container so that the jelly doesn't just pour out of the bottom. Make a jelly solution and carefully pour inside the straws. Once it is set, remove the worms from the straws and pile on a plate! You can make different colours or mix colours to make a more worm like colour! 
• Mummy dogs - sausages wrapped in thin strips of pastry and baked in the oven. You could add eyes after cooking using slices of olive.
• Eyeballs - use a tin of lychees and grapes to make an eyeball. Nest the eyeballs in a bed of jelly. Find the recipe on the BBC website here.
• Ghost strawberries - whole strawberries dipped in white chocolate. When the white chocolate sets, use melted milk chocolate to create eyes and mouth.
• Mini meringue ghosts - make a face with melted milk chocolate.
• Skeleton gingerbread men - bake traditional gingerbread men, or if you’re no Mary Berry, buy some ready to decorate! Use white icing to draw a skeleton on each one.
• Cookies or shortbread biscuits with iced spider webs.

• Fruit kebabs with decorated ghostly marshmallows in the middle.
• Clemantine pumpkins - peeled orange with small piece of green cucumber or celery stalk to decorate.
• Brownies with eyeballs  - you can buy eye ball decorations for baking in most good supermarkets or use icing to create your own.