It’s simple to throw a Halloween party your kids’ friends will be talking about for weeks, without spending a lot of money. A trip to your local dollar store or party supply website will get you a cart full of DIY goodies and activities for a reasonable budget.

Enlist Helpers – To make the party successful for your kids, their friends and you as well, make sure you have enough adult supervision to keep everyone safe and happy. Enlist a couple of other parents to assist with games and crafts and to make sure the food, drinks, and snacks are replenished frequently. You will also want to ask someone to assist with the job of cleaning up after the festivities. Then relax and use the following tricks to construct a Halloween party to treat the kids and your friends:

  • Witch’s Brew – Float some black “scary spiders” in a big punch bowl filled with “witch’s brew”. Find big bags of creepy crawly spiders and other fun Halloween items at Oriental Trading Company.
  • Setting the Mood – More ways to set the “spooky” mood include giving every child their own flashlight. Just a few dollars spent at the Dollar Tree will allow you to set the mood by turning off all household lighting and allowing your young guests to play a variety of Halloween games by the light of their flashlights. Bonus – the flashlights can do double duty as party favors.
  • Halloween Crafts – Easy and cheap Halloween craft ideas will keep kids busy. For around $15.00, you can fill a whole bin with a variety of paint, paper, stickers, and other Halloween themed craft items and let kids design their own “Rock Pumpkin.” Directions for this inexpensive and fun activity can be found here.
  • Halloween-themed Food – With a few simple accessories from any dollar store, you can turn a variety of simple snack items into Halloween themed food. Hollowing out a small pumpkin and putting your serving bowl of dip inside of it and setting it in the middle of a huge platter of crackers and raw vegetables makes for an instant party-themed Halloween snack center. Placing a few pieces of candy corn on top of simply frosted sugar cookies makes an easy treat party-ready in no time at all.
  • Scary Pizza – For the main course, try serving “pizza made scary.” Add “olive eyeballs” to your pizza before baking or use strips of roasted red pepper as “edible blood.”  Even better, let kids decorate their own individual pizzas in a scary way.
  • Halloween Piñata – More child-centered fun can include a homemade pinata filled with Halloween treats. Kids can take turns trying to smash the pinata with a “witch’s broom” decorated with black and orange streamers. The pinata doesn’t have to be fancy – in fact, given the creepy theme, the uglier the better! It can be made very simply out of newspapers wrapped around assorted tiny treats. If you want something more elaborate, find a good tutorial for making your own Halloween Piñata here.