55 Best Halloween Games Adults Would Enjoy Playing With Their Kids
Spooky twists on traditional games plus creative family-friendly activities, from skeleton bone races to pumpkin bean-bag tosses.
Along with brainstorming Halloween decorations for your spooktastic party on October 31, consider a fun-filled day of Halloween games. The festive party games we share below are perfect for kids, tweens, teens and adults alike, especially if everyone is into trick-or-treating, Halloween crafts or pumpkin carving.
A good time is guaranteed with classic Halloween games like apple bobbing, Twister, Halloween Bingo or even a scavenger hunt. Or, you can help your kids recreate popular games, like musical chairs and freeze dance, by playing your favorite Halloween tunes (we're thinking "Monster Mash, "Ghostbusters" and The Addams Family theme song). Want to really take things up a notch? Purchase or DIY witch hats to play glow-in-the-dark ring toss (then wear them as your Halloween costume before trick-or-treating). We even have a range of outdoor games that are great for groups — take pumpkin sweeping, mummy bowling and pumpkin tic-tac-toe, for instance. And if you want a game that teaches your kids to follow instructions, problem solve and sharpen their fine motor skills, consider Halloween sensory bins, pumpkin relay and Family Feud.
When it comes to Halloween games for kids, make sure to keep it simple and enjoyable. Feel free to save the more challenging contests for your grown-up gathering (this roundup of Halloween games for adults is a great place to start).
Apple Bobbing
Often played on Halloween, apple bobbing is an exciting game where kids race to grab as many apples as they can from a pail of water before time runs out. The fun part: They use their teeth!
Halloween Family Feud
Give Family Feud a Halloween twist by having two teams guess the answers to as many mysterious and ghostly questions before the buzzer goes out. Take a cue from blogger Britni to DIY your board. Be sure to check out her template of questions if you want to save time thinking of your own!
Guess the Food
If you're familiar with Fear Factor, then you'll love watching your blindfolded kids struggle to eat — and guess — the food or candy on their plates. Give the candy gross names, like cat poop for a tootsie roll, to really add some lighthearted fun to the competition.
Skeleton Bone Race
For this bone-chilling race, the more teams you have, the longer the game will take. Split a group into teams of four or more and have them race to connect the yarn with the last player holding the bone.
Pumpkin Tic-Tac-Toe
Draw Xs and Os on little pumpkins and create a tic-tac-toe board on a small table using masking tape. You can even play Rock, Paper, Scissors to see who gets to be the X.
Eyeball Dig
Fill up a giant bucket or storage tub with noodles and fake eyeballs. Then, have your little ones dig through their noodles to find the eyes. It's gross, challenging and one of the most creative Halloween games for kids who like to get messy.
Pumpkin Golf
Start by carving your large pumpkin's eyes, nose and mouth. Make sure the mouth is big enough to fit multiple golf balls. The first player to make a hole-in-one wins the prize — everyone's Halloween candy, maybe?
Ghost Marshmallows on a String
Draw ghost faces on marshmallows using a food marker. Tie the marshmallows to a string and hang them from an elevated broom so players can try eating them with their hands behind their backs.
M&M's Spooky Bingo
Bingo is always fun, but this time, use spooky bingo tiles in light of Halloween. Use M&M's (or another type of sugary treat) to cover the designs.
Spooky Musical Chairs
Purchase a few skeletons and place them on seats. As your kids walk around the circle listening to classic Halloween tunes, they'll be too scared to sit on their boney friends once the music stops.
Pumpkin Sweep
Here's a way to amp up your Halloween party! Divide kids into teams and give each of them a broom to play pumpkin sweep. The first player to sweep their pumpkins all the way to the finish line and back to the next player in the line wins!
Pumpkin Twister
Younger ones can test their knowledge of colors and ability to follow directions with this fun spin on the classic Twister game. Swap out the colorful circles for printable paper pumpkins.
Ghost Face
Have players use their mouths to find candy corn hidden in whipped cream. To ensure that the game is challenging for the players, use blindfolds, time them and make them keep their hands behind their backs.
Halloween Scavenger Hunt
You can never go wrong with a scavenger hunt! Hide a variety of items throughout your home, like mini tombstones, treat bags of candy, ghosts, cauldrons and black cat figurines. The player who finds the most items, wins them all!
Name That Halloween Tune
Create a playlist with the most popular Halloween songs of all time. Think "Ghostbusters," "Monster Mash" and "Monster Boogie." Let your little ones, tweens and teens included, guess the name of each one.
Pumpkin Carving Contest
Keep everyone engaged with a good ol' pumpkin carving contest. Help little ones carve classic, silly or surprised faces, or get super creative with cooler designs like candles or flames. The ideas are endless!
Black Light Halloween Candy Hunt
If you're not a fan of allowing your kids to go out trick-or-treating, they can enjoy a candy hunt indoors! Purchase small black lights or let them use their phones to find the white paper ghosts and candy attached.
Eyeball Surprise
This Halloween game doubles as a cool science experiment! Start by freezing glow-in-the-dark bouncy eyeballs in baking soda and water. Once frozen, let the kids spoon vinegar on top to reveal the eye-catching surprise.
Skeleton Puzzle
For this DIY game, it's all about who can create a skeleton the fastest. Make the bones out of foam and hot glue magnets to each one. Coat a board in magnetic paint so the bones will stick.
Glow-in-the-Dark Ring Toss
Reuse empty glass or plastic soda bottles to create a glow-in-the-dark ring toss game. Imagine all the fine everyone will have struggling to toss glow stick bracelets around the bottlenecks. You'll need glow-in-the-dark duct tape for the bottles' designs.
Mariah Thomas (she/her) is an assistant editor for Good Housekeeping, where she covers home and lifestyle content. Mariah has more than four years of editorial experience, having written for TLC, Apartment Therapy, Women's Health and Avocado Magazine. She received her master's degree in journalism at the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism and published her first book, Heart and Soul: Poems of Thoughts and Emotions, in 2019. She's also the founder of RTF Community, a platform for creatives of color to connect, learn and showcase their work.
Marisa (she/her) has covered all things parenting, from the postpartum period through the empty nest, for Good Housekeeping since 2018; she previously wrote about parents and families at Parents and Working Mother. She lives with her husband and daughter in Brooklyn, where she can be found dominating the audio round at her local bar trivia night or tweeting about movies.
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