Halloween is the most favorite holiday in the U.S, and that especially relates to children. Tweens love dressing up, and the term “treat or treat” means they’re getting some sweet, free candy.
But when your child is transitioning to junior high, they are now a tween, and they are embarrassed about liking Halloween or dressing up. Of course, not all tweens will feel this way, but if your tween is having a hard time enjoying Halloween as they used to when they were younger, it’s time you made it fun for them.
A fun idea for your tween’s Halloween is planning a party. A great party will help your tween still enjoy the holiday “adultly”. It can be difficult arranging a tween party that will make your tween and their friends happy. Of course, at this age, tweens think that almost everything you want them to do, wear, or go is lame.
So, here, we will give you Halloween party activities for tweens that will rock, and all you have to be afraid of is people expecting you to host next year too. Planning a Halloween party for tweens can be hard to nail because they’re very fussy, and it’s your chance to shine.
How to Plan your Halloween Party for Tweens
When planning Halloween party games for tweens, the first rule is to get them involved. There is nothing more discouraging when planning a tween party than the tween thinking it’s not cool. So, you need their approval on most of the decisions you make.
Come up with a theme for the party
One can incorporate various themes into their Halloween parties, but this one must impress your tween. Ask them what’s “in,” and then go with that theme. It could be a theme based on their current favorite movie like “Stranger Things,” aliens, or witches.
Either way, the theme you choose for your tween’s Halloween party will greatly affect the costumes in which people will come dressed up.
Timing
When planning your tween’s Halloween party, you must ensure you have a time when the party begins and ends. Working around a time limit will help your party be more manageable. A well-planned Halloween party will also help it not collide with another kid’s party.
Your Halloween party should also end at a suitable time if the children have school the next day; otherwise, you can let it stretch a bit into the night.
Halloween Party Food and drinks
The foods and drinks that tweens will enjoy are never fancy snacks but something simple that you can easily order and have a raging Halloween party for your tween.
When planning for this Halloween party, you need to consider how many people will attend so you can order or cook enough food for all of them. Some snacks and food that will entertain this crowd include:
- Halloween Charcuterie Board – This board can be filled with holiday treats, and it’s easy enough for the older kids to help you put it together. If you want to sneak in some fruits, you can do so by covering them in chocolate.
- Weird-shaped cookies – You can purchase spooky-looking cookie cutters and have a blast decorating them with your tween to create an amazing finish.
- Dry ice punch – For a Halloween party, you’ll need a spooky drink to entertain your tween guests. So smoky drinks or regular punch bowls with a skull or something spooky will work.
- Brain-shaped jello or cake- If you have a Brain Gelatin Mold sitting around, it’s time you put that into work. You can use it to create a Jell-O or cake with it, and it will be a great centerpiece for your tween Halloween party.
Plenty more ideas on keeping the troops fuelled for your Halloween party with this selection of tween Halloween party snacks.
A Superb Selection of Suitably Scary Movies
When planning this Halloween party for your tween, you can also include a scary movie for them. When choosing a movie for tweens to watch, ensure it’s scary but not too scary.
It’s meant to be something that will keep them up for a few nights but rather fun and spooky. Some of these include:
- Boy Who Cried Werewolf
- Hocus Pocus
- Happy Death Day
- You can find our complete guide to the best Halloween movies for tweens over here
Halloween Themes/Party Games For Tweens That Aren’t Lame.
There are many party games and themes and party games you can choose for your tween’s Halloween party. When choosing any of these themes or party games, it is best to ensure that your tween approves of them.
It will be no use creating a whole Halloween party theme for your tween when they don’t approve of it. These games for tween Halloween parties will rock your party to the maximum.
1. Pumpkin face
The pumpkin face is a silly Halloween game that your tween and their peers will enjoy. To play this game, you need cheese balls and vaseline. Ask your guests to apply lots of vaseline to their faces. Then, when you say “GO,” they all dip their faces in bowls full of cheeses balls and smear as many cheese balls on their faces. The person with the most cheese balls stuck to their face is the winner.
2. Mummy Game
There are two common mummy games you can indulge your tweens in. one involves wrapping the mummy, while the other involves racing using a rolled-up mummy.
