How to Host an Easy Halloween Party

Since Halloween is right around the corner, I wanted to share our formula for how to host an easy Halloween party. This event will be our 7th annual. This event is different from our monthly Saturday Suppers. For those, we invite people from our neighborhood, as well as our friends. For our Halloween party, we try to stick to just people in our neighborhood.

We cast the invitation far and wide throughout our neighborhood. I post a description of the event on our neighborhood listserv (without our address) and invite people to email me if they want me to add their email to the evite.

We live on a cul-de-sac, but a sidewalk, driveway, and front lawn could work just as well. Or you could meet in a communal space of an apartment building.

Our trick for keeping it as easy as possible is to not host it inside our home. We definitely wouldn’t have time to pick up between getting home from school and our early party start. Starting earlier makes things easier on a school night!

We order a bunch of pizzas, set out a water pitcher, and pretty much leave it at that! I try not to make it sound fancy in the invite. Here’s what I write:

Do you live in University Hills with young children? Bring your trick-or-treaters to the 7th annual pizza dinner and early trick-or-treating trip. Bring your bikes, wagons, strollers, etc.! BYOB and feel free to bring an appetizer if you want something more than pizza. Feel free to invite your friends from the neighborhood. Hope to see you there!

5:00-5:45 = Eating and relaxing

5:45-6:30 = Trick-or-treating

It’s been a fun time every year because when you’re getting read for trick-or-treating, no one really cares about the quality of the party! And it’s so fun to trick-or-treat in a group. Let me know if you have any follow-up questions!