Halloween Decorating Ideas

Halloween Decorating & Party Theme Ideas

Tap into the past, present and future unexplained mysteries of the universe and enter the world of the supernatural, if you dare.

For inspiration, we’ve compiled a list of paranormal party themes for unearthly creatures, spirits and sorcery, along with a few decorating ideas to get you started.

Silly-Monster Bash: Featuring adorable, google-eyed monsters, not the scary kind.

Create whimsical & colorful little creatures by adding eyes, teeth, hair, horns and/or claws to just about anything.

Decorate chairs, balloons, plastic eggs, planters, pitchers, tables, cups, glass containers

Add monster footprints with chalk on asphalt and/or with a stencil and flour, white paint or glow-in-the-dark paint on the lawn
Create monsters with food: cookies, finger sandwiches, cupcakes, oranges, pumpkins, apples, & lollipops

Use a bubble machine
Stuff gloves with tissue paper, add claws, hair and/or scars
Make a monster “family” photos wall

Serve cocktails with eyeballs or attach jiggly eyes to the glass
Make pebble monsters by painting smooth stones different colors, add a mouth and/or teeth, then stick on jiggly eyes

Gothic Monster Mash: An old-school, scary monster soiree featuring vampires, Dracula, Frankenstein's monster, mummies, and werewolves.

Decorate the scene as:
- Dracula’s castle
- Frankenstein’s laboratory
- A haunted house
- Graveyard with a full moon
Make castle walls from dyed white sheets, a stone-pattern stencil and paint
Serve “swamp water” in a bowl set inside a larger bowl with dry ice
Rim glasses with black sugar

Drip red wax over white candles
Decorate with crows, skulls, pitchers of “blood” and vials of poison, coffins, dripping candles in a candelabrum or wine bottles, bats, chains, bloody gauze
Fill glass jars of heads, brains & body parts with green glow sticks
Table of protection: silver crosses, wooden stakes, silver bullets, garlic necklaces, clubs, holy water
Serve red velvet cake, red m&ms, in black containers
Serve drinks of wolfs bane, bloody Mary’s
Apply dripping blood and handprint removable decals
Make a sign for the bar: “The Slaughtered Lamb"
Add instant atmosphere with a fog machine

Saints & Sinners: Aka Naughty & Nice, Sweet & Sinister, create parallel experiences of heaven and hell and Invite your guests to dress as good or evil.

HEAVEN

Decorate in white with gold accents
Cover furniture in white and walls in white tulle; tent the ceiling in white fabric
Use cotton batting to make fluffy clouds
Trim furniture and accessories with white feather boas and/or ostrich feathers
Accent with metallic gold, a harp, and white mini lights
Serve white food and angel’s food cake

HELL

Decorate in red and black
Use candles, red bulbs, and red mini-lights
Cover furniture in red; tent the ceiling in black
Use red cellophane or foil on the walls, red & black ostrich feathers as centerpieces
Accent with skulls, scythes and hanging pitchforks and chains
Create fake flames with red/orange/yellow tissue paper and/or flickering lights
Serve red & spicy food and deviled eggs

BOTH

Offer guests the choice of horns or halos when they arrive
Use a fog machine for both areas

Zombie Apocalypse: Replicate the panicked collapse of civilized society with a night of the walking dead, featuring a disturbing scene of death, dismemberment and mutilation.

Decorate with representations of death: graveyards, coffins, spiders, skulls, dead trees
Add intact, severed, decomposing & mutant body parts
Include ears, brains, hands, arms, scars, eyeballs, feet, fingers, hair
Position arms outstretched & fingers reaching through boarded windows, doors & fireplace

Add silhouettes of walking zombies
Use green glow sticks for an eerie effect
Post signs & caution tape:
- Beware
- Do Not Feed
- Infected:Keep Out
- Quarantine
- Don’t Hesitate, Decapitate
- A Night To Dismember
Put dry ice in an outer bowl with inner punch bowl
Decorate with bloody gauze & handprints
Make a zombie family portrait wall
Hang blood stained sheets as a photo booth
Make a food buffet with jeans and shirt laid out in human form
- Insert dishes into cut holes and at the head
- Add skeleton hands and feet
Drip red wax on white tapers for bleeding candles

Ghosts & Ghouls: Invoke the spirits of ghosts, ghouls and phantoms for a haunting, soul-filled manifestation of merriment.

Welcome guests with a graveyard of tombstones, hanging ghosts and blue glow sticks
Place red and/or green glow sticks in toilet paper rolls with eyes cut out, to hide in bushes & discreet locations

HAUNT YOUR HOUSE

Cover furniture with sheets
Simulate boarded up windows
Use gauze and cheesecloth as tattered curtains and on chairs to look worn
Use barren, black curly twigs in vases
Decorate with black plants, branches, flowers, wreaths, garlands, and foliage
Add cobwebs, spiders, rats, skeletons, chains and bats
Put black candles in a candelabrum and candle holders
Rip cheesecloth and hang from the ceiling

Hang ghostly candles by attaching flameless tea-lights to spray-painted paper towel tubes & hang with fishing line
Make ghost luminaries by putting candles in canning jars painted white with ghost eyes & nose or wrap with white gauze with jiggly eyes

CONJURE GHOSTS

Use a coat hanger and Styrofoam ball to shape cheesecloth into ghost, then spray with liquid starch leaving some areas dry for a flowing effect. When dry, remove ball & hanger, add eyes and mouth, then mount on a pole just above the ground
Cover tissue paper bells or large white gourds with cheesecloth & add black felt eyes & mouth
Draw and cut out ghostly figures on frosted window film and stick to a mirror or window
Cover white mini-lights with ping pong balls, draw ghost eyes and noses, then glue cheesecloth onto each ball/ghost
Draw ghost eyes and nose on milk jugs, insert a portion of a white mini light strand into the back of each one to create a row of ghosts along the walkway

Cover foam wig mannequin heads with cheesecloth
Make a gaggle of ghosts with white-washed wood blocks of varying heights, then paint eyes & nose in black
Fill white plastic garbage bags with leaves or paper, then draw on eyes and mouth
Dip strawberries in white chocolate candy coating, add mini chocolate chips for eyes & nose

Witches, Warlocks & Wizards: Summon the magic of witches, warlocks and wizards for a spell-binding good time.

Use aged parchment paper for invitations
Put striped socks and witch (old lady) shoes on the legs of a table or sticking out of the doormat
Create a bubbling black cauldron with dry ice and green glow sticks inside; set the cauldron on 3 small skulls and place crumpled foil underneath with blinking orange mini lights threaded through the crumples

Carve apples and/or potatoes to make shrunken heads
Light area with pillar candles on stands & dripping tapers
Fill glass apothecary jars with eyeballs, bat wings, shrunken heads (apples) & werewolf claws (slivered almonds)
Print labels for glass jars and bottles of potions & poisons
Decorate with barren branches and black foliage
Hang witch and wizard hats, brooms, magic wands & staffs

Serve witch’s finger breadsticks & wizard hