We all loved a good Halloween party as children – but now that you’re an adult, it’s time to step things up a notch. Enjoy a classic spooky night with all of your friends that celebrates the most frightening time of the year, with our chilling adult Halloween party ideas.
We’ve covered everything from themes and decorations to food and drink, with plenty of ideas to make sure it’s an evening filled with thrills, chills, and hopefully not too many drink spills.
Planning the best Halloween party for grown ups
Here at thortful, we know all about throwing a celebration that people will remember – and it all comes down to planning!
Let’s be honest, once you’re an adult that means you’re in charge and have to start thinking ahead. If you’re the haunted host, don’t worry, it doesn’t take much and we’ve actually summed up our three top tips for planning the best Halloween party for grown ups below:
Send invitations
Don’t forget that your guests will need to be summoned to the right place at the right time, especially since they may need to sort out someone to take care of the kids or might end up being invited to more than one Halloween party that night. So, it’s important to share important details about the ghostly gathering as soon as possible!
Our range of Halloween cards can also double as invitations to your spooky celebration. Just take a look at some of our favourites:
Or, if you want to use them for their original purpose of celebrating the spookiest day of the year, be sure to check out our guides on what to write in a Halloween card and Halloween quotes for message inspiration.
Don’t buy everything Halloween-related that you see
It can be tempting to go crazy and buy everything you see in the Halloween aisles at shops, but do you really need all of it? Where are you going to put it all afterwards?
Well, sticking to a theme, and a budget, can help avoid this and make sure you’re not just going to pick things up in the moment that you don’t need. If you’re not sure what sort of vibe you’re going for yet, keep on reading for some Halloween party themes for adults.
We’ve got a blog on Halloween party ideas on a budget that might come in extra handy if you’re struggling to keep costs down..
Remember to create a fitting Halloween playlist
No party is complete without the right music, especially a Halloween party where a playlist will truly bring it all together! Whether it’s “Thriller” by Michael Jackson or the entire Nightmare Before Christmas soundtrack, there’s all sorts of great songs you can boogie the night away to.
Halloween party themes for adults
Forget the usual grab-bag of last year’s Halloween costumes you might see assembled at a standard Halloween party ideas – make sure your party is remembered for years to come with an appropriate theme. We have some great Halloween party themes for adults which will help get you all into the spirit, and thinking about how to look their spooky best.
Mysterious and mystical
Dim the lights, throw scarves over the lamps, light some incense – Halloween party ideas for adults don’t have to have blood and gore to be appropriate for grown-ups. Throw a mysterious, mystical themed party – invite your guests to come in their celestial best, embellished with moons and stars, or as fortune tellers or as spooky versions of the astrological signs. Take it in turn to do Tarot card readings or read each other’s tea leaves.
Classic Hollywood horror
Add a little bit of old Hollywood glamour to your Halloween party – theme your gathering around classic cinema, with a horror twist. There are tons of fun ideas – dress as the classic Universal monsters, like Frankenstein’s Monster and his Bride to Dracula and the Wolfman. Or try a ghoulish twist on the Hollywood theme, with a zombie Elvis or Marilyn Monroe look! And here’s an idea for the makeup masters – paint your face completely in monochrome shades of black and white to mimic an old television show or movie.
Spooky speakeasy
Give your party a stylish-but-spooky look and borrow from the doomed Lost Generation, with a spooky 1920s theme. Ask your friends to attend dressed in their 1920s finery, but with a spooky twist. Whether they want to come as a ghostly Gatsby or as a zombie flapper, it’s a guaranteed way to host a party that’s glamorous but still a little ghoulish. Serve cocktails in vintage glassware (head to a charity shop to pick up some vintage tableware to keep it budget-friendly) and make sure you’ve got plenty of ‘bathtub gin’ – though maybe you’d be best off packing your tub with ice and bottles of your favourite gin and tonic rather than attempting your own moonshine.
