Outdoor Halloween Party Ideas

Halloween is coming up quickly, and that means it’s time to start planning this year’s Halloween bash!  Make it a truly special experience by hosting your October 31^st party outdoors, the perfect setting for a spook-tacular.  Read on for our easy-to-follow tips on how to throw the perfect outdoor Halloween Party.

Setting the Outdoor Halloween Party Mood

Decorations and transforming your outdoor Halloween party event space into a spooky, mysterious and fright-filled area is crucial when hosting the ideal Halloween extravaganza.  Here are some great ways to convert your backyard or other outdoor event space in preparation for your party.

• Ropes and strands of orange, black and white lights (more orange and black than white)
• Pumpkins and gourds
• Hay bales and dried corn stalks to enhance the autumn atmosphere
• Jack-o’-lanterns with happy, scary and crazy faces cut in them
• Faux bats hanging from ceilings, balconies, tree limbs
• Spider webs and plastic spiders
• Ghost cutouts, ghosts hanging from sheets in tree limbs, ghost window clings for windows
• Fake spider webbing or cobwebs to drape from branches, along fences, etc.
• Orange and black tablecloths, napkins, cutlery, plates, cups, and more
• Cutouts of mummies, Frankenstein, witches, werewolves and other ghoulish creatures to hang or perch around your event
• Black cats around the space (so that they’re always crossing guests’ paths!)
• Witches’ brooms, cauldrons, spell books and other witchy things set around the outdoor party area
• A heavily Halloween-decorated space for food and drinks
• Spotlights and lanterns highlighting the creepy decorations so that overhead lights can be turned off
• Dry ice everywhere to create fog and mystery
• Costumes, and lots of them—have all guests attend in costume to really heighten the experience

Halloween Outdoor Party Menu Ideas

When setting up the menu for your outdoor Halloween party, remember to keep with the theme and try to create a creepy-style spread.  That can include anything from spooky foods themselves to just having a spooky presentation of normal party foods.  Nothing says “October 31^st bash” like deviled eggs shaped like eyeballs, or finger-shaped finger sandwiches on a tray!  Try some of these ideas to keep your guests in the Halloween spirit.

Halloween-themed Party Foods:

• Pumpkin-based soups
• Cheese log shaped like a pumpkin (with a celery stalk for the stem, and plenty of crackers and black tortilla chips for spreading)
• Creepy Dead Man’s Finger Food Sandwiches
• Spooky Veggies ‘N Dip
• Deviled Ham Eyeball Sandwich

Halloween-themed Party Drinks:

• Cranberry juice mixers for cocktails
• Punch bowl surrounded by dry ice for a spooky effect
• Hot apple cider
• Witch’s Brew
• Chilled apple cider (also can be used as a mixer for cocktails)
• Blood orange martinis (and other cocktails)
• Bloody Mary cocktails

Halloween-themed Party Desserts:

• Chocolate Orange Spider Cupcakes
• Slimy Jell-O Treats
• Caramel, Chocolate and Candy Apples
• Candy corn in all of its varieties

Outdoor Halloween Party Entertainment & Activities

No Halloween party would be a party without themed games and activities.  Your guests will love participating in any of these fun activities, all of which are fun, exciting and eerily entertaining.

• Bobbing for Apples—a Halloween party fan favorite for the ages, this crowd-pleaser is sure to be as fun to watch as it is to play. Participants stand around a large tub of water, hands behind their backs, and try to grab floating apples using only their teeth.
• Mummy Wrap Race—team up in groups of three or four, and use toilet paper or white streamers to completely wrap one member of the team. Race other teams to see which team can finish wrapping first.
• Pin the Wart on the Witch—like Pin the Tail on the Donkey, but with a large poster of a witch’s face and a wart instead of a tail! Blindfolded fun for the whole group.
• Monster Mash—a dance competition filled with your gutsy costumed participants who all do their best monster dance imitations. Awards go to the most realistic, the craziest, the scariest, etc.
• Pumpkin Carving Station—carving pumpkins is a staple of the Halloween season, and your Halloween outdoor party should have everything that makes Halloween, well, Halloween! Grab up as many medium-sized pumpkins as you can, provide plenty of carving utensils and see what your guests can create.  Even better, if you aren’t interested in planning out this portion of your evening, you can count on Picnic People’s Mobile Pumpkin Patch!  We’ll bring the entire pumpkin carving experience right to your event space.

We are offering a cider and donuts package for companies looking to spice up their fall!  An additional add-on for this fun fall getaway includes a mobile pumpkin patch.  Picnic People will drive our festive pumpkin truck to your location so that employees can pick out their own pumpkins and carve them at our mobile carving station.

Call for more information!