The Best Youth Group Halloween Party Ideas

Go all out, this is not your average harvest party.

Share this article with your leaders - pick and choose together what works for you!

No matter what you call it (harvest party, fall festival, Halloween party, fright night, or anything else on the spectrum) Halloween is an awesome opportunity to throw a party and give your students something worth inviting their friends to. Here’s the deal… we know what happens when you plan a party - you open 50 tabs on your browser and try to compile the best list ever and it takes you hours AND on top of that you have to do some shopping - well, we’ve tried our best to bring all of that goodness right here in one place. You can help us do that even better by dropping a comment with your best ideas at the bottom of this article. Thanks!

There’s four ingredients to every great party… Here’s how to nail them.

1. Atmosphere:
Decorations

I say, work with what you’ve got. Ask your leaders and church members for their extra halloween decor. I’m also not beneath making a last minute Walmart run and thinking creatively as I go through the aisles. If you’ve got a budget and some time to think about it I’d encourage you to choose some theme colors and stick to it. We live in the age of Instagram and Snapchat and our students appreciate a visual feast. Events are better if you can provide a space that students love to take pictures in and spend time in plus – it’s free advertising for your youth group every time they tag the location.

Pro Tips:

If you can afford it, choose a color scheme and stick to it.

Keep things fun and high energy (avoid anything overly grotesque or horrific that might get you in trouble with parents or glorify death and suffering)

Don’t forget lighting – whether you buy string lights or work with your existing fixtures… a bright room doesn’t scream “Halloween” so be sure to think through your current lighting options.

Here are some of my favorite room decoration ideas. Not all of them are strictly for Halloween which means you can get more value out of them after your Halloween party is over.

Music:

Every youth group has different standards when it comes to music so feel free to check out these songs but do what works for you. Here’s 30 songs to get you started!

The Unicorns – Tuff Ghost

Crystal Stilts – Graveyard Orbit

Harlem – Friendly Ghost

Tom Waits – Satisfied

The Specials – Ghost Town

Misfits - Night Of The Living Dead

Thee Oh Sees - Ghost In The Trees

The Ventures:Out Of Limits

Michael Jackson – Thriler

Ghostbusters Theme song

Scooby Doo Theme Song

The Addams family theme song

Oogie Boogie’s Song

Boby Boris Pickett & the crypt kickers - Monster Mash

Kyle Dixon & Michael Stein – Stranger Things

Rockwell - Somebody’s Watching Me

Twilight Zone Theme Song

The Citizens of Halloween – This is Halloween

Talking Heads – Psycho Killer

Rhianna – Disturbia

Andy Mineo – Ghost

Bow Wow Wow – I want Candy

M83 – Midnight City

Outkast – Dracula’s Wedding

Duran Duran – Hungry like the wolf

Creedance Clearwater Revival - I Put a Spell on You

Disney Studio Chorus - Heffalumps and Woozles

Bill Lee - Cruela De Vil

Nan Vernon - Mr. Sandman

The Aquabats - Fashion Zombies

You can check out our spotify playlist here. We made it special for you!

Random Activities

Get kids off their phone and leave awkward downtime to a minimum by providing some random self-starting activities scattered throughout the youth room. Consider having a deck of cards out and whatever other cool or unique or interesting items that you have. Someone gave me a set of magnetic Buckeyballs for Christmas several years ago and they make an appearance at many events. Set up your Connect 4 or your Jenga and whatever else you can contribute. Here are some other ideas. Some of these ideas get pricey though so only buy them if you were wanting it for other reasons.