Ah, Halloween. The popular and enthusiastically celebrated holiday that provides us with the perfect excuse to dress up as whomever or whatever we please. Is it really only a week away?
If you love Halloween and don’t already have any big plans, why not plan a little shin-dig of your own? That way, you won’t need to worry about whether you’ll end up spending the day as any other. Besides, excellent Halloween parties aren’t that difficult to plan. After all, a great deal of the fun is seeing what people dress up as and admiring their costumes.
Even if you have a busy week planned, you can pull off a killer Halloween party in your apartment if you play your cards right. Here’s how.
E-Vite Your Friends
Handmade, personalized invitations are nice, but Halloween is coming up soon…really soon! If you want your friends to be able to make it to your party, let them know as soon as possible! Save time, energy, and money by sending invitations via email, with a site like Evite, or a social network. Select a time and place, decide if you want guests to bring food, drinks, or games so you can include those details, and get those invitations out before you start to worry about other details.
Keep Decor Simple
Spooky decor is essential for any Halloween party, but you don’t need to spend hours upon hours handcrafting decorations and getting your place ready for the event if you don’t have the time. Purchase an easy-to-assemble kit of Halloween party decorations that can help you transform your apartment in less than an hour. Or, pick up just a few craft supplies that can make your place look like a den where superheroes, ghosts, mythic creatures, and our favorite celebrities might mingle. Cheesecloth cobwebs and a few carved (or painted!) pumpkins can go a long way. Further add to the spirit with orange-and-black cups, plates, cutlery, and napkins.
Use an Existing Playlist
What is a Halloween party without “Monster Mash,” “Ghostbusters,” and “Thriller?” While Halloween appropriate tunes are a must-have at any boo bash, they are also easy to come by. If you have an existing playlist from a previous Halloween party or event, consider using it again. If you subscribe to Spotify or another music-streaming service, you probably have access to dozens of public playlists that would be perfect soundtrack for your party. Just browse and select, or pick and choose from various playlists to create your own. Depending on the mood you want to create, you might want to incorporate some upbeat popular jams that don’t have anything to do with monsters and ghosts into the mix.
Plan a Costume Contest
Traditional Halloween party games and activities, such as apple bobbing and costume contests, should provide enough entertainment to ensure your guests have a good time. Since instructions for planning, participating in, and hosting these events can be found all over the web, you shouldn’t have to put much time or energy into the events on your agenda. Remember, guests will be catching up over snacks and drinks, exchanging compliments on costumes, and perhaps even engaging in brief bouts of role play if any of them are really into the personas of the people or animals they dressed up as.
Make it a Potluck
It’s hard to be festive when there’s no food around. But providing a premium spread of treats will cost you a lot of time, a lot of money, or both. If you’re putting your party together at the last minute, encourage friends to bring dishes by indicating it’s a potluck event on your invitation. This gives friends an opportunity to get creative in the kitchen as well as with their costume. It should also ensure nobody goes hungry. A good host will, of course, provide a dish or two and some drinks as well.
Now that you know how easy it can be to plan a Halloween party at the last minute, make a to-do list and send out those e-vites to get your plan into action. Be mindful of any community rules or regulations your apartment has, and be sure to allot some time and energy for shopping or designing your own costume. A good host always dresses to impress. Live Life + Love Life this Halloween!
Do you have any last-minute Halloween party planning advice? Share it by leaving a comment below!
Like what you just read? Why not subscribe to the AMLI Blog so you don’t miss another post?
View All Posts by Jason Ernst