Halloween Party Ideas:
Halloween Themes & Party Games for Grow-Ups
Want some adult Halloween party ideas to make
your grown-ups only Halloween party the best your guests have ever been to? Read on for everything you need to plan an adult Halloween party,
including food and drink ideas, creative and spooky Halloween themes, adult Halloween party games, and more.
Sure, Halloween is fun for kids. But it also gives us adults a chance to act like kids! We deserve our chance at least once a year, too, right?
Halloween Party Food
If you're looking for adult Halloween party ideas, one of the most important things is going to be great food. Whether you have kids coming or not, you've got to set out a
great selection of Halloween sweets and savories. Depending on what kind of party you're looking to host, you'll want to choose food that fits in
with your theme-- and make it as creepy as possible.
Food for your theme. For instance, if you're hosting a zombie party, you'll want some gross Halloween foods that look like human body parts or gore (like this gross looking flayed face). If you're hosting
a genteel Haunted Southern Mansion party, on the other hand, you'll want to serve up southern specialties with a spooky twist.
In my Halloween obsession, I've probably made about a hundred different Halloween party foods. One the pages below you'll find recipes and
photos for some of the creepiest, grossest looking, tastiest Halloween food there is:
Making any Recipe Creepy for Halloween
You can turn almost any recipe into a perfect adult Halloween party idea with a bit of a special presentation.
Halloween drinks & cocktails. For instance, take any red
cocktail and place it in this "blood donation" dispenser for a spooky twist. The one pictured below is available at SpiritHalloween.com and costs
$19.99. The truth is, it doesn't hold all that much liquid and is rather cheaply made (I was a little disappointed with the quality when I bought one last year)
and it leaks. But it does look very cool and is really fun to use-- it was a hit.
If you pick up one of these Halloween drink dispensers, it's probably best to use it to dish out strong booze
(like shots) instead of weaker, higher-volume cocktails. Otherwise you'll have to be refilling the darn thing all night, which is a huge pain.
Creating creepy Halloween food. My favorite adult Halloween party ideas are always food-related, so I always make some of the creepy recipes above (or on my main Halloween Food page) to really make a gory Halloween table. But you don't
have to. Simply place some
plastic body parts
(stick them on a bed of cabbage leaves on a platter!) around your table and add some splashes of blood
and gore to complete the look.
Halloween Themes and Ideas
Of course, the best adult Halloween party ideas tend to come as the direct result of a great Halloween theme idea. Themed Halloween parties
aren't only more fun to decorate for, they also help you to focus on things like the menu, your music, what kind of invitations you need, and
general ambiance.
Halloween themes also give your less creative guests guidelines to work from when it comes to costume ideas-- always a plus. When I
host an adult Halloween party with a theme, I generally encourage people to come dressed in a costume within that theme, but welcome them to
come in whatever costume they like.
My Favorite Adult Halloween Party Themes
(and How to Host 'Em!)
Nuclear Spill. Think Chernobyl in your living room! Cover everything in your home with radioactive stickers, and have guests come as zombies, mutants, scientists, burn
victims, etc.
Hellidays. This is such a fun adult Halloween party idea! If you can think of a holiday, you can spook it up. Dead Easter bunnies, evil Santas, cannibal Thanksgiving
dinners... you'll love watching your guests' horror as their favorite holidays are utterly vandalized.
Satanic Ritual. Goblets of blood, human sacrifice, pentagrams, and everything draped in black. Be sure to go with low lighting and low,
eerie music.
Massacre at the Oscars. I did this theme a couple years ago and it was one of my most well-received of all time. Have your guests dress
as their favorite movie stars (classic or modern)... but dead or injured or murderous. Plan it like an Oscar party... but with blood and gore. Hand out creepy
"Oscars" (like this funny skeleton trophy
) for best dressed at the end of the party.
Ghost Town. Make this an Old West theme or whatever you want. Maybe a small European town overrun by some ancient evil? Create
menus and decorations accordingly.
One Wedding that's a Funeral. Plan this as if it were a wedding, and have all your guests come as wedding guests. But dead. Get a
creepy bleeding wedding cake and cover everything in blood-splashed tulle.
Seven Deadly Sins. This is a great adult Halloween party idea from a friend of mine. He devoted each room in his house to one of the
seven deadly sins-- very creepy!
Heaven and Hell. Have your guests choose to be angels, cupids, etc.; or devils and demons. Assign different areas of your home to be
"heaven" areas or "hell" areas.
