4 tips for hosting a fun kids’ Halloween party

Gather together your ghosts, goblins and ghouls for a frightfully delightful party that celebrates all the fun of Halloween! How? With some not-so-scary games, activities and entertainment for kids of all ages. Here are four tips to help you get started.

Design a delightfully spooky menu for your Halloween party.

• Wrap hot dogs in crescent rolls and serve up some "mummy" dogs.
• A bowl of cheese straws can be passed off as witch's fingers.
• Cut a banana into thirds. Then use melted chocolate as eyes and a mouth for some delicious – and not-so-scary – ghosts.
• Your favourite packaged or homemade chocolate cookies can be transformed into yummy spiders. Add pretzel sticks to the cookies for spider legs, and use chocolate-coated candy for eyes.

Kids will be delighted by this Halloween-inspired menu!

Nothing says Halloween quite like a costume contest. Encourage your guests to come to the party dressed in their very  best Halloween outfits!

• Host a Halloween costume show where kids can parade down a faux runway and show off their costume – regardless of whether they're pirates, princesses, superheroes or dinosaurs.
• Give an award to each kid for the costume contest, from the scariest costume to the one with the most sparkle to the funniest!

Plan some holiday-themed activities to keep youngsters in the spooky spirit.

• Organize trick-or-treating stations around your venue, whether it's in your backyard or at a park. Have a few parents help hand out candy as kids trick-or-treat their way around the party.
• Set up pumpkin bowling. Paint toilet paper rolls white and add a ghost face. Stand these painted rolls up like bowling pins, and give kids a small pumpkin to roll toward the ghosts.

Plenty of Halloween-inspired crafts are a great way to keep kids busy.

• Let them decorate sugar cookies in black and orange frosting. You can even use cookie cutters to create pumpkin, bat or ghost sugar cookies.
• Get some foam masks for kids to decorate with glitter, paint, sequins and feathers, and everyone will go home with a new disguise.

Halloween is a fun and memorable time for kids. Bring together your child's closest friends for a festive Halloween party that gives everyone another chance to show off their costumes – and have lots of fun along the way.