Scarily good adult Halloween party games
Don’t worry, we’re not going to suggest apple-bobbing. If you’re throwing a grown up Halloween party, you’ll need some more adult suggestions for games to play in the evening – and yes, there may be alcohol involved. Drink responsibly, kids. Here are some inventive ideas for fun Halloween party games for adults that are a little more fun than pass the parcel.
Solve a murder mystery
Ask your friends to play detective for a night in a good old fashioned murder mystery. Concoct a scary story in which all of your guests will be assigned characters to play, to solve the gruesome, Halloween-appropriate murder of one of their party. Bonus points for anyone who really commits with a fun character voice. Oh and we’ve got all the tips you need to know on pulling this off yourself in our blog on how to host a murder mystery party!
Horror movie trivia
Do you know how many films are in the Nightmare on Elm Street series, and can you remember the name of Janet Leigh’s character in Psycho? Assemble some fun trivia about popular horror films, and let your guests compete to win. It’s up to you how difficult the questions will be – or the penalty for any truly dreadful answers.
Trick or treat shots
Arrange a line of shots – three with a ‘treat’ of your favourite liquor, and three ‘tricks’ of a suitably unpleasant nature. We’d suggest something that will give people a shock – like vinegar, pickle juice, or lime juice. Ask a Halloween trivia question – and if people get it right, they can inspect and pick their shot. If they get it wrong, roll a dice and take whichever shot corresponds to the number! For added fun, mix a drop of food colouring in with each shot, so people really won’t know which ones to pick.
Spooky scavenger hunt
Organise your friends into teams, and set them searching on a scavenger hunt. Hide some secret mini pumpkins around the house for them to find, or set photo tasks to take a selfie with a zombie or snap a photo of a lit jack o’lantern on the street!
Battle of the balloons
This one is daft, but is guaranteed to get people giggling. Buy some Halloween balloons, and arrange guests into teams on opposite sides of the room. Tie a balloon to each person’s ankle – then yell ‘go’ and set each team wobbling toward each other, trying to pop the opposing team’s balloons without using hands. The last team with a balloon standing is the winner.
Devilishly delicious party food
Impress your guests with some bewitchingly delicious recipes for Halloween party food for adults, for every kind of party. From easy party snack food to drinks to die for, make your adults-only party a success with some of our favourite Halloween food ideas.
Graveyard dip
Cut tortillas into gravestone shapes and bake in the oven to create crunchy snacks, and arrange them in a tasty enchilada dip for a snack that looks effective and tastes awesome. Not sure what we mean? Delish have a great recipe on exactly this.
Mummies in blankets
Pigs in blankets with a twist. Wrap halved hot dogs or snack sausages in strips of pastry to resemble the bandages of a spooky mummy. Make sure you add two dots of mayo for eyes, and serve with a spicy tomato sauce for dipping.
Witch’s fingers
A Halloween party classic – top cheese straws with halved almonds to create an effective, eerie display of witch’s fingers. To really commit to the theme, paint the almonds with a black food colouring gel, and serve the ‘fingers’ fanned around a plastic cauldron filled with guacamole to look like a spooky potion.
Spiced pumpkin soup
For a sit-down Halloween dinner party, serve a delicious spiced pumpkin soup – and for extra Halloween flair, carefully drizzle double cream into concentric rings then use a skewer to draw lines from the inside out to create a spiderweb effect.
Halloween drink ideas
From an eerie green Grasshopper to a classic Bloody Mary, there are plenty of cocktails you can concoct, and lots of Halloween drink ideas for adults that will get the evening going with a swing. Create your own cocktail, serve red-coloured cranberry Cosmopolitans in thematically spooky syringes, or mix your own Halloween punch. Just don’t forget the fake eyeballs to float in it.
Throw an adult Halloween party your friends won’t forget – just get your pumpkin-carving knife ready and make sure you’ve followed this guide for a grown up Halloween party night that’s safe, spooky, and sensational! We’ve got even more inspiration on everybody’s favourite creepy celebration on the thortful blog including spooky adult Halloween costume ideas and family costume ideas too!
