Have A Fall Harvest Party or Halloween Party!

There are so very many creative things to do for this time of year. Halloween possibilities are endless with the many costume ideas alone, add in the many decorating themes, games and party themes, and you couldn't do them all! Here are just some ideas to help get your creative juices flowing to come up with a unique party idea for those in your care.

This can be a lot of fun for everyone. Decide if you want to do costumes, have a dance or a party with a particular theme like 'haunted house' or 'Murder Mystery' or a harvest themed party with a field trip to a corn maze or a pumpkin patch. See some of the other ideas listed below for more ideas.

Printable Halloween Activities

Now you can have all of the Printable Halloween Activities and Printable Halloween Games that you need, at your fingertips.

These products are made for children but can be easily adapted for seniors.

Get your Printable Halloween Activities here!

Harvest Party Themes

Party theme ideas for both the Harvest or Halloween, whichever suits you!

Night Garden Party - with lanterns or strung outdoor lights, if its warm enough outside.

Scavenger Hunt – This would be great to invite families to join in. The kids can help the seniors find the treasures or look for clues.

Pick-a-Pumpkin, Carving Party – Visit a pumpkin patch and let everyone pick out a pumpkin of choice. This is a great field trip to get out and enjoy the crisp fall air. Come on back and everyone paint or carve their own pumpkin.

Corn Maze party - Get the group together and go visit a local corn maze. You could even have prizes for the person who gets through the maze the quickest or who wears the best costume. When you all return have a bon fire to roast hotdogs and make s’mores!

Carnival party - Put together several Harvest games and activities and turn it into a carnival for a large number of people. You can include apple bobbing, fishing for prizes, races, and other fun themed games.

Halloween Party Themes

Scary Movie Marathon - Choose several favourite scary movies to share. Prepare the viewing room for atmosphere and comfortable viewing.

Murder Mystery - Boxed games are available for parties of eight to ten adults. Each person comes in character and you spend the evening detecting "who done it".

Paranormal Party - Set up experiments for your guests to test their paranormal abilities and E. S. P. (all in fun).

Monster Bash / Costume Party – Costumes are great to get everyone a little creative and to move the decorating from the walls to the people themselves!

Bonfire and Ghost Stories – Tell ghost stories, read ghost stories or listen to old radio shows like the ‘The Twilight Zone’ or ‘Alfred Hitchcock Presents’.

Haunted House - Get everyone involved in spookifying the nursing home for guests and playing the roles of vampires, headless murderers, and ghosts.

Halloween themed food party - Make all of the food in orange and black colors and dressed up with the themes of pumpkins, ghosts, and witches. There are many recipes for this.

Halloween Craft party - Find ideas for 3-5 crafts related to the season and invite the seniors to make them together as a group.

Easy Pumpkin Painting

You can get your guide to Easy Pumpkin Painting, with instructions, patterns and photos!

1. Step-By-Step Photos Of Easy But Stunningly Adorable Designs

2. Over 18 Pumpkin Faces And Designs That Are Literally Paint-By-Number Simple And Each Can Be Completed In Just About An Hour

3. Create Hundreds Of Different Looks And Personalities By Mixing And Matching The Eyes, Noses And Mouths From The Various Designs

4. You'll Learn The Very Basic Supplies You'll Need To Get Started Quickly So You Don't Spend Money On Unnecessary Tools

Bizaare Halloween Pumpkins! - Be Inspired!

Some Easy Harvest or Halloween Recipe Ideas

Baked Apples

Just core an apple and toss in some butter, sugar and cinnamon. Put into a low oven as you begin dinner. By the time your dinner is done, serve the baked apple with vanilla ice cream for a warm and fragrant dessert.


Creepy Eyeballs Recipe

Deviled Eggs with black olive in the center.


