If you think party games are just for kids, think again! While it’s true that adults don’t need to be constantly entertained like kids do, games can still play a big part in grownup get-togethers. They’re great for breaking the ice and getting the conversation – and the fun – flowing.
For this game, you’ll need two containers (plastic trick-or-treat pumpkins are good), a couple of canisters of modeling clay or Play-Doh, several large sheets of paper and a black marker, and depending on your number of guests, forty to eighty small slips of paper. On half the slips of paper, write the names of Halloween-related (or just plain scary) characters or stories: Frankenstein, Alfred Hitchcock, The Addams Family, the Headless Horseman, Hannibal Lecter, Psycho. On the remaining paper slips, write “Mold with clay,” “Hum the theme song,” “Act it out,” or “Draw” (you can even take it one step further and label some of the papers “Draw while blindfolded”). Put the character/story papers in one container, and the instruction papers in the other. Have your guests come forward one at a time and draw a slip of paper from both buckets, then do what’s instructed on their papers: draw the Addams Family, for example. The other guests will have to guess what the person is doing. They can use sound effects if they’re acting something out, but no words. The results are hilarious – and you may discover talents that you didn’t know your friends had!
Make-a-mummy! Divide people into pairs or threes, and give each team several rolls of toilet paper. One person does the wrapping, making his or her teammate into a mummy. See which team can wrap the fastest. Second prize goes to the best-looking mummy!
Pass the pumpkin. Get several miniature pumpkins (apples will also work). Organize your guests into lines of six to eight people, and have the starting person tuck a pumpkin under their chin. Then each person passes the pumpkin to the next person in line with only their chins – no hands allowed. The teams start at the same time, and the first team to pass the pumpkin down the line and back to the starting person again wins.
Remember the classic game of “telephone?” Well, this is it, but with a Halloween twist. Have your guests sit in a circle. One person begins by leaning over and quickly whispering a Halloween-related phrase to the person on their right. Then that person whispers it to the next person, who whispers it to the next, and so on and so on, until the message reaches the last person in line (the person sitting to the left of the one who started the game). There’s no repeating allowed; if you’re not sure you heard correctly, improvise as best you can. When the message reaches the last person, he or she must say what they heard out loud. This game is funny because the message is rarely the same once it gets around the circle. Try making up a Halloween tongue twister; one example I found was, “The ghastly, greedy, green ghost got on the gray grave and groaned greatly.”
If not everyone at your party knows each other, play a getting-acquainted game. Put out two baskets: in one, have small pieces of paper with words like “Witch” or “Werewolf.” In the other basket, have complementary words or phrases such as “Broomstick” and “Howl.” Have half the guests pick from one basket, and the other half pick from the other basket. Then each person goes off to find the “mate” to their piece of paper.