Let’s say you’ve been planning for an awesome Halloween party for your office or even a little get-together with your friends or for your kids. And then suddenly, BAM! COVID-19 happens and your fun, exciting plans have disappeared into a wormhole of social distancing and video calls instead of actual meet-ups, actual trick-or-treating, and actual parties.
A Halloween party is a great event for kids and adults alike. After all, it is that time of the year when you can wear any spooky costume you want, and party in it without a care in the world!
Life might not be the same this year with cancelled parties and events placed on-hold, but that doesn’t mean we have to throw that costume we’ve been preparing for a year into the darkest depths of our closet and forget it forever. There are ways to host an unforgettable Halloween party—and have loads of fun—even from the comfort and safety of our homes. Thanks to video call platforms, like Zoom, Google Meet, Facebook Messenger Rooms, Houseparty, and the like, you can still have the thrilling, exciting Halloween party you’ve wanted to have all along.
Before you get started with your fun Halloween party, don’t forget to:
- Choose your video call platform
- Send out invites to your guests (the spookier, the better!)
- Create a playlist with some fun music
- Prepare the games and other things you might need
- Get prizes for the winners
Here are some terrific ideas that can help you host the best Halloween party ever!
1. Costume Contest Halloween Party
It’s no big secret that Halloween is all about the costumes (and the candy!), so why not challenge your virtual partygoers to come up with the craziest costumes under the sun? You can add to the fun by picking a specific theme (think movie characters, superheroes, villains, time travel—the list endless!) or allowing people to come up with anything they’d like. You can even add a unique twist where the costumes must only be made out of old newspapers and magazines or household items. Let your partygoers unleash their creative side and don’t forget the prizes!
2. Mask-querade Halloween Party
What’s Halloween without a mask? And since we’re all required to wear masks anyway, why not have some fun with it? Encourage your guests to come up with the most creative face masks. Think jewels or cute, furry stuff. There’s no better way to encourage everyone to stay healthy than by having a little fun while doing so. The only rule: it should be passable to wear even when you’re outside. As a matter of fact, why not throw in an extra dare (it’s Halloween after all!): the one who has a video/photo taken of themselves wearing it in public places gets a special prize?
3. Hogwarts House Halloween Party
If you and a bunch of friends are all Harry Potter fans, you’ll love this opportunity to geek out. Wear the colours of your Hogwarts Houses or even come as your favourite characters! Wondering how to go about party treats? Let everyone come up with their version of butterbeer or Golden snitchs cake pops. Best presentation wins points that are awarded to their House and other games have points that are awarded to their House as well. The opportunities and ideas are endless. So bring our your wands, your leather-bound books, pull up a chair and let the enchanting begin!
4. Spooky Zoom Backgrounds Halloween Party
Halloween can be a nice and quiet celebration with friends. If you’re not the costume-wearing, mask-querading kind, you can still make Halloween fun by having people come with their eeriest, spookiest Zoom backgrounds. Think graveyards and foggy forests and zombies. Think haunted houses and skeleton hands—you get the picture. Now apply it to your Zoom background.
5. Halloween Candy Party
If you want to host a Halloween party for your kids and their neighbourhood friends with candy so the spirit of trick-or-treating isn’t lost, you can gather goodie bags and have them sent to the houses. Have the kids “meet up” through a video call so they can open their packages at the same time. You can even throw in a few games, a few fun surprises, and more. The other parents will love it and no doubt enjoy it just as much as you will. You can even do the virtual “trick-or-treating” first by sending jokes, riddles, trick questions, and treat cards ahead of time that they can use during the party, and then you can send the goodie bags after.
6. Haunted Tours Halloween Party
Do you and your friends have a fascination for spooky stories and creepy spots? This might just be the Halloween party for you. From the Paris Catacombs to Chernobyl to the Island of Dolls, you can have your pick of which spooky place to explore together (albeit from a distance).
7. Creepy Cocktails Halloween Party
Love a good, ole drink? Gather some friends and send them the list of ingredients and recipes ahead of time. You can opt to choose just one kind of cocktail for all or have a list of options they can choose from. When the time comes for your virtual party, have your friends bring their creepy cocktails and show off their creations.
As an alternative, if you’d rather have caffeine than spirits, you can challenge yourselves to a spooky latte art contest.
8. Scavenger Hunt Halloween Party
Who says you need to actually be somewhere to have a scavenger hunt? Come up with a list of items that people can find around the house, set a timer, and let the exploring begin. You’ll be surprised to find what items people have lying in closets, basements, and who knows where else! Make it more fun by including challenges in the scavenger hunt. You can ask them to look for hard-to-find items on the internet or even require them to draw or sketch something!
9. Escape Room Halloween Party
Yes, you read that right! You can now virtually “lock” yourself in a room with your friends and find ways to escape before the time runs out! Want to try escaping from a fairy tale world? Like solving mysteries? The list is endless and this will be a Halloween party to remember! You can even turn the party into a competition by breaking the participants into smaller groups and time yourselves to see who escapes faster!
10. Pumpkin Carving and Decorating Halloween Party
Jack-o’-Lanterns light up the Halloween festivities with their toothy and somewhat spooky grins. Why not incorporate them into your Halloween party by setting a time when you and your friends get to carve (and virtually see each other carve) your own pumpkins? You can even decorate them according to however you want and light them all up at the same time.
11. Scary Story Halloween Party
If you and your friends love books and stories, why not come up with your own creepy tale for Halloween? Each person has to narrate a few paragraphs and the person after them has to add to the story. You can also opt for each person to come up with their own little story that they will also narrate over the video call or send to your group chat.
Not sure where to start? Here are some prompts you can use:
- Once upon a dark, dark night…
- I was walking home when I heard a scream…
- I thought I was alone until…
- The house beside ours had always been empty…
- My brother was never one to be scared easily…
- When I entered the room, I saw a pair of glowing eyes…
If you and your friends are the types to enjoy unsolved mysteries, you can also opt to listen to a true-crime podcast instead and share your theories as you try to unravel the mystery based on what you hear.
12. Horror Movie Halloween Party
When it comes to screaming, horror movies are the way to go. Set up a very entertaining Halloween party by watching a movie (or a lot of them) with your friends that will either have you screaming in horror or screaming with laughter. (As a matter of fact, the movies you choose don’t even have to be Halloween-themed, but whatever makes you and your friends happy will do just the trick.) Thank goodness for technology, you can now stream movies with your friends through programs like Metastream or even a Google Chrome extension like Netflix Party.
13. Cookie Decorating Halloween Party
This is a perfect Halloween party for adults and kids of any age because admit it, who doesn’t love a delicious cookie? Whether you’re baking and decorating with family or friends, this will be a fun activity for everyone. Send out the list of supplies and ingredients ahead of time start the decorating fun during your video call. You can opt to pre-bake the cookies so you can save on time, but the highlight is all about coming up with the best, spookiest, cookies for the party that are Instagram- and Pinterest-worthy!
14. Dance Halloween Party
Who says you all have to be in the same place to dance? Create a playlist of fun, outrageous, crazy music and send it to all. When it’s time for your virtual “dance floor” to open, have the guests play the music in the playlist (or stream it from your computer to the others) and have fun partying with each other no matter where you are!
15. Halloween Charades Party
Charades work well for just about any age group, whether you are in your thirties or forties or are organising this for your kids. They work out just like other charades where you can break the whole group into smaller groups and take turns acting and guessing. Of course, all the word prompts are related to Halloween.