Halloween party planning has a sneaky way of getting out of hand. One minute you want a few cobwebs, the next you’re googling fondant bats at 10pm with a hot glue gun in your hand.
Good news: the easy version is also the best version. A few spooky decorations, five-minute dress-ups, ridiculous games and food that looks slightly disgusting will get you most of the way there.
An easy kids’ Halloween party needs two decorations, one or two games, two spooky foods, one mocktail and a costume that takes five minutes.
If you’re after easy Halloween party ideas for kids in Brisbane and across Australia, everything below can be pulled together with supermarket finds, discount-store bits and whatever is already lurking in your cupboards.
Easy Halloween Decorations
You do not need to turn your house into a professional haunted attraction. Nobody is handing out ratings.
Garbage Bag Spiderwebs
Fold a black garbage bag and snip it like a paper snowflake. Open it up and you’ve got a giant spiderweb. Stick a few on windows, doors or walls and add some plastic spiders.
It costs next to nothing and looks far more impressive than it should. Click the title or photo for a video link.
Spooky Glowing Jars
Save a few jars (pasta sauce jars count), wrap them in gauze or strips of an old white sheet and stick on googly eyes.
Pop a battery-operated tea light inside and you’ve got little glowing mummies for tables, shelves or the front step. Stick to battery lights, because real candles and excited kids make a terrible team.
The Front Door Does Most of the Work
Fake cobweb, plastic spiders, a pumpkin or two and some spooky lighting make the entrance feel like Halloween before anyone steps inside.
Skip decorating every room. Put the effort where guests will see it, then shut the doors on the rest. Nobody needs to know about the laundry pile.
Easy Halloween Costumes for Kids
Every one of these can still be sorted at 4pm on 31 October. We’ve all been there.
Classic Ghost
Grab an old white sheet and cut two eye holes. Ghost sorted.
For younger kids, check the sheet is short enough, or your ghost will spend the party face-planting into the couch.
DIY Bat
Dress them head to toe in black, then cut wings from a black garbage bag or an old bit of black fabric. Loop the wings over their wrists and you’ve got a bat.
Zombie Anything
Take whatever your child already owns, rough it up a bit and add pale face paint, fake blood and messy hair.
Zombie soccer player, zombie ballerina, zombie schoolkid. Or a zombie accountant, if your child is keen to confuse the neighbours.
Easy Halloween Party Games
None of these need a party-game kit. Most of it is already in your house.
Halloween Scavenger Hunt
Hide plastic spiders, mini pumpkins, Halloween stickers or wrapped lollies around the house or backyard.
Give younger kids pictures of what they need to find and let the older ones follow clues. It also gets everyone outside before the sugar kicks in, which is a win for your lounge room.
Witch Hat Ring Toss
Set up a few witch hats and hand the kids glow-stick bracelets or lightweight rings to toss over them.
Move the older kids further back or give each hat a different point value, so the competitive ones stay busy.
Mummy Wrap
Split everyone into teams and give each team a roll of toilet paper. One kid becomes the mummy while the others race to wrap them from shoulders to ankles.
First recognisable mummy wins. The toilet paper strewn across the yard is a bonus, so play this one outside unless you enjoy picking it out of the carpet for a week.
Easy Halloween Party Food
Halloween food does not need piping skills. If a sausage roll can wear a bandage, you’re in business.
Mummy Sausage Rolls
Wrap thin strips of puff pastry around cocktail frankfurts or small sausages, leaving a gap near the top for the face.
Bake until golden, then add tiny dots of sauce or edible eyes. They’re sausage rolls in bandages, which is exactly the level of culinary commitment we’re aiming for.
Monster Fruit
Slice up mandarins, bananas, grapes and strawberries and give them faces on a platter. Banana halves become ghosts with choc-chip eyes. Peeled mandarins turn into mini pumpkins with a tiny piece of celery on top.
This also lets us say there was fruit at the party.
Spider Doughnuts
Grab small doughnuts, poke pretzel pieces into the sides for legs and stick on edible eyes.
No baking needed, and little hands can help with the legs.
Easy Halloween Drinks for Kids
Drinks double as decoration. Bright green Witch’s Brew, Vampire’s Kiss, Ghostly Lemon Fizz and Black Magic Blackberry Fizz all look brilliant on a kids’ Halloween table.
Every recipe serves two, because nobody makes just one mocktail. Read our Easy Halloween Mocktails for Kids guide here.
How to Plan a Simple Kids’ Halloween Party
If you want to keep the whole thing manageable, pick:
- two decorations
- one or two games
- two spooky foods
- one Halloween mocktail
- one ridiculously easy costume
That is more than enough to make the afternoon feel special.
Kids care far more about throwing rings over witch hats and eating something with googly eyes than whether your tablescape has visual cohesion. Once they’ve had sugar, a costume and permission to wrap each other in toilet paper, nobody is inspecting the decorations anyway.
Halloween Party Questions Answered
How Long a Kids’ Halloween Party Should Run
About two hours is plenty. It fits a scavenger hunt, a game or two and the food, and wraps up before the sugar crash arrives.
What Kids Can Wear When There Is No Time for a Costume
Black clothes with garbage bag wings make a bat, an old white sheet with eye holes makes a ghost, and a zombie is whatever they already own with some pale face paint. All three take about five minutes.
Where to Find Halloween Party Supplies in Australia
Supermarkets and discount stores stock Halloween decorations, edible eyes and glow sticks in the weeks before 31 October. Most of the rest is already at home.
Have a spooky one, Brisbane. You’ve got this.