Host a Happy Halloween Party - A Ghoulish Good Time!

Written by Penny Warner with Balloon Time Helium Balloon Kits

Host a Happy Halloween Party at your own haunted house, for both kids and grown-ups. Make it creepy or kooky, cover up in a costume, and keep the treats and tricks coming!

Eerie Invitations

To invite your ghoulish guests, send out "pumpkin pal" invitations. Blow up orange balloons and write party details on them with glow-in-the-dark pens. Then, deflate the balloons and mail them to guests with instructions to inflate the balloons in a dark room to read the message. Add plastic spiders and other creepy crawlers in the envelope to make the invite extra spooky.

Boo-tiful Decorations

Turn your humble home into a haunted house:

Create a "boo-tiful" party setting by stretching cobwebs with rubber spiders over the doors and party tables. Make the atmosphere even more frightening with a fog machine and scary music.

You can also scare up a few ghosts by inflating white helium balloons and adding ghost faces and white crepe paper streamers. Then let the spooky ghosts float around the room.

Ghoulish Games and Activities

Party activities are a great way for kids and adults to have fun together:

Frightening Refreshments

·       Get creative - and creepy - by adding a floating green "hand" to your punch. To make the hand, freeze green tinted water in a rubber glove, then run the hand under warm water and peel back the glove and place the ice hand in punch.

·       You can also make worm-filled ice cubes by freezing water and gummy worms in ice trays.

·       Finally, set out "body parts" as appetizers or snacks, such as Vienna sausages for fingers, deviled egg for eyeballs, and tiny white mints for teeth.

Frightening Favors

When the party ends, send guests home with ghoulish goodies such as glow sticks, vampire teeth, gummy worms, stage makeup kits and mini pumpkins. Let them select Halloween tricks and treats from a treasure chest and take home their booty as favor.


Penny Warner has more than 25 years of experience as an author and party planner. She has published more than 50 books, including 16 specific to parties. Additionally, Warner writes a weekly newspaper column on family life, penned a column for Sesame Street Parents magazine and has appeared on several regional and national TV morning programs. Her latest book, HOW TO HOST A KILLER PARTY, debuted in February 2010 from NAL/Penguin.

Balloon Time is the leading brand of consumer helium balloon kits in North America. Balloon Time kits feature a helium-filled tank, latex or foil balloons and ribbon, and are available at national retail chains, party goods and grocery stores nationwide. For more information, visit BalloonTime.com.