Halloween party ideas for 2-3 year olds?

With all the Halloween hoopla starting up, DS1 has started asking to go to a Halloween party - at least a few times a day. DH and I are thinking that, since we don't have any kids' Halloween parties to go to, it might be fun to have a little party for DS's playgroup friends.

It would be a small party, about 5-10 kids, and we're thinking of a Saturday morning, from 10-noon. They can wear their costumes, play games, etc.

But... what games? Would they even cooperate or *want* to play organized games? They're all between 2.5 and 3 years old. I'm envisioning them all in their Halloween costumes playing at the train table while the organized activities are abandoned, lol.

In a Barney Halloween DVD that we rented recently, they made ghost pictures using each child's footprints, and DS was fascinated, but I dread the mess already.

Any suggestions on activities/games/snacks?
TIA!

Erin

Mom to Chase Feb. 04
... and Logan! May 20, 2006

Everyone get a roll of cheap toilet paper, and daddy gets wrapped as a mummy! It was the hit the party I went to last year. Daddy did eventually get out of the chair and chased them a bit too!

Karin and Katie 10/24/02

I second the toilet paper idea! It would make for great photos!

I might also try hanging donuts from string at various lenghts across the room for them to try to eat off without touching it with their hands (this was a big hit at a party we went to, but the kids were a little older)

Pumpkin bolwing - I found 6 plastic pumpkins (similar to the size of the pumpkin buckets you can find everywhere right now that kids use as Trick or treating buckets) and I stacked them in a pyramid and gave them a small pumpkin gourd to roll into the plastic pumpkins.

You could also set out some Halloween themed pages to color (I googled and found a ton to print out). or stickers - can't go wrong with stickers!

I would also just do a few fun and crazy treats - mud cups (chocolat pudding with crushed oreos and gummy worms), cheese cut in shapes of ghosts, some crazy punch - again, Google is a wonderful thing for this!

HTH!

We're having a big toddler Halloween party here. I'm still thinking of activities, but some I have thought of:

- very, very, very simple scavenger hunt (like with photos to the next item)
- musical pumpkins.. basically make cardstock pumpkins, put on the floor...when halloween music stops, kids have to stay on the pumpkin.. make enough pumpkins for all kids..just fun not competitive..I envision lots of hysterical chaos

I might have a craft activity available too...still considering it.

Holli

Holli, is this the party that will feature Love, Peace, and Happiness? How are the costumes coming?

What about a pumpkin hunt, like a egg hunt? I am sure you could buy little pumpkins, or you could use gourds that they could write on with markers to decorate? I know, a mess and you'll need to figure out how you can get something to stay on them. We don't have any pumpkins or I would go in the basement and test paints/markers.

What about making the old brown paper bag masks all decorated. You could cut the eyes etc before they come.

Nap time is over... happy planning.

I highly advise you take a look at a Pottery Barn Kids catalogue or go online to their site and check out their Halloween area. Also look at the Martha Stewart Living Halloween issue. Not that you have to buy any of the stuff these places show you, but the ideas are awesome. You only need a few of the elements to make a wonderful kids party. A couple of my own ideas for activities:

1. Make a Hansel & Gretel candy house
2. Decorate carmel apples
3. Roast marshmellows outside
4. Goodie bags of inexpensive halloween board books (couple bucks a piece)
5. Freeze dance to the Monster Mash or Purple People Eater
6. For the parents, stick Blue Oyster Cult's "Don't Fear the Reaper" in the mix somewhere.
7. Invite me. Haha!

Wow! Love all these ideas. My DS turned three this week but we're having his birthday in about two weeks. We're doing an "itsy bitsy spider theme" and inviting all of his guests to come in costume. We are making spiders out of fruit with pretzel legs (my son is diabetic so we're trying to stay mostly healthy) and hanging cobwebs everywhere. A large part of our "entertainment" will be singing songs together but we will also be doing a halloween parade. My mom, a kindergarten teacher, suggested the idea of filming it and then showing the kids--they love seeing themselves on TV. I will likely be borrowing some of the ideas that you folks have set forth. Great thread!

"6. For the parents, stick Blue Oyster Cult's "Don't Fear the Reaper" in the mix somewhere."

OMG, I love that song--I think it's one of the best songs written in the past 50 years! Although, I'm not sure about playing it for little kids... I guess toddlers wouldn't understand the lyrics, though...
Sue, mommy to Aurora (Rory) born 5/13/04

Yep!! :) Mari's is coming along quite nicely. Plus, we finally figured out what DH and I will be--puppies. So, the 3 of us together will be Puppy Love. :)

Happiness's parents will be "Campers" so together they will be "Happy Campers".

We're still working on convincing Peace's parents to be something other than the obvious hippies. I suggested many ideas that were so far vetoed. :P

Holli

Ooh, I like the idea of the Halloween parade being filmed and them showing it to the kids! I'm getting so excited to start planning this now.


Erin

Mom to Chase 2/2004 and Logan 5/2006

LOL, I can totally picture DH doing this - what a great idea!

Erin

Mom to Chase 2/2004 and Logan 5/2006

Fun ideas! Since it's going to be a morning party, I want to keep the food fairly healthy, so the cheese shapes sound perfect.

Erin

Mom to Chase 2/2004 and Logan 5/2006

Actually, my MIL already bought the Martha Stewart Living Halloween issue, and is going to give it to me next weekend for ideas. Good to know it'll be helpful.

If you're anywhere near western MA, you're definitely invited, ha ha. And I love the music ideas :-)
Erin

Mom to Chase 2/2004 and Logan 5/2006

keep the ideas comingo! We're having a halloween bash also. We're bobbing for apples and not sure what else we'll be doing.

Gosh, we're being really lame here!!! I'm inviting a few of Adelaide's friends over and just having a glorified playdate - they'll just play in costume and I'll hand out some party favors - maybe some Halloween helium balloons and playdoh. Oh, and ofcourse, I'll feed the kids and parents.

Personally, I think that is all DD's friends need right now - the kids ages range from 15 months to 2.5 years old.

Jennifer

Mom to:
Christopher 12/29/89
Adelaide 8/23/04
Bronwyn 11/9/05

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One year we did a mini Halloween party at my mom's house. She set up a little pumpkin patch in the yard- she put a bunch of gourds and pumpkins on some straw, and the kids got to pick their own to decorate- you could do paint or markers to keep it easy.

To get to the pumpkin patch, we went for a hay ride- granpa's "tractor" aka riding lawnmower attached to a little trailer with some hay thrown in. That was a HUGE hit.

We also did some artsy thing- can't remember, and a scavenger hunt.

That's all we did last year, but most of the kids now are really starting to interact with each other more, and my DD is REALLY REALLY into Halloween. LOL

Holli

bump =)

I came up with another idea today and thought of this post. I have a big plastic cauldron (for Halloween of course) sitting in my living room. We played Cauldron Basketball this afternoon. :) Basically we just threw a bunch of balls into it and cheered. My son is easy to entertain some days. LOL