throwing a successful Halloween Party for Young children - Tips and Ideas for decor, food, activities and more.

Since you are reading this post, I assume you have decided or are at least considering to throw a Halloween party for young children?! That is awesome! Parties are definitely not only for grown ups and older kids, most toddlers and preschoolers enjoy parties just as much. My kids for sure love parties, especially when they are tailored to their needs, which is crucial if you want your party to be successful. And with successful I mean mostly tantrum free and with minimal messes (toddler parents, you know what I am talking about).

Below you will find essential tips for planning a Halloween party for younger children, ages 0 to 6, that is tailored to their needs and will guarantee a fun time for everyone.

Decorations

While most grown-ups and older kids enjoy the spooky and scary Halloween decorations, they can be quite intimidating to young children. Developmental psychologist Jean Piaget came to the conclusion that children under the age of seven struggle to differentiate between reality and fantasy. That theory has been proven overtime and furthermore researchers found that children between the age of 3 and 5 often times fail to distinguish real from fictional characters. Knowing these facts, it is no surprise that young children sometimes get terrified of scary Halloween decor.

So when planning a Halloween party for young children try to stick to cute, non-spooky decorations, such as silly ghosts, friendly jack-o-lanterns and silly monsters and skip the zombies and mean witches. This will prevent any meltdowns from scared kids and bad dreams at the end of the day. If you are planning on doing some DIY decor, check out this fun Halloween bat lantern.

Food and Drinks

Food is essential to a party for young kids, as they seem to always be hungry. Seriously, I cannot leave the house with my kids for more than 10 minutes without bringing a snack. And hangry kids at a party.. sounds like a nightmare to me. 

When deciding what kind of food to serve at your Halloween party consider the same aspects as listed above. Stick to more simple, non-scary, kid friendly foods. Especially toddlers can be such picky eaters, they will most likely not enjoy foods they can’t identify. So instead of serving hot dogs that look like cut up fingers covered in blood (ketchup) keep it simple and offer cute banana ghosts, monster cookies and similar.

Another thing I recommend is serving foods that won’t make a huge mess or leave everyone with sticky hands. Because we all know a toddler with sticky hands can do a lot of damage to your house in no time. And if you are like me and do not like cleaning too much, you want to avoid the extra clean up. A quick tip, I have learned over the years: Instead of just napkins always set out some wet wipes when dealing with little kids eating so they can easily wipe their hands themselves.

You can find inspiration for kid friendly Halloween foods at this link.

Activities and Games

Activities and Games can make a party for young children a lot more fun, so I always plan a few when having a party with young kids. Not only do they provide fun for the little ones, they also keep the kids entertained and engaged which in return will keep them from just running all over the place, whining because they are bored or getting into fights over toys with each other. 

When choosing activities keep in mind that they need to be fairly sturdy, and very easy to explain and understand. I would also recommend picking games that can be played by multiple kids at once and don’t require kids to focus for too long, since a preschooler’s, let alone a toddler’s attention span is still quite short.

A great activity, that is very easy to set up is the witch’s broomstick. It not only provides lots of fun, it is also a quiet activity that will give young kids a break during a party that can be quite overstimulating. If you want to get everyone moving try this free printable Halloween scavenger hunt. It can be done inside as well as outside. Following these simple tips will guarantee fun and frustration free games and activities for everyone.

Timing And Duration

Timing and Duration of play an important part in planning a successful party. for kids Many young kids will still nap in the afternoon and have a fairly early bedtime. So you want to work around those times. Having a late breakfast/brunch party, before afternoon nap time is one possibility or hosting the party in the later afternoon, when most kids will be done napping, but before they get tired in the evening.

As for duration of a party tailored to kids needs, you may choose to have a set end time. From my experience, gatherings with lots of people, activities and a lot of input to process are very exhausting for toddlers and young kids. Of course, every child is different, but generally speaking do younger kids get overstimulated and tired fairly quickly. I usually try to aim for about 2 to 3 hours and that has been working very well in the past.

Following the above tips will guarantee a succesful, fun and meltdown-free Halloween party for everyone involved. If you have any additional tips for kid’s parties, leave them in the comments!

Happy party planning!

References: Carrie Shrier, Michigan State University Extension (2013): Spooky stuff: Talking with children about ghosts, monsters and other childhood fears. (https://www.canr.msu.edu/news/spooky_stuff_talking_with_children_about_ghosts_monsters_and_other_childhoo, last checked: 08/28/2023).