As Halloween gift shops seem to stock up earlier every year, you can bag bargains before the Halloween rush, which is something I try to do. Inexpensive Halloween presents will still make a Halloween party special, as kids often find fun value from the simplest of things. Here are some fun gift ideas for spooky parties.Spooky Gift Ideas for Halloween
Grinning skulls, detachable skeletons, glow in the dark horror masks and stretchy rubber eyeballs harbouring pools of blood are certain to inspire ghoulish fun, especially with boys. Girls might like Halloween make up, Halloween character bags or a gravestone savings box, where a skeletal hand drags the coin into the slot. All this and more can be found in Poundshops, corner shops and supermarkets. But I like to keep it simple when it comes to buying gifts for Halloween. As my Halloween parties often involve in excess of ten children, I endeavour to get bumper gift sets or Halloween party bags.
Halloween Treat Bags
Always a winner with kids, Halloween party bags are consistently colourful, sweet and cheap. I vet them, as some are more challenging on kids’ teeth than others. I prefer those that don’t have artificial colourings or flavourings, and at least have a gift inside. If it has fun value or does something, all the better. Some trick or treat bags are filled exclusively with candy, which I avoid. Chocolate treats are perhaps preferable to boiled or chewy sweets, as at least they are not sticky. Always check the sell by date.
Homemade Halloween Gifts
You can opt to make homemade Halloween presents, which need not take long to prepare and are fun for kids. A bag of ping-pong balls can easily be made to look like eyeballs if illustrated with an iris, pupil a few veins with felt tip pens, and red wool stuck to the back to suggest optic nerves.
Homemade scary puppets can be made with old socks illustrated with felt tip pens and white paint. Green socks can be used for a witch’s face, white for a clown or yellow for a zombie. Stretch the sock over a large spoon before illustrating. Use white paint for the eyes, which can easily look scary if framed with heavy brows. Outline each facial feature with dark felt tip, such as the fangs of Dracula or a witch’s wart to make them stand out. Hair can be suggested with coloured wool which can be threaded through the stitching of the sock. Tie a small knot at one end before threading and trim to shape once all the wool required has been threaded through.
Affordable Halloween Presents for Kids
Hosting a Halloween party does not have to entail trudging around shops looking for Halloween gift ideas for kids, for Halloween seems to come earlier every year (a bit like Christmas). If I see something in September, I will save it for Halloween to avoid the rush. There are lots of gory gift ideas to make Halloween memorable for kids, including dismembered hands, glowing pumpkins and inflatable ghosts to provide entertainment for kids. Homemade Halloween presents add something personal to a party, but from a grumpy gift buyer’s point of view, I like to have a big payoff on the fun value in relation to the cost and the time to make.
My Halloween Gift Shop
Photo credi Juushika Redgrave
