*Pumpkin* Spice-Up Your Halloweekend with These Spectacularly Spooky Party Ideas

PUMPKIN SPICE-UP YOUR
HALLOWEEKEND WITH THESE
SPECTACULARLY SPOOKY PARTY IDEAS

written by Olivia Wettengel

September 23, 2024

Halloweekend in college is arguably one of the most eventful weekends of the year. While you’ll have your fair share of parties to attend and probably already have a different costume planned for each night, you’ll likely also want a more low-key celebration with your closer friends. Plan a fun night with your besties for a break from all the bigger ghostly gatherings. These Halloween ideas will ensure you make the most of your haunted weekend. 🎃

Halloween Potluck

Treats (and even tricks) will do at this petrifying potluck. Invite each attendee to bring their favorite Halloween dish – chili, pumpkin bread, apple cider – you name it! Your get-together will be loaded with snacks, beverages, and desserts perfect for the spooky season. And who doesn’t love food? Make it the focus of your festivities for a fun and freaky night.

Murder Mystery Night

What’s creepier than a classic murder mystery? Host a murder mystery night at your place to get your spooky on. Dress up as your assigned characters to really harness the Halloween spirit.

Linked below are various murder mystery packs to buy for your special night:

Pumpkin Carving Contest

Pick your partner and prod your pumpkin til it embodies the perfect phantasmic picture. Halloween wouldn’t be the same without a night of pumpkin carving! Take it a step further and hold a contest with prizes like fastest carvers, most artistic, and ghastliest gourd. Get ideas from our pumpkin Pinterest board.

Ping Pong Tournament

Ping pong is an easy target for Halloween-ifying. Change the ping pong balls to eyeballs, the paddles to witch’s brooms, and blow some eerie fog around the table. Make it a tournament while players compete in costumes to make a spooky-sporty evening.

Rate Trader Joe’s Pumpkin Products

We all know when it comes to fall treats, Trader Joe’s takes the cake (or should we say…pumpkin cake?). For this Halloween activity, each attendee picks their favorite fall food item from TJ’s and brings it to the get-together.

Not only does this make for a spooky soiree, but it provides a fun activity. After trying each item, partygoers vote on their top three favorites. The person who brought the winning item gets a prize – a TJ’s gift card, perhaps?

Just for fun, we’ve listed some of our fav TJ’s treats below:

Play Fugitive in Costumes

Ever heard of the game fugitive? We’ve got one better. Wear your Halloween costumes while playing!

Fugitive is a game with two teams – the fugitives and the cops. The fugitives’ objective is to get from point A to a designated point B (somewhere in the neighborhood or city) without being caught by the cops. As the fugitives run and hide throughout the town, the cops drive around searching for the “criminals”. If the fugitives arrive at their destination before the cops catch them, they win! But if the cops find them first, you guessed it – fugitives lose. For a more detailed explanation of the game, view here.

As one might imagine, wearing costumes elevates the thrill of this game. It’s not as easy to hide when you look like a clown. 🤡

Spooky Movie Marathon

Hocus Pocus, A Quiet Place, Ghostbusters — the list is endless! Some of the most beloved movies were released during Halloween. Grab your potions, cauldrons, and broomsticks, and cozy up for a spooky night in watching your favorite films. Choose a fun-loving spooky vibe, or dare to watch a few horror films. Beware of the gravity of your decision – horror movies are not for the faint of heart.

Here’s a complete list of all the best Halloween movies (spooky and legitimately scary) to choose from for your Halloween all-nighter:

SPOOKY

Hocus Pocus
The Nightmare Before Christmas
Halloweentown
Beetlejuice
Corpse Bride
Goosebumps
Ghostbusters
It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown
Casper
Haunted Mansion
The House with a Clock in Its Walls
Coraline
Hotel Transylvania
The Witches
Twitches
Frankenweenie

HORROR

A Quiet Place
It
Five Nights at Freddy’s
Edward Scissorhands
Poltergeist
The Sixth Sense
What Lies Beneath
Bird Box
The Meg
Scream
Escape Room
Get Out
Friday the 13th
Frankenstein
The Wolf Man
Dracula
Psycho
Nerve
Us
Happy Death Day
A Haunting in Venice

Bake-Off Competition

Cupcake Wars, but make it 🕸️spooky🕸️. For this freaky festivity, everyone finds a partner and a recipe for their favorite fall treat. Working against a time limit (typically about an hour) teams bake their treat as best as they can – witches can even use magic if they dare. 😈Three designated judges then pick a winner as partygoers partake in the pumpkiny goodness of each team’s baked goods.

Three designated judges then pick a winner as partygoers partake in the pumpkiny goodness of each team’s baked goods.

P.S. — Might we suggest using a bit of this or this to boost your chances of winning? 😉

Get your spooky girl season on with these out-of-the-cauldron ideas for a spectacularly spooky soiree this Halloween! Keep the classic parties alive while also adding some *pumpkin* spice to your weekend as you incorporate your favorite activities from this list. 👻

Olivia Wettengel

Olivia is a current Journalism major at Brigham Young University. She has contributed to her school's various publications since high school, and currently works as a Marketing Intern at Book & Ladder, Inc. With a first-hand view of college life, Olivia brings experience and passion to the content she creates for The Open Book.