Outdoor Halloween Games
- For the pirate-lovers on the guest list, host an outdoor Treasure Hunt. Buy a few bundles of hay and scatter it in a large pile. Next, hide several fake gold pirate coins in the hay. Try to scatter a hundred or more coins. Have the participants form two teams and stand in two lines. Using a stopwatch to time, start the watch and allow one member from Team A to enter the hay pile. Give this person 30 seconds to search for coins in the hay. When the 30 seconds has passed, blow a whistle and have the next member of the team enter the hay and search for coins. Do this until the entire team has searched for coins. When all of Team A has searched for coins, count the coins found and write the number down. Throw the coins back in the hay and toss the hay with a shovel or pitchfork to ensure the coins are mixed as well as they were the during the first round. Now let Team B search the hay for the coins. Count the number of coins Team B found. The team with the most coins found wins the game.
- A game for kids who like to make a mess is pumpkin bowling. Buy several small or medium pumpkins. Set up bowling pins on concrete. A driveway is a good place for this. The bowling pins can be real bowling pins, but plastic bowling pins may be easier to obtain. Allow each child to choose her "bowling ball" and ask the group to form a line down the alley from the pins. Let each child roll a bowling ball down the alley to knock over the pins. Record each score. The child who knocks down the most pins at the end of the game is the winner. To clean up, pick up the pieces of pumpkin that may have broken. Have a hose ready to clean the driveway after pumpkin pieces have been picked up.
- Another exciting game to play at night is Glow Ring Toss. Buy several glow-in-the-dark necklaces to use as rings. Set up a sturdy item that rings can fit loosely around. A full 2-liter bottle of soda works well. When the guests are ready to play the game, activate each glow-in-the-dark ring. It is important to wait to activate the rings because they will glow the brightest just after being activated. If you activate the rings too early, some of the glow power could be lost. Have each person wait in a line for his turn to toss the rings. Each person can toss three rings. Count the number of rings that successfully land around the soda bottle. Have the top players of that round have a shoot-out until there is one winner remaining.
Take part in the Halloween season by hosting outdoor Halloween games. Make sure to keep safety in mind when you are outside, including keeping a count of the party members and keeping hazardous items out of the way.
