Halloween Idea Contest

2009 Halloween Party Idea Contest (closed)As you know, Party411.com loves to share Halloween party ideas. So we held a contest to hear your best ideas for Halloween!

And on Halloween we choose the Best Halloween Party Idea from all of the submissions.

Tova H. in Florida received a $100 Gift Certificate for BuyCostumes.com and 50 Personalized Invitations from Party411.com.

"The main activity at our Halloween party will be "the story", an interactive story for the kids to participate in. It is about a village that existed long ago that was teaming with witches, and one particularly mean witch (my friend) who was so boastful that she had no friends. She wanted to punish the other witches and flew out into the night (my friend scooted in front of the kids on my witch broom prop) and blew her magic dust into the air (she blew baby powder out of her hand) into the freezing rain (we sprayed the kids with a squirt bottle of very cold water from the freezer).

Soon the children attending the party were blindfolded for the rest of the story which involved a little girl (who was all too curious about peeking inside the witch's castle) climbing up the hillside (we rubbed sticks and twigs over their arms and legs to mimic the twigs and branches that scratched her along the way) to bring get to the castle. As the story called for the child to walk inside the castle, we had sound effects for the squeaking door, the knocker, etc. As we described how the cobwebs tickled her as she entered, we ran long strings of yarn on a stick over the children.

They were then instructed to place their hand in what was supposed to be bowls of witch parts such as eyeballs (DOTS candy in water), tape worms (fettuccini), skin (flour tortillas with oil), brain (macaroni), ears (dried apricot), and other disgusting things. Near the end, the story called for some spurting blood and at that time the kids were all sprayed with warm water. "

Here are some of the other wonderful entries we received:

"Each year I choose a theme, mummies, vampires, witches, ghosts and then my family dresses the part. We decorate one room in the basement to coincide with the theme. When we did mummies we decorated the room like a tomb complete with a sarcophagus and mummy. We dressed like Egyptians and had hieroglyphics drawn out on newspaper end rolls. We even made a pyramid piñata!! We then took the kids from the party down in small groups and when the mummy came out of the sarcophagus everyone screamed!"
-- submitted by Leah in Illinois

"This was for adults only. Everyone had to come as a SNL skit person. You could do it with someone or alone. It could be an old or new SNL skit. We had church lady, coffee talk, Spartan cheerleaders, d**k in the box, Roseanna Roseanna, Sigma Chi and Tri Delt, Camel toe, Pat, Hans and Frans, Ladies man, Da Bears. Everyone had to do their characters skit and we gave out 1,2,and 3 prizes. It was awesome."
-- submitted by Kolleen in Colorado

"This is real cute and simple for a round table. I purchase 2 round plastic white table cloths. 1 table cloth I use to cover the table. The other cloth I make into a ghost. I make it so the front is longer than the back. I make a head out of a plastic bag and newspapers, then I tie with fishing wire or a light string, then I make a face out of felt and glue them on. I drape the cloth over the top of the table and the head sits on top of the table. I use this as my dessert table."
-- submitted by Anna in California

"Last year we had a Heaven and Hell party. We did the upstairs like Heaven and downstairs as Hell. I used white balloons, and white quilt stuffing as the clouds on the floor upstairs. I have a glass cabinet I filled with stuffed animals and made it into Noah's ark. I used blue vinyl table cloth with white paint and shaped them into clouds and put on the walls. I put blue bulbs in the light fixtures. Also white Christmas lights. I used window paint markers and painted Adam and Eve on my large window and put, The Garden of Eden above it. The kitchen table was in front of it and we made a long winding snake out of a sub sandwich as the main focus. Then put all the heavenly food around that. Downstairs was done in red and black with all my great scary props and a home made devil. With all hot and red food or deviled eggs or cake and the such. Outside at a certain time we lit two pumpkins on fire. You can look on the web how to get at 3 to 4 foot flame to shoot out of the pumpkin using a toilet paper role soaked in kerosene. One looked like a devil that had carrot horns. Everyone thought it looked great. Of course we served adult Heaven and hell drinks like Satan's Revenge, Devils Candy and Piece of Heaven to name a few. There is so much more but this give you an idea. It takes my husband and I a lot of planning. This year will be the 5th annual party. Hope you found one good tip in here."
-- submitted by Lara in South Dakota

"College students, while notorious for partying, tend to fall short of the mark on Halloween. My solution is sending out invitations with the stipulation -- Appropriate attire required. No alcohol served to anyone without costume. I know my audience, and a classy Halloween cocktail party goes over very well! I serve Screwdrivers with a dash of grenadine and black licorice stick stirrers (orange and black) layered cocktails in ice shot glasses dyed orange and red, and of course the ice cubes feature little plastic spiders. This is fun with or without a theme, but most college students don't have time or money to follow specific costume rules, so I provide whatever thematic links are necessary. This year I'm having a classic cocktail party, zombie style. Myself and the other hosts are dressing in 30s style gowns with zombie makeup and our living room will be decked out to the nines as a classic Hollywood crypt (think Ed Wood films, or anything starring Bela Lugosi!) with lots of cardstock tombs and good old fashioned fake spiderweb."
-- submitted by Anne in New Jersey

"A great Halloween party idea is to do an "Internet Phenomenon" theme, where everyone comes dressed as someone from a popular internet video. Such as the kid who freaked out about Britney Spears, Star Wars Kid, etc. I plan on going as the Ball Girl from the Gatorade video. You can get the exact jersey and hat she wore from the Fresno Grizzlies website."
-- submitted by Stephanie in California

"One of my favorite party themes was to choose a letter, "B" for example. Your "character" must start with this letter; Bee, Bret Michaels, beer, etc. This allows for individual creativity, without making the theme too narrow and everyone showing up as the same thing."
-- submitted by Adam in California

"One year we made a Mystery of the Haunted Art Gallery party. We created a bunch of paintings of scary and silly looking creatures and hung them on the walls. We told a story about one of the paintings being a spooky spirit that comes to life and does evil things, and that the guests would have to find and destroy that painting. Then we had little games or puzzles, and when the guests figured each one out, they were left with the name of an innocent painting. When they figured out which ones were innocent, the one that remained was the guilty one. They then ripped that one up and found it's evil black heart inside, showing they had chosen the right one. Everyone got a prize for saving the day."
-- submitted by Bonnie and Beth in New York

"We are going on the 6th annual Halloween party. This year the theme is "Hallowstock". - Halloween Woodstock. We have made large back drops that are tie died & also one painted a large VW Groovy bus. Skeletons with hippie attire. a Gallery of pained pics of old rock stars with skeleton faces. We have a tunnel that guest will walk through to get to the back yard that is black light. Walk through & you will see glow in the dark piece signs, flowers, hippie skeletons, smiley faces & much more painted on the walls. Hallowstock is for everyone we have kids project to make hippie piece necklaces & we have a family who is our DJ & Karaoke man. We will have 60's songs to sing & much others. Guest can where any kind of costume. But we have already had them say they are dressing like Dead hippies, plain hippies or as an old rock star. John Lennon, Morrison, Hendrix, Sonny & Cher just to name a few. Lots of fun & we are sure to have a Groovy time."
-- submitted by Jolene in Texas

Thank you to everyone who shared their ideas!