Hallowe'en Party Ideas

It all started when I was sent a fantastic box of Hallowe'en goodies* to review. Then, when I became involved with planning my toddler group's Hallowe'en party, the cogs in my little ol' head started whirring. I'm just starting out on the whole party extravaganza, but I love party-planning. For me, it's the whole experience; party games, tableware, food, costumes, decorations, party bags etc.

Therefore, I've decided to put together some ideas for a toddler's Hallowe'en party, of the non-scary variety.

Party-games

• Dangling Doughnuts: suspend doughnuts on strings (enough for one child) from a washing line. Without using their hands, the children must try and eat the doughnuts. This is a much safer alternative for pre-schoolers to bobbing apples.
• Messy-play: this is the ultimate excuse for goo and ickiness galore! Delve into green rice-pudding, beans, pickled onions (eyeballs anyone), custard and jelly. For added fun, hide small (wrapped) treats or gifts in the cauldron which the children must find.
• Trick or treat: have two tubs, one filled with dry-ish small food types (like rice) and one filled with slime (beans, custard, pumpkin innards). Bury the treats at the bottom of the pot and the children have to choose a trick or treat bowl to find their goodies. I'm using this one for trick or treat-ers on Hallowe'en night.
• Digging for bugs: Fill a large 2litre capacity tub with green slime (jelly). As the jelly cools, drop in plastic bugs and spiders, make sure you do this in layers. Once cool and set, provide the children with a tea-spoon to dig out the insects.

Decorations

When we have our toddler group's Hallowe'en party, we're going to be hiring a church hall (eek! Hope the big man doesn't mind?) and will need to decorate it quickly, but effectively. That's where the black spiderwebs will come in; we'll use them to decorate the walls. Combined with orange and black balloons which we will be sticking up, it shouldn't take too long to decorate but look effective.