These Halloween games for kids are sure to get your spooky festivities going.
Halloween seems to get bigger every year, with shops stocking everything from fancy Halloween decorations to spooky Halloween costumes for kids almost as soon as the summer is over. But you don't have to spend lots of money to enjoy the scary season. Whether you're looking for Halloween party ideas or just inspiration for some spooky family time, these Halloween games for kids are a great way to get everyone together for some simple, affordable fun.
From inexpensive shop-bought games to DIY ideas that won't cost a penny, we've rounded up 30 of the best Halloween games for kids including favourites such as apple bobbing, zombie-themed wink murder and a fun mummy-wrap game - plus we've got some Halloween games for little ones who don't like things too scary.
Just add some Halloween party food and you'll have everything you need for a spook-tacular time.
30 of the best Halloween games for kids:
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1. Halloween Ring Toss
Suitable for: 12 months and up
This one's sure to get them screaming with laughter. Simply inflate these 10 wicked witch hats and spread them out in a large space. Each player takes turns throwing the hoops over the hats, trying to achieve the most points. And of course, the player with the highest points is the winner. A portable air pump is included and the witch hats are equipped with a safety air nozzle, plus they're easy to inflate and deflate.
2. Apple Bobbing
Suitable for: 5 to 8-year-olds
An oldie but a goodie. Simply fill a bowl with water and get the kids to take turns grabbing the apple without using their hands. Time each child's go - the winner is the person who gets their fruit the fastest!
You will need to supervise this closely and have a towel at the ready...
3. Ghost Races
Suitable for: 3 to 8 year olds
Give the good old-fashioned sack race a fun Halloween twist! Use old pillowcases (if you have them) and consider letting the youngsters customise their 'sack' by drawing on a creepy ghost face with some fabric pens. Once dried, set up a start and finish line for the race. Then count them down before seeing who can hop to victory first.
4. Mummy Wrap
Suitable for: all ages
Get the kids into teams of 3 or 4. In each team, choose one child (or adult!) to be The Mummy. The rest of the team use a roll of toilet paper to wrap them up as a Mummy. The winner can either be the group that finishes first or the group that does the best job of wrapping up their Mummy.
5. Pumpkin Patch Stomp
Suitable for: 5 and over
Pumpkin Patch Stomp is one of the best Halloween games for kids with plenty of energy! All you'll need is some orange balloons (plus ample breath to blow them up). Then arrange them outside, start a timer and see how many 'pumpkins' they can pop before the time is up. The winner here is the one with the most burst balloons.
Or for an inspired take, go for these perfectly punchable Pumpkin Punching Balloons and see who can punch them the hardest! Adults and kids alike will love this Halloween game.
6. Marshmallow Game
Suitable for: 6 and over
Whilst this game does come with a sweet-tooth warning, it's one that will have everyone crying with laughter by the end. Pick up a couple of bags of marshmallows on your weekly shop. Line the kids up and go along giving them a marshmallow one by one, asking them to keep it in their mouth and say the phrase 'I'm the Wicked Witch of the West'. Repeat this as the marshmallows continue to build in their mouth, until they can no longer coherently say the line. We guarantee they'll be a few new funny sentences you'll not have heard of before!
7. What's in the bowl?
Suitable for: 5-10-year-olds
Prepare bowls filled with gross, slimy-feeling foods that could be mistaken for Halloween-themed nasties, such as peeled grapes as eyeballs or slimy spaghetti as brains. Each child has to put their hands in the bowls and guess what they're feeling.
Give this Halloween game a twist by swapping a standard bowl for a spooky cauldron.
8. Halloween Bingo
Suitable for: 5-10 year olds
Bingo - but a bit spookier! We love this pre-made Halloween-themed bingo set - which instead of numbers has characters like Frankenstein, a skeleton and a ghost to tick off. Appoint a host who picks a caller image randomly and reads out the Halloween-related item for the players to cross out on their bingo card. The host continues to read aloud caller images until a player has a full house - and shouts 'BOO' instead of Bingo!
9. Give the Witch a Wart
Suitable for: 5-8 year olds
Just like the old classic Pin the Tail on the Donkey, but with a Halloween twist! Get the kids to take it in turns at pinning the wart (or some green Plasticine) on the witch's nose. Blindfold them, spin them round three times and then set them off. The other kids can help by shouting 'hot' or 'cold' depending on how near they are to the witch's face. Once they've stuck the wart on, take it off but make a note of the child's initials where it was stuck. The winner is the child who gets the wart closest to the end of the nose.
Tip: Create your own DIY version - simply draw and cut out a picture of a witch and stick it on the wall before the party.
10. Spider Splat
Suitable for: 5 and up
A kid-friendly dartboard with a Halloween twist! This set includes a spider web poster to pin on a wall with different pointed targets. Have your little ones take turns throwing (and aiming) the sticky spiders at the wicked web, totting up their points. The player with the highest points wins.
11. Pumpkin Golf
Suitable for: 3 and up
Make the most of pumpkin season with this simple pitch and putt pumpkin golf game. A bit of DIY is in order with this activity: carve your pumpkins, making sure to leave an extra wide hole for the mouth. Then dot your stylised squashes around your back garden, equip the kids with a club and ball and let them tackle the course individually or as a team.
You can pick up plastic golf club sets that are colourful and kid-sized from Amazon these days for little more than a tenner.
12. Halloween Twister
Suitable for: 3 and up
Make the most of pumpkin season with this simple pitch and putt pumpkin golf game. A bit of DIY is in order with this activity: carve your pumpkins, making sure to leave an extra wide hole for the mouth. Then dot your stylised squashes around your back garden, equip the kids with a club and ball and let them tackle the course individually or as a team.