Superheroes & Villains. This is pretty simple, and is all about bright colors and fun costumes. Good if your friends are as nerdy
as mine.
Evil Nursery Rhymes or Fairy Tales. This is such a fun adult Halloween party idea! Have your guests come dressed as creepy-fied
versions of characters from their favorite fairy tales, and decorate your home as a haunted wood or the witch's house from Hansel and Gretel.
Murder Mystery Party. If you only have a few guests, one of the simplest adult Halloween party ideas is a murder mystery game. Have
guests come in costume and spend a few hours playing amateur sleuths. Look online for some good Halloween-themed murder mystery games.
Vampire Nightclub. Fog machines, black lights, and all sorts of vampire costumes. This is the perfect Halloween party theme if your
guests love to dance.
Bloody Bayou/Voodoo. Think swamp water punch, hanging vines and moss, shrunken heads, and skulls. Put out this screaming
cheese man and pretend he's a voodoo doll. So fun!
Cannibal Butcher Shop. This one is all about gore and gross food. Cover your table with a
blood-spattered tablecloth
and plenty of
body parts. Serve this jello mold panna cotta brain and other cannibal-themed Halloween foods. (Like the "morgue stew" pictured near the top of this page)
Haunted Mansion. I like this for a more subdued, elegant Halloween party. Serve southern food like hush puppies, corn muffins, fried
chicken, etc., decorate the house with
creepy portraits
and play creepy classical music in the background.
Crime Scene. This is such a fun adult Halloween party idea! Decorate the front of the house with caution tape and a chalk outline of a
body (or several). Then make each room in your house the scene of horror: this
blood-streaked shower curtain
in the bathroom, a stalker's room
in a bedroom, a cannibal nightmare in the kitchen. Have fun with it!
Or... Create Your Own Halloween Theme!
Have a simply adult Halloween party idea of your own? You can also make any party theme perfect for Halloween by adding a creepy twist to it. The more specific the funnier... and the sky's the limit. When
you add "zombie" "dead" "vampire" "haunted" "ghost" (or anything else creepy!) to any regular ol' theme (including holidays, decades, movies,
characters, you name it), you get some really fun Halloween themes that will get your guests in some really crazy costumes. Think outside the
box! Here are some ideas to get your started:
- Zombies Attack the Super Bowl
- Massacre on the Titanic
- Haunted Hippies
- Alien Attack Wedding
- Eaten in the 80s (80s Zombie)
- Dead 50s Diner
- Zombie Fourth of July
- Cannibal Thanksgiving
- Dead Disco
- Spooky Speakeasy
- New Dead's Eve
- Cannibal Baby Shower
- Dead at Hogworts (dead Harry Potter characters)
- A Massacre of Tarts and Vicars
- Massacre of Greek Mythology
- Zombie Olympics
- Spooky Shakespeare (Zombified characters from Shakespeare)
- Slaughter at Saturday Night Live
My Favorite Adult Halloween Party Game
You probably have enough to think about with all the info above. But if you're looking for some fun ideas for adult Halloween party games, I
thought I'd give you my favorite. Now this is a very adult Halloween game, as it's all about drinking.
I've also got more adult party games here.
Spooky Shot Halloween Drinking Game
A drinking game is one of the best adult Halloween party ideas if you really want to get the party rolling along. And this one is competitive, a
little mean, and a lot of fun.
To Start: Start out with at least 6 players, and as many players as you like. You can play this game during the course of an hour, if
you like, or keep it going all night. The goal of this game is to get the people around you to say forbidden words that will require them to take a
shot.
Setting Up: Before the party, come up with six words that nobody is allowed to say during the course of the game. If you want your
guests to get really wasted, pick simple words like "that" "drink," etc. Or you can make them words related to your Halloween party theme or
Halloween in general. Set up a table full of shots, or with shot glasses and a couple of choices of booze/cocktail mixes so people can pour their
own.
Playing the Game: To play, pick a start time and inform everybody of the rules and the forbidden words. Make the other guests in
charge of telling somebody when they have to pay with a shot because they've used a forbidden word. Then let things naturally take their course.
As the night wears on, it'll get harder and harder for your guests to remember to hold their tongues!
Optional: When I play this game, I like to give each guest their own creepy shot glasses they have to wear on a string around their
necks. It kind of adds to the fun punishment aspect of the game. And it's something fun for them to take them home afterwards.
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