Monster Mash Recipe

What you need:

1 scoop vanilla ice cream (Boo Goo)
1 tbsp. Chocolate Syrup (Swamp Mud)
1 tbsp. miniature chocolate chips (beetle bugs)
10 miniature marshmallows (Monstor toes)

Directions:

Above ingredients serves 1
Place ingredients in paper cup. Mash them with spoon. Top with slug slime (green food-colored cool whip).


Yummy Brains Recipe

Take one package blueberry Jell-O mix and prepare according to directions. Pour a 16 ounce container of cottage cheese into a bowl. Take a can of blueberries in syrup and drain off the syrup. Add the blueberries to the cottage cheese and mix well. Add blue food coloring sparingly to turn the cottage cheese/blueberry mixture to a gray color when mixed together. To serve, place a scoop of Jell-O on a plate, pour the blueberry syrup over the Jell-O and top with cottage cheese mixture. MMMM – Yummy Brains!


Monster Toes or Bloody Fingers

You’ll first need cocktail wieners. Cut a wedge into the end of each to make a place for the toe/finger nail. Cut flour tortillas into 4 inch long by ¾ inch wide strips. Roll each wiener into a tortilla strip, secure with a toothpick, and place on a cookie sheet. Bake in a 350 degree oven for about 7 minutes. After removing from oven, fill the toe/finger nail portion with ketchup and serve.

Halloween Party Games

Pumpkin Ring Toss Game!

Set up three large pumpkins with stems, to form a ring toss. Use embroidery hoops or make hoops with rope and duct tape. Mark a throwing line on the floor and take turns trying to ring a pumpkin stem. Or you can have them try to ring an entire large pumpkin with a hula hoop.

What happened to Tragic Sam?

** This is great for seniors that like tactile stimulation and also for those with poor vision. **

Dim the lights and have the seniors close their eyes before beginning your story. Ask the seniors to throw out possible ideas of what may have happened to poor Sam.The goal is for the seniors to create a story about Tragic Sam who apparently died in an accident and the Crime Scene Investigators need your help to identify the remains found at the scene. The CSI team has placed the remains they believe are Sam’s into a container and they need help identifying them.

“Rumours on the street say that Tragic Sam faked his own death, but we are not so sure, so we are going to have you investigate the remains so we can solve this mystery.”

Have the seniors come up to put their hand in a bowl or bag, or make this a container that can be easily passed around. Once they have felt inside for a couple minutes, they need to go write down what they think it was they felt. They must not PEEK in the container!

Was it …

Sam’s brain? – (cooked spaghetti or cooked cauliflower)
His heart? (peeled tomato)
His eyes? (peeled grapes)
His teeth? (un-popped popcorn)
His fingers? (baby carrots)
His liver? (slice Spam in a weird shape)

All of this can be put in watery oatmeal which makes some of the identification a little more difficult, but it’s slimy and fun!

When you are done you can have your guests turn in their answers and score who did the best. The one with the most right wins. The story could first be described with as much gore as you feel you want or is suitable.

Halloween Party Crafts

Make Gooey Green Slime (not edible)

You will need:


Directions:

Solution A: Mix 1 1/2 cups of warm water, 2 cups of Elmer’s Glue and some green food coloring in one bowl. Dissolve well.

Solution B: Mix 4 tsp. Borax and 1 1/3 cups of warm water in a separate bowl. Dissolve well.

Then pour solution A into solution B. DO NOT MIX OR STIR! Just lift out the ‘flubber’.

If you use glass bowls the seniors can see the chemical reactions take place. These can be stored in Ziploc baggies.


Spider Hats

What you need:
Directions:

Cut the construction paper into strips. Staple strips together to fit around the senior's head. This is the body. Fold eight strips, accordion fashion, and have child glue onto the body as the legs. Glue the wiggly eyes to the front and you have a spider hat! These are fun to wear for a halloween party.

Pumpkin Etching Designs

These following pumpkin etching ideas may not be suitable for all seniors, but they can make some very nice decorations for a party or just for the season.



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