We’re celebrating Halloween every way we can this year, and that includes throwing an epic party. Now, we’re not “party experts” but we’ve been to a couple of jams in our lifetime. So we know that a successful party is all in the details and that a little planning goes a long way.
When it comes to a Halloween party, it’s all about the decor – you have to set the mood! We don’t just mean throwing a couple of pumpkins out on the stoop, we mean going all out. We set a spooky vibe with items like crows, skeletons, branches and bugs. It didn’t take long to put together, but makes a huge difference in setting the tone for the night – and it let’s people know that this is going to be a damn good party.
One thing that not everyone thinks about when they’re putting together a party is that you’ll want to create opportunities for people to mingle. We put together a couple of different stations and spread them out across the entire space. This will help your guests to break the ice with anyone they don’t know, which is always easier with candy or cheese.
First things first: you must have a candy station at your Halloween party. No matter how old you are, all you want to do on Halloween is eat candy and you cannot disappoint in this department (seriously, people will leave). Now, in our opinion, a good Halloween candy bar doesn’t just include Halloween themed candy – because let’s be honest, how good is candy corn really? Are they better than M&M’s and Pull n’ Peel Twizzlers? No. No they’re not. So throw in some nostalgic Halloween goodies like Halloween Kisses (those molasses chews that stay in your mouth forever) and gummy eyeballs, but also throw in some crowd pleasers that still capture spooky vibes like gummy worms and frogs. Your guests will thank you. We’ve got a ton of tips for how to put together a sweet (no pun intended) candy bar here.
Secondly, any good party has food – and we don’t mean a bag of no name chips or a veggie tray. If only half of your guests showed up and the power went out but you had a badass spread then people would still be talking about your party for months. Trust us. One of the best party spreads is a cheeseboard. People love cheese (even vegans if you put out vegan cheese)! The best part is that it’s really easy to put together a cheeseboard that will be totally spooky. We’ve got a whole other post dedicated to this beauty – check out how we put together our cheeseboard here.
Lastly, you have to have a stocked bar. We put together what we dubbed the “Drinking Lab” and we could not have been more excited about how it turned out. We totally felt like mad scientists. We’ve broken down how to set up your own Drinking Lab below.
- Halloween tablecloth
- Halloween decor – we used skulls, bug taxidermy and jelly eyeballs
- Beakers – you can fill these with various liquors, either for serving or just to set the mood
- Liquor – you’ll want to ensure you have a basic bar rail (vodka, gin, rum, whisky and tequila) plus some specialty liqueurs as well
- Ice
- Cocktail shaker
- Halloween shots – we used viles for ours, and have a number of shot recipes on our blog like The Boogie Man, Trick R’ Treat and Brain Hemorrhage and Dusk Til Dawn.
Lay down the table cloth and then arrange the liquor bottles on the table. Next, add the decor items you’re running with. Then fill the beakers with liquor and finish with putting out an array of shots before your guests arrive.
Now it’s time to party.
Looking for other spooky activities, games or cocktails? Check out some of our other ideas and recipes below:
- 11 Epic Ways to Celebrate Halloween
- Scream Movie Drinking Game
- Hocus Pocus Drinking Game
- Hocus Pocus Witch’s Brew
- How to Host an Addams Family Dinner Party
- How to Throw a Virtual Pumpkin Carving Competition
- Zombie Baby Pumpkins
- The Ultimate List of Halloween Cocktails and Shots
- Dusk ‘Til Dawn
- Brain Hemorrhage Shot
This playlist is sure to get your party going. Packed with classic spooky hits and Halloween faves.