Costume parties are beginning to take the place of traditional Trick-or-Treating, and are a safe and fun way for kids to dress up in costumes, have a lot of fun, and get plenty of candy! Put a Halloween twist on the usual children's party games! Play "Pin the Hat on the Witch" and "Spooky Musical Chairs" at your Halloween Party!

Pin the Hat on the Witch

You'll need:

• Witch Decoration (the "jointed" type that allows you to position the arms and legs; you can usually buy this at Target, Wal-Mart, Walgreens, or a party supplies store)

• Roll of white or brown kraft paper (or a couple of paper grocery bags)

• Masking tape

• Black construction paper, scissors

• Black bandana or black mask with eyeholes covered to use as blindfold

• Halloween-related party favors or little Halloween snack bags of candy

• Get free illustrated craft instructions (opens in a new window for your convenience)

Do ahead of time:

• Carefully cut off the hat portion of the Witch Decoration (see illustrated instructions), and set aside the witch.

• Using the hat, trace onto black construction paper (see illustrated instructions)

• Cut out hat (see illustrated instructions)

• Repeat to make enough hats for the number of children who will be attending the party

• Use gold or silver glitter glue to write each child's name on the hat (see illustrated instructions)

Day of the party:

• Prior to the party, decide what wall or door you will use to tack up the witch for the Pin the Hat on the Witch game

• Tack up white or brown kraft paper to protect the wall or door

• Tack up the hatless with decoration, at the approximate height of your son or daughter (see illustrated instructions)

Game time:

• Make donuts of masking tape and put on top and bottom of the back of the black hats (see illustrated instructions)

• Hand out hats to children

• Blindfold first child, spin child around until he/she is facing the witch (about 4 steps away from the wall or door)

• Pointing child in the right direction, have child walk toward the wall, and put hat onto the wall, pressing down to adhere tape (you might need to help)

• Unblindfold the child

• Blindfold each child, in turn, spin, and have him/her paste hat to the wall

• Closest hat to witch's head wins the game (but you might want to reward all the children with a party favor)

Be creative! Instead of Pin the Hat on the Witch, you could play "Paste the Face on the Pumpkin" or "Put the Skull on the Skeleton" by adapting those characters to the traditional Pin the Tail on the Donkey game.

Spooky Musical Chairs

You'll need:

• kitchen or folding chairs, one for each child minus one (that is, if 10 children are attending the party, you will need 9 chairs)

• a cassette tape or CD of spooky Halloween sounds/music (you can usually find these types of CDs at Walgreens, party supplies stores, Wal-Mart, Target, etc.

Game time:

• Arrange chairs so that they are back to back, in a row

• Have children form a circle around or line up on one side of the chairs (depending on how many children are playing)

• If you have more than two more children than you have chairs (that is, 10 children are attending the party, and you only have 6 chairs), then play two games

• Instruct the children that when the music starts they are to walk in a circle around the chairs and when the music stops, they are to sit down on a chair

• The child left standing leaves the game

• Take away a chair

• Repeat until there are two children left and only one chair

• The last child sitting on a chair wins the game (but you might want to reward all the children with a party favor)

Instead of using chairs, and if you are playing the game on an enclosed patio or in the backyard, you can use the garbage bags that look like pumpkins filled with leaves to create "chairs" for the game. The kids will have fun flopping down on the bags!

Competition games, that leave one person as "the winner" are healthy and teach kids how to play fair and how to "lose." However, to avoid tears and tantrums, you can play the games several times in order to have several winners. Also, be sure to have enough party favors and little treat bags so that all the children get a prize and a bag of candy after each game.

For other Halloween ideas and tips, please visit Jan's Free Content Holidays_and_Seasonal.

Jan K., The Proofer is a freelance proofreader and copyeditor. Visit http://www.jansportal.com for more information about Jan’s proofreading and copyediting services and Jan's other free resources. Please visit Mom's Break (http://www.momsbreak.com/) for free printable crafts and projects. © Copyright 2005. All rights reserved.