Has anyone ever attended or hosted a fun family Halloween party during daylight hours? My son wants a spooky but not too scary birthday party at my parents house (in another state). Only family would attend since all of his friends live 6 hrs away and that's ok with him (which I love). However the family members are all scattered, some living up to 2hrs away. To be considerate to them we are having the party in the afternoon instead of the early evening. This allows our guests to return home & put kids to sleep before it being really late. My problem is that I can't think of fun & slightly spooky things to do with the kids during the day (the evening darkness makes everything more fun & spooky i think). Any ideas? Anyone host or been to a daytime costume party? Any fun games or tips for me? Thanks in advance!!
My son is 6yrs old & sadly we have no basement or shed available. Keep the ideas coming : )
Buy a bunch of inexpensive toilet paper & play the mummy game, wrap eachother up & finish it up w/a pair of sunglasses.
I think it's perfectly fine to have it in the daytime! Do you have access to any dark rooms that you can use like a garage or basement? I'm not sure how old your son is but if you can find a dark room you could always do flash light tag or set up a small haunted house. There are also tons of "gross" things you can find on line to do like peeling grapes and putting some jelly on them for eyeballs, etc., etc....you could do a bunch of stuff like that and have the kids guess what they really are or just do it and see who's brave enough to touch everything!
See if there is a "Corn Maze" being put on in your area. They are fun for all ages and usually aren't too spooky during the day. Many of them offer other amusements too (such as hay rides, games, etc.) that would be family freindly.
At our school carnival we collected fridge boxes, taped them all together and made a maze.. The kids were given flashlights to crawl through them.
We used xacto knives to cut passages.
Fill a rubber glove with water, tie up the end and freeze it.. Once frozen, cut the glove away and there is a frozen hand for the punch.. Make a few of them.. they are really cool.
make some punch for the party, and put dry ice in it, with spider ice cubes!! You can call the local grocery store, and inquire about dry ice, some stores sell it.
Get a fog machine! But try to use one that has a cooler unit in it so the fog stays low to the ground. If your lucky to have a cloudy day, it will be perfect.
Try blacking out the garage with some black trash bags strips. Then you can make a haunted house or just have the party in there. You can adjust the light as needed and pretend it's nighttime. We always have a Trunk or Treat party at church on Halloween. The youth often decorate the Primary rooms as a very very mild haunted house and the kiddos love it, it's the most attended activity all year.
You just have to decide how much time and effort you'd like to put into decorations and making it dark inside.
Can you put up some black or dark curtains and make even one room fairly dark? One spooky thing you can do is a feel test. Get a big box and cut out holes to stick their hands through. An adult sits on the other side and guides their hands to feel "spooky" items - cold spaghetti is brains, cold sausage is an intestine, grapes are eyeballs - you get the picture. Slightly scary but not really and easily done in the daytime. Would someone be willing to dress up and jump out of a closet or something? Or would that be too scary?
I think it's all in the decorations ~ the scene of the bridal shower in "Steel Magnolias" comes to mind ; )
Hanging cobwebs in the rooms along with keeping the lighting off and using flashlights could create a spooky atmosphere. Dunking for apples can be done day or night, in light or dark, and is popular at Halloween parties.
The Disney Family Fun site is great, I always check them out for ideas. Here's the link to their Halloween Headquarters:
http://familyfun.go.com/halloween/
I saw crafts, recipes, games, tips for parties, etc.
You could get some boxes and cut holes in them so you can put your hand in and touch different spooky items.... spaghetti in a bowl feels like worms, peeled grapes feel like eye balls, etc.