So, to play wrap the mummy, you must divide the guest into teams. Each team will choose a mummy, and once you say “GO,” they will warp their mummy either in tissue paper or in plastic wrap (when using plastic wrap, ensure the teams avoid wrapping the mummy’s face). The eyes, nose, and mouth mustn’t be wrapped when wrapping with tissue paper.
When it comes to the mummy race, you will play this one differently as it’s longer. After each team has their mummy wrapped (preferably in plastic wrap), they will lower the mummy gently to lie on the ground, and once you say “GO,” they will roll the mummy to the finish line.
The game can end at the finish line, or you can make it longer by ensuring each team unwraps their mummy once at the finish line.
For an even longer race, once the mummy is unwrapped, the mummy can run back to the team, then the team will start wrapping up a new mummy, and the game continues until all team members have played.
4. Halloween Treasure Hunt
Depending on what your tween loves, there are so many ways you can plan a Halloween treasure hunt. You can turn the treasure hunt into a torchlight Halloween hunt or Halloween egg or pumpkin hunt. So, let’s talk about how to play a torchlight treasure hunt.
To play this game, you can wrap sweets in tissue paper or cellophane. You could coat the wraps with glow-in-dark paint or stickers and hide them around the house or in your garden. When it’s time to play, hand each of your guests a spotlight and a basket or bag, switch off the lights or put them in dim if playing indoors so the race can begin.
You can play it a little differently in the Halloween egg hunt or pumpkin hunt. Fill plastic eggs or pumpkins with candy and hide them all around the house or outdoors. You can use the early night by letting people search for these in the dark or let them play this game during the day. Either way, it will be a fun tween Halloween experience.
5. Guess the Name
This game can be all-inclusive since you can involve the guests in creating it. Ask your Halloween guests to write down the names of a couple of famous Halloween characters on a piece of paper.
These names can be from spooky films or stories. They can be named like a ghoul, ghost, goblins, etc.; you can tear these papers and fold them in half, then place them in a bowl or something spooky like a witch’s hat.
Now that the first part of the game is done, it’s time for the fun to begin! Divide your guests into teams (they could be two or more teams). Now each team can take turns playing the game.
When the team picks a person, they pick a piece of paper from the bowl or hat; then, you can set a timer as they start giving their team members clues to the name.
You can set rules to this game, like giving too much information like what the names start with. If they guess the name correctly, the team can take up another go at guessing it.
Let’s say you have a timer for 45 seconds; this means that the team playing can guess as many names as they can in those seconds. You can also give the teams one chance to pass around the paper so another team member can help out.
Once the timer goes off, the teams have to switch up until there are no more words in the hat; then, you can check their scores to determine which team has won.
6. Create a Crime Scene
You can create a fake crime scene at your party. All you have to do is gather up objects one can find at a crime scene, but don’t use dangerous ones like knives or rope. You can use items like certain fruits, wooden spoons, magnets, or even stuffed animals. Divide your guests into teams and let them create a crime scene using the items you gave them. This is a fun activity for kids at a Halloween party for tweens.
7. Pumpkin Carving Contest
You can also indulge your guests in this amazing Halloween-appropriate game; your creative tweens will appreciate it. To play this game, you can create spooky, scary, funny, cute, or classic categories. Now, you can let your guests carve pumpkins and choose a winner for these categories.
You can also let them draw on the pumpkins if you don’t want them to carve or they’re too young to handle carving without causing an accident. Either way, this will be a fun game experience for you, your tween, and their age mates.
8. Pinata
Of course, every tween will love the idea of whacking something until a treat falls out. So, why not get a pinata for your tween’s Halloween party?
To hold this game in a Halloween theme, ensure you purchase a Halloween-themed pinata. It could be something like a pinata shaped like a skull, a bat, a Frankenstein head, or other amazing options you’ll find in the store.
Fill the pinata with an array of Halloween candies and treats for your tween guests to enjoy.
9. A Halloween Twister
Making a twister game fun during Halloween involves you making some printouts of monsters. You could attach each monster to a twister color that looks similar to them.
For example, you can stick Frankenstein to the green dots and Dracula to the red dots. You can also help your tween decide which monster should represent the various colors.
You’ll play the game similarly to the classic twister, except the board will have monsters instead of colors.
We hope this had inspired you and your tween to get planning a Halloween party that definitely won’t be considered too lame or babyish.
