With fall comes Halloween and the opportunity to throw an epic party for all your friends and loved ones. If you’ve waited until now to start planning, don’t panic—we’re about to go over two types of lit Halloween parties your friends will be talking about for weeks to come.
The big blow-out
Let’s start with the base of any good party. Speakers are an absolute must—LOUD speakers. Nothing is more awkward at a party than when people are trying to dance, but you can’t even hear the beat of a song.
Another important thing to help set the mood of the party is the decorations—decorations are key! Spirit Halloween Stores are popping up all over town this time of year. They have relatively low prices and provide perfect decor and costume options.
Minimal decorations are the way to go for a big blow-out, mainly because if your party is lit, people tend to ruin decorations. Have enough to show it’s a Halloween party, but not too much that debris litters the floor by the end of the night.
Some spiderwebs around the tops of the windows, orange and black solo cups, a few plastic bats hanging from the ceiling and some dim lighting. Or have some orange Christmas lights strung up!
Now get some drinks involved! You should provide at least a few liters of sodas to keep your guests from getting too dehydrated on the dance floor. Go with orange soda and cola or any beverages you would prefer that still match the Halloween colors.
If this is a 21+ party, you have a few different options as well, since you can add in libations. There’s no need to go crazy with providing alcohol, but just enough so everyone present can have some if they choose.
Finally, host a costume contest. Everyone who is invited to this party, or maybe even randomly shows up, should be dressed up so it really brings the Halloween party all together! As the host of the party, take a few walks around the room to figure out your top three favorites.
After the first couple of hours, gather the crowd and have them cheer the loudest for who they want to win. It’s a quick and fun activity that encourages costume creativity.
The invite-only
If you and your crew aren’t really the dancing type, background music is still a must to help make any party lit. Music masks any lulls in conversation and help set the ambiance. A bomb playlist is needed! Check out Vanguard’s spooky playlist, all these songs are perfect for getting people into the Halloween spirit and bring together the focus of the party: celebrating Halloween!
Decorations are even more important for this type of invite-only party. Less people means more space—and typically more respect for property—so you can really go all out. Feel free to go crazy with decorations; add a motion-activated skeleton in the corner, a smoke machine or even the little village replica of The Nightmare Before Christmas—go for it!
Get a little more festive with your drinks. I’m talking dry ice in the cups to make it smoke and all that jazz. What’s nice about this party is you can also have some food that matches the theme as well.
Some quick and easy ideas include mozzarella “fingers” (mozzarella sticks with edible paper on the end in the shape of nails) or mummy dogs (hot dogs in a blanket, but wrap the dough like a toilet paper mummy and mustard-dotted eyes.)
Some quick spooky activities for a low-key lit Halloween party might include a toilet paper mummy competition or Halloween movie trivia.
For the toilet paper mummy, split guests into a few different teams and have one person be the mummy. Everyone else in the team should work to cover the mummy head-to-toe in toilet paper before the time runs out. Teams should get about a minute to a minute-and-a-half to complete their look, then the host gets to judge which mummy looks best.
For Halloween movie trivia, each player can play on their own or pair up. The host should ask predetermined trivia questions about Halloween or scary movies. The team with the most correct answers wins! It could be up to you if you want to provide a prize for the winners of any activity.