Planning for a Home Halloween Party

A year of COIVD has left many parents helpless on this SIP Halloween, so I decided to throw a small party for a few kids at my place. Here are some tips should you want to do the same next year.

Punctuality: Guests will always be late. Wishful thinking to have them all arrive on time or even at about the same time. Everyone thinks they are the only one late.

1. It’s part of the job of the host to be ready early even if no one shows up when the witching hour strikes. We sat in our costumes for almost 2 hours before the first family showed up. They will come in waves so be ready to play host to just one family as well as all the families.
2. Children lives on their own schedule so some families will need to leave much earlier than anticipated. If there are anything like games or group pictures which needs everyone’s presence, take care of it when you can and don’t wait till when the party is officially supposed to end.

Entertainment: It was so much fun researching and planning the games. You will not use most of it though because things don’t pan out like the way you imagined or things just didn’t work out. Improvise!

1. Unless all the kids are in the exact same age group, it will be almost impossible to find everything entertaining for all the kids at the same time. Don’t expect the older ones to lead the ways, they are their to enjoy themselves and not help babysit.
2. Tying a Jack-o-Lantern Piñata to the tree and having the kids wack at it one by one was the highlight of the games. From the waiting to the anticipation to finally someone blasting open all the goodies inside and onto the floor, it’s the one thing the kids will be talking about for the rest of the night.

Food and drinks: You will over buy on food and drink.

1. Buy half of whatever you think is needed and this goes for everything from drinks, to snacks to pizza. We had left overs for about 3 days, so if everyone brought half of whatever they bring and we bought half of all the juice, drinks and junk food, it would be perfect.
2. Kids are picky about their candy. I saw the kids sitting in the living room trading candy they got from the piñata. To my surprise, they didn’t want the more expensive candy from Costco and opt for the ones we got a Walmart.

Decorations ideas: are not as easy as it seems when you find a great idea online. Test it out first and have buffer to change up on your original plans.

1. Dollar tree is your friend from a cost perspective, go early though or everything will be sold out as the 31st gets near. Go like a month early. We walked out with the bulk of our decorations from dollar trees spending only around $30.
2. Get (or borrow) an electronic balloon pump. It’s like $20 on Amazon, they are all the same and this will save you so much time on pumping the balloons.
3. Make sure there’s at least one dedicated area where families can take a group photo. Family group photo is especially a thing especially with little kids cause every parent wants to savor the moment of their children in those cute cuddly costumes.