Halloween is the perfect excuse to get family or friends together for a fun evening. You don't need expensive decorations or hours of planning – just a few simple ideas.
We've sorted them by age so you can quickly find something for your group: kids, teens and adults. Some ideas come with short videos from creators who show you exactly how to make them.
Kids love anything they can make with their own hands and see the result straight away. So we start with simple crafts, then move on to games.
Pumpkins, ghosts and bats that glow when the light shines through them. An adult cuts outlines from black card and sticks them onto wide clear tape, and the kids fill the inside with small pieces of coloured tissue paper. Add eyes and a mouth, then stick them on the window. The kids are busy before the guests arrive – and you get free decorations.
You need: black card, wide clear tape, coloured tissue paper, scissors.
A paper bat that flaps its wings when you pull a string. Cut a bat out of black paper, tape a short piece of straw to the back and thread a string through it. Tape the ends of the string to the wings. Pull the loop and the wings flap. Kids won't want to put it down.
You need: black paper, a straw, string, tape, googly eyes.
The cutest Halloween treat, ready in five minutes. Twist four black pipe cleaners around the lollipop stick just under the candy, bend them into eight legs and stick on googly eyes. Hand them out to guests or use them as prizes for the other games.
You need: lollipops, black pipe cleaners, sticky googly eyes.
A simple game for two teams that sneaks in some counting practice. Each team draws a dozen spiders with different numbers of legs – from one to six. Teams take turns rolling the dice and colour in a spider with that many legs. The first team to colour in all its spiders wins.
You need: a dice, paper, two markers in different colours.
A Halloween party classic. Kids pair up: one is the mummy, the other wraps them in toilet paper. The fastest, best-wrapped mummy wins. Expect lots of laughs and great photos.
You need: a few rolls of toilet paper.
Before the party, hide small pumpkins, sweets or paper ghosts around the house or garden. Kids search with little baskets, and whoever finds the most wins. Help younger ones with “hot or cold” hints.
Teens want competition and fun – just nothing that feels “childish”. Phone games the whole group can play at once work best, with zero preparation.
Everyone takes a turn picking a word while the others guess it letter by letter. One rule: Halloween words only – pumpkin, vampire, haunted house, graveyard… Play on your phones, no sign-up, nothing to install.
👉 Play Hangman onlineLike Telephone, but with drawings. Everyone writes a word, the next person draws it, and the next guesses what the drawing shows. Use Halloween prompts like “vampire at the dentist” or “ghost on a bike” and see what’s left by the end. Watching the full chains at the end is the best part.
👉 Play Sketch & GuessTurn off the lights and grab a torch. The first person starts a scary story with one sentence, and everyone adds the next. After a few rounds it’s usually funnier than scary – and that’s the point.
Adults enjoy games where they can laugh, get to know each other better and compete a little. These work for a house party as well as an office Halloween event.
Everyone shares three statements about themselves – two true and one made up – and the others guess the lie. Halloween rule: statements must be about fears, costumes or strange experiences, like “I once slept in a haunted castle” or “I’m scared of clowns”. Play on your phones and the game keeps score for you.
👉 Play Two Truths and a LieCharades without having to think up words – the game picks them for you, and your teams just act and guess. For extra Halloween spirit, add one round of horror film titles like “Dracula”, “The Shining” or “Scream”.
👉 Play Charades onlineAt the start of the party, everyone introduces their costume in a few words. At the end, everyone votes – ideally anonymously, on slips of paper. Announcing the winner is the perfect moment for a prize, like a spider lollipop.
What Halloween activities work for young kids?
Simple crafts like window sun catchers or flapping bats, and active games like a pumpkin hunt or a mummy wrap race.
What Halloween games are good for teens?
Phone games the whole group can play at once, like Hangman or Sketch & Guess with Halloween words. A pass-the-story horror tale works great too. None of them need any preparation.
How do I host Halloween for adults without much planning?
A few party games are enough: Two Truths and a Lie, online Charades and a costume contest. For the online games, your guests just need their phones.
Are the online games free?
Yes. All games on roomforgames.com are free, with no sign-up and nothing to install. They work on phones, tablets and computers.