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Trick or Treat - Personal / House Costume Contest
By M Ryan Taylor on Oct 20, 2008 | In Activities | Send feedback »
Everyone knows that what the kids get out of trick-or-treating: CANDY.
So, what do you, as the adult handing out the sweet stuff, get out of it? The day has passed, in most places, where children are going to soap your windows if you flip the lights off and go to bed early. So, why do we still do it?
Besides custom, I think there is a great reward for us on the giving end (besides the joy of giving). Halloween is one of the rare nights of the year (perhaps the only night of the year in most places) where live entertainment comes to our door. In essence, we get a personal costume parade made up of cute little tykes, bold superhero grade schoolers and greedy, gruesome teens. Personally, I think it is a good trade. Candy for entertainment. I also think it is worth giving extra credit where credit is due.
Why should someone who threw on a pair of nerd glasses get the same reward as someone whose costume was obviously elaborately hand-made from scratch? Well, because you don’t want to hurt anyones feelings, right? Maybe, but that doesn’t mean you can’t reserve a few exceptional candy goods for 4-8 trick-or-treaters who went the extra mile.
So, hold your own personal / house costume contest and reward those kids for the extra effort. After all, they earned it by bringing a smile to your face.
Your ‘prizes’ could include:
- Full size candy bars
- Movie theater boxes of candy
- Dollar store Halloween items
None of these are overly expensive, but are a nice way of saying "thank you" for the extra entertainment. You could label your prizes, or just say, "Wow, what a great costume! That deserves a little something extra."
"Bone Hunt" or "Assemble the Skeleton" : Halloween Scavenger Hunt
By M Ryan Taylor on Aug 20, 2008 | In Party Games | Send feedback »
Thanks to "cerinad", a user on Halloween Forum, for this idea. I’ve tweaked it a bit.
You’ll need:
- 2 complete skeletons that come apart.
- A large home or yard.
To play:
- Hide the bones from the two skeletons across your yard or throughout your home.
- Divide your guests into two teams and set them loose trying to assemble a complete skeleton.
- If a team finds more than one of the same bone, tell them to take the bone back where they found it.
- The first team to assemble their complete skeleton wins.
Variations
- Give each team the skull of their skeleton and explain that they will need to complete the skeleton.
- Color code your two skeletons or mark them somehow so that the parts are not interchangeable.
