A Halloween party doesn’t have to be all about the ghosts and witches with some spiders thrown in. Nontraditional themed parties always make the holiday more interesting. Though a theme is not necessary, these parties tend to make it easier when solving the decoration and activity dilemma.
“The Walking Dead,” one of television’s top dramas, is a perfect Halloween party theme. Guests can come as zombies or zombie fighting characters from the show, and a tag team can go on all night to see who survives, humans or zombies.
“Disney gone bad” is another idea in which the guests redesign the average Disney costume by adding a horrific touch. Rip some fabric, add make up and sculpt some scars to create a zombified princess.
Or you could bring out the chips with a haunted casino night, mixing up a standard costume party with some friendly gambling.
For a more specialized Halloween party, try a mafia night. Host a party from the 1920’s and hand out “hit list” cards to each guest as they walk through the door. This will take some preparation, so be sure to know the guest list ahead of time in order to provide a photo and name on each card. By the end of the night, everyone must complete their mission by sliding their hand across their targets throat, which can only be blocked by the target’s hands. If the guest succeeds in killing their target, they then gain possession of the target’s hit list and continue on their killing spree. If a guest dies, have a red marker ready to draw a line across their throat, signaling their termination. The last man standing at the end of the night wins a prize, as well as the oh-so-coveted bragging rights.
Don’t forget the classic “Whodunnit” Halloween party.
“I went to a Clue themed Halloween party,” Armando Rodriguez, freshman in electrical engineering, said. “It was a blast. We got to choose our own characters and solved a mystery murder. It was Miss Scarlet in the library with a revolver.”
The basis of the party is to figure out who murdered the corpse in the room. Given clues in the beginning, the murderer blends in with the guests until someone solves the mystery.
For these, you could set up a background or “scene,” such as a police backdrop, somewhere for the guests to take pictures. Recruit some friends to tape body outlines on the floor or hang white streamers all over the room, shred it a bit and splatter red paint for a bloody décor.
“[I plan on] freezing plastic gloves filled with water to get hand shaped ice for the punch bowl,” Halle Sparks, freshman in biology, said. “[I also plan on making] Halloween mad scientist themed labeled bottles I found at Hobby Lobby.”
For an outdoor activity, try pumpkin bowling. Use small round pumpkins to knock over stacked toilet paper rolls. To increase the Halloween vibe, paint the pumpkins to look like eyeballs and tape black paper eyes on the toilet paper rolls to create ghosts.
Still need to add volume to the party? Play Halloween music from Pandora or have “the Exorcist” or “Psycho” playing in the background. Random horrific screams from movies are a sure way to send shivers down the spine.
For more lighting indoors, paint mason jars orange, yellow and white and place candles inside. Replace all the light bulbs with blue or green bulbs found at the local hardware store. For outside parties, use empty milk jugs with sharpie ghost faces and fill with plastic wrap and fake candles. Be sure to use battery operated candles if you plan to serve booze at the party. Fire and intoxication might not be the best idea.
Cheap budgets still allow for Halloween parties. It just takes more creativity. Numerous decoration and party ideas can be found online or inspiration could be found at any local party store, grocery store or even convenience store.
With so many themed possibilities, every Halloween party is sure to be a party to remember.
Megan Wheeler is a freshman in animal science and industry. Please send all comments to edge@kstatecollegian.com.
