When costumes fill up the holiday isles of Walmart stores once again, it means Halloween is right around the corner. From pumpkin spice lattes and falling leaves to ghouls and goblins, the end of the year holiday season is here at last. If it is your turn to throw this year’s Halloween bash, do not let your budget keep you from a fun time with family and friends. There is plenty of fun and inexpensive ideas to throw a killer Halloween party on a budget.
Bryn Carden, former Miss Kemah Teen USA, is currently earning her undergraduate degree at Texas Christian University (TCU). As a college student and an entrepreneur, Bryn enjoys gathering her friends and family for occasional fun parties. In this article, she offers a few tips on throwing a spooky and excellent Halloween party on a budget.
Idea #1. Halloween Themed Contest
Contests are an inexpensive and fun way to get everyone in the Halloween spirit. A party can have a costume contest or pumpkin carving contest. Guests can bring their own pumpkins to use in the carving contest. Hosts who want to level up the contest competition can offer a prize to the best-dressed creature of the night or the coolest pumpkin carving. Prizes can be anything such as these budget-friendly ideas: a homemade trophy, crown, a coupon, a bag of candy, or a quirky gift basket made up of Dollar Tree items.
Idea #2. Popcorn Snacks
Popcorn is cheap and a great key ingredient for some Halloween-themed snacks. A festive food choice that the whole family will love is Popcorn Hands. Only four things are needed: candy corn, popcorn, twist ties, and plastic food-safe gloves. Put candy corn at the bottom of each finger in the glove, and then fill the remaining space of the entire glove with popcorn. Tie off the glove’s opening, and then use it for decorations, snacks, or party favors. Popcorn Balls are another sweet treat to offer at a Halloween party.
Idea #3. Recycled Halloween Lights
For Keurig enthusiasts who use a lot of K-Cups, this Halloween party decoration is perfect to avoid spending more at the store. Use a strand of Christmas lights from the attic, and collect enough K-Cups to match the number of lights on your strand. Once you have cleaned out enough K-Cups until each is only its plastic bottom, draw Halloween faces on each cup using a Sharpie or order small jack o’ lantern face stickers to stick on the cups. The open side of the K-Cup should be facing down when adding faces. Then cut a small slit on the enclosed side of each cup, and push the lights through the slit. Every light should sit inside a K-Cup so that the K-Cups hang down when hanging the lights.
Idea #4. Spider Decorations
Every Halloween party needs a few spiders. Decorate a house or room with spider webs cut out of trash bags. The creation process is similar to when making snowflake decorations from coffee filters. Another simple spider decoration would be hanging spider balloons. Cut out spider shapes from black paper and tie them to the end of a helium balloon’s string.
Idea #5. Pumpkin Bean Bag Toss
Games and parties go hand in hand. Purchase one large pumpkin and one medium pumpkin to create a fun and easy pumpkin bean bag toss. Clean out the inside of both pumpkins before carving out their faces. The mouth of each pumpkin should be a large circle, big enough for a bean bag to fit through when thrown. Then cut off the stem of the larger pumpkin and stack the medium-sized pumpkin on top, securing it with skewers.
About Bryn Carden
Bryn Carden is a young entrepreneur and philanthropist with a passion for real estate and design. She is currently studying at Neeley School of Business, pursuing a major in Finance with a Real Estate Concentration. Besides working towards her degree, she has already begun her entrepreneurial journey as a co-founder of BF Hats and a creator of Styles for Smiles – a company selling bracelets to help fund cleft palate operations for children in developing countries.
Laila Azzahra is a professional writer and blogger that loves to write about technology, business, entertainment, science, and health.