Halloween is one of the most fun times of the year. It’s a great excuse to dress in costumes, decorate your house in a spooky motif, and get together with friends and family. There are also a number of activities you can engage in to experience Halloween thrills and chills.
If you’re in the process of making plans for the end of October, allow us to lend a hand. In this article, we suggest six spooky activities for Halloween.
1. Visit a Haunted House
You can never go wrong with a haunted house. Many establishments create haunted houses—usually different from the previous year—for Halloween. This way, you’ll never see the same haunted house again.
But beware, haunted houses are only for the brave of heart. If you get scared easily, you may want to sit this one out. Haunted houses are notoriously designed to scare the daylights out of you.
2. Host a Party
What would Halloween be without a party? Go all out with themed decorations and food. Decorate your home with faux spiderwebs, carved pumpkins, bats, and more. You can also DIY decorations if that’s your thing.
Try making snacks that are on theme as well. They don’t have to be super complicated. You can do something as simple as draw jack-o-lantern faces on your cupcakes or make some delicious gooey-looking drinks. The options are endless.
But if you want to elevate your party even more:
Have a Costume Party
Ask your guests to come over with the fanciest or spookiest costumes they have. To make it more enjoyable, you can ask people to guess each other’s costumes and award a prize to the person with the best costume. This will surely motivate people to get creative and dress up.
Have a Glow in the Dark Party
Get your hands on some glow-in-the-dark paint to elevate your party! Use luminescent paint on various elements of your party venue for a spookier and otherworldly ambiance.
You can DIY your glow-in-the-dark paint or buy some from the store. But most importantly, don’t forget to create the right mood with proper lighting. Replace your regular boring bulbs with color-changing bulbs or UV party bulbs. These will make your space look even creepier since they will make your glowing paint more noticeable.
FlannelJax’s also hosts “Glow Throw“, an immersive Axe Throwing experience designed to ignite the spirit of Halloween with an enchanting glow-in-the-dark theme in all its locations. Perfect for small to large groups, couples and individuals.
Plan Fun Group Activities
A fun party doesn’t just have good food and beverages. It should also offer fun group activities. Whether it’s a murder mystery game, a round of trivia, or a scavenger hunt, you can get everyone in a festive spirit by giving them opportunities to interact with each other and bring home prizes.
You can even consider something unusual to pique everyone’s interest. For example, get your friends together for some axe-throwing at FlannelJax’s. The recreational center also has other activities to choose from like log sawing and hatchet nail driving. If this sounds a bit unsafe, don’t worry. FlannelJax’s has experienced and trained lumberjacks who will be there to guide you and show you the ropes. Depending on the size of your group, you can book a lane or the entire venue at any of its three branches.
To match the spirit of the season, FlanneJax’s decorates their establishment with a glow-in-the-dark axe-throwing theme in October.
3. Have a Movie Marathon
The easiest (and cheapest) way to get Halloween vibes is with a movie marathon. You can watch scary movies like Monster House, A Babysitter’s Guide to Monster Hunting, Trick ‘r Treat, Interview With the Vampire, His House, any of the Friday the 13th movies, and more. You can also binge-watch TV series like The Haunting of Hill House, Castle Rock, Stranger Things, The Midnight Club, and Midnight Mass.
If you’re hosting a movie marathon party, ask your guests to name their favorite movies and put their suggestions to a vote. Don’t forget the popcorn!
4. Exchange Spooky Stories
One of the creepiest ways to celebrate Halloween is by swapping scary stories. Real-life experiences are particularly terrifying because they actually happened. However, fictional, made-up stories are also fair game. If you have a great storyteller in your guest list, they can be just as spine-chilling.
You can make sure that the storytelling gets off to a good start by lining up a few people who are willing to share their narratives.
5. Visit the Graveyard at Night
What could be scarier than visiting the graveyard at midnight? Gather your friends and pay a visit to your local cemetery. Bring flashlights, read epitaphs, and imagine the person buried beneath and what their death might have been like. If you have family who have been laid to rest there, you can visit their burial site and learn more about your family tree. You can also look for the graves of prominent people from your town to unearth fascinating historical facts.
Just be sure to check beforehand if you’re allowed to visit at night. Some cemeteries are closed to visitors after certain hours.
6. Visit a Pumpkin Patch
Here’s a more wholesome and family-friendly activity. Many farms open their pumpkin patches and host events for Halloween. You can bring home a pumpkin that you can carve into a jack o’lantern, enjoy a hay ride, and weave your way through a corn maze.
Grand Rapids, Michigan has the Morse Brothers Farm; St. Paul Minnesota is home to Anoka Country Farms; and Madison, Wisconsin offers the Treinen Farm Corn Maze & Pumpkin Patch. You’ll find many more of these farms with a quick online search.
It’s a great activity for people of all ages, especially kids. Plus, you get to help out the farmers.
This Halloween, Be Original, Try Something Different, and Have Fun
Whether it’s visiting a haunted house, hosting a party, throwing axes, or visiting a pumpkin patch, there are many ways to make Halloween 2023 memorable. However you choose to celebrate, make sure to include something you haven’t tried before. Who knows? You may just discover a new fun tradition!
