Halloween and Samhain Games

One of my most favorite moments of my childhood was our Halloween parties that my mom gave. I am old and my memories are not as good as they were once were but I do remember the parties. Being poor my mother had to come up with some inexpensive ways to entertain us. Well she did a great job with our homemade costumes and games. I remember her making the costumes and using lots of paper mache.

My mom had lots of games that we could play and they may sound corny sometimes but we really had some fun. So lets start with some simple games.

Mummy wrap

In teams of 2 give each team a roll of toilet paper. One kid is the mummy and the other will wrap him with the toilet paper. You can time it or you can make the contest about creativity. If you make the contest about creativity you will need markers, stickers, crepe paper and other craft stuff to make them stand out. The whole idea is being creative and then you can have them parade around the judges.

Pumpkin Bowling

We all have 2 liter bottles hanging around the house. It is time recycle those bottles and put them to good use. Wash them out and fill them 1/4 to 1/2 full with sand, kitty litter or even water. They just need some weight to stand up right. Then set them up in a triangle formation and then let the kids use a small pumpkin as a bowling ball.

Eyeball Race

Start with a plain ping pong ball. You can have each kid make their own eyeball using some sharpie markers. You can have just draw the eyeball or make it look bloodshot. After all the balls are made then you can give each child a spoon and drop one of the eyeballs in each spoon. The goal is run the course without dropping the eyeball. Another version is using decorated hard boiled egg. You decorate them just like for Easter but in Halloween style.

Pumpkin Roll

Set up your race track and get 2 small pumpkins and 2 brooms for 2 kids. Have the kids race using the brooms to sweep the pumpkins to the finish line. You can time the race and who ever has the best time win or you can have the winner play another game until you have a winner.

Bobbing for Apple

Bobbing for Apples is one the oldest Halloween game. Place apples with stems in a large tub with water. The kids can only use their teeth to get the apples out. An alternative is to tie the apples to strings and hang them from a tree and they must try to bite them while blindfolded.

Grab the Ghost

 

What You Need
  Paper Towels              Small Balls

  Yarn                            Markers
  Pennies                       Large Paper Circle
  Large Funnel              lDice

Instructions

Before the party, make ghosts by draping a piece of paper towel around a small ball, such as a Superball (or in a pinch, a wadded-up paper towel). Cinch the towel around the ball and secure with one end of a 2-foot length of yarn.

Have guests draw a face on their ghosts with markers.

At the start of the game, each player is given ten pennies. Choose one person to be the goblin. The other players lay their ghosts on the large paper circle and hold on to the yarn leash. The goblin holds the funnel, upside down, at least 2 feet above the circle.

The goblin chooses two numbers on a die, announces them to the group, then rolls. If either of the chosen numbers appears, the players try to pull their ghosts out of the circle before the goblin can slam the funnel down over them. If a player is caught, he must give the goblin a penny. If the chosen numbers do not appear, but the players panic and yank their ghosts out of the circle anyway, it's another penny to the goblin. The goblin, for his part, is allowed to fake a funnel slam, but if he touches any ghost, he must shell out a penny to each player. After three rolls of the die, the next player takes over as goblin. Play is over when one player runs out of pennies. The player with the most coins wins.

Candy Hunt

Just like the Easter egg hunt, you can use plastic eggs that are decorated for Halloween or you can buy Halloween bags and fill them with candy. There are some cute ones out there. Another alternative is to make haunted houses out of brown lunch sacks and hide them. I saw a picture that a woman put the candy in white handkerchiefs and hid the ghosts.