If your budget allows, you could buy a colourful kid-sized toy golf club set from Amazon for little more than a tenner - and carry on playing with it once Halloween has passed.
13. Skeleton Relay
Suitable for: 5-12 year olds
Draw out all the bones to make up two skeletons on a sturdy piece of card and lay all the bones in a pile on one side on the room, with a surface or card to place or pin them on at the end other end of the room. Split your little monsters up into two teams and on the whistle one by one they must run to assemble the skeleton tagging in the next person. The first team with a full skeleton wins - educational AND fun!
14. Eyeball Pong
Suitable for: 5 and over
Beer pong made kid-friendly! This is one of the most challenging Halloween games for kids, as they use their hand eye co-ordination skills to throw and land the eyeball into the plastic cup. Separate them into teams first, and the winning group is the one who manages to land all the eyeballs into their opponents' cups.
15. Lights off Hide and Seek
Suitable for: 3-8 year olds
We don't need to explain the rules for this one! Add a Halloween theme to traditional hide and seek by getting the kids to wear costumes. If you're feeling brave you could let them play inside with the curtains drawn and the lights off and give the seeker a torch...
Straight out of one of the famous Halloween movies, it's sure to give to up the fright factor so it's especially fun for older kids.
16. Creepy Crawly Treasure Hunt
Suitable for: 3-12 year olds
Buy some Halloween-themed small toys (like toy spiders, bats, mini toy pumpkins) and hide them around the garden or house. Separate the kids out into groups of 2 or 3 and give them a list of what they have to find. Once they've collected everything on their list, they can collect their prize.
17. Spider Races
Suitable for: 3-12 year olds
Make some spiders out of pipe cleaners and have the kids blow them across the table using straws. Whoever crosses the finish line first wins.
18. Doughnut Game
Suitable for: 5-10 year olds
Tie string around a jam doughnut (that looks like it's filled with blood when you bite into it) and hang it from the ceiling so it's at the kids' head height. The kids have to eat the doughnuts with their hands tied behind their backs.
19. Spooky Pinata
Suitable for: 5 and over
Make a spooky themed piñata stuffed with scary sweets and let the children take it in turns to bash it until all the goodies fall out for a sweet treat.
20. What's in the pond?
Suitable for: 4 and over
Make up a big bowl of jelly and hide little Halloween toys and wrapped sweeties in it. Have the kids stick their hands in the gungy 'water' and guess what it is they can feel, before pulling it out to see if they're right.
21. Halloween Bowling
Suitable for: 3 and over
One of those fun Halloween games for kids that the whole family can get involved in. Make a note to hang onto empty cans or water bottles in the lead up to the party. Wash thoroughly before getting creative with the poster paints - turning them into funny and frightful looking monsters. After you've decorated the full set (5 minimum), grab a tennis ball and line them up on an even service, ready for these 'pins' to be knocked down.
22. Halloween Post It Game
Suitable for: 5 and over
This one's not just for kids. Revamp the classic post-it 'guess who' game that's played around most Christmas tables. Stick a post it with a different Halloween character or symbol - witch's broom, Frankenstein or a pumpkin - drawn or written on their head. Have them ask the other players Yes or No based questions to help them discover their identity before the others do.
23. Sweetie Guessing Game
Suitable for: 5 and over
You've all played the 'guess-how-many-sweets-in-the-jar' game and with Halloween calling for sweets, this one's a great activity that ticks all the boxes. Have each child write down their number on a sheet and the kid closest to the correct answer gets to take the whole jar home with them!
24. Wink Murder Zombies
Suitable for: 6-10 year olds
One child is the detective and leaves the room, while the others sit in a circle and close their eyes. You select one child to be the zombie. The detective comes back in and the zombie starts winking - when a child is winked at, they become a zombie. Get them to wander around in a zombie-like state until the detective works out who the original zombie is and the game starts again. Get ready for some very over-the-top performances!
25. Halloween Charades
Suitable for: 6 and over
This creative Halloween Charades set does the work for you - so you don't have to. Split the party up into teams, set a timer and have the kids mime a classic Halloween movie, character or other topical themed thing to team members. The group that correctly guesses the most charades in the minute wins.
26. Scary Face Painting
Suitable for: 3-9 year olds
Buy some cheap face paints, take a look at our spooky Halloween face paint ideas and follow the step-by-step tutorials to create creepy faces like this vampire face paint.
27. Halloween I Spy
Suitable for: 3 and over
There's no need to explain this old favourite! Task your child to spot Halloween themed objects around the house. Or similarly you could play this kid's game in the car, driving past the decorated houses for inspiration.
28. Duck, Duck...Ghost!
Suitable for: 3 and over
Play this spooky spin on an old classic in exactly the same way you would Duck, Duck, Goose. Have all the children sit in a circle as ducks. Have one child as the ghost and they go around the circle tapping each child's head saying, 'duck, duck, ghost.' When they say ghost the child who their hand lands on must get up and chase the ghost around the circle and back into their empty spot. If the ghost gets to the space first and sits down then the child without a place becomes the new ghost. Continue in this way until they're all tired out!
29. Halloween Scattergories
Suitable for: 6 and over
Fans of the original board game will be happy to know there's a Halloween version available. This gem from Etsy comes up with the categories for you. But if you'd rather save some pennies, draw up a list of your own, before handing round to the kids to play.
30. Halloween Crazy conveyors
Suitable for: 8 and over
This is certainly one of the most impressive Halloween games for kids - with this memory game available to download and play from your computer. The conveyor belt will show your little rascals Halloween objects like a haunted house, a brain or witch figure. And their task is to memorise them for a minute and repeat them back when the video disappears. A unique Halloween activity to try - pay for the game on Etsy, download the digital pack and your ready to go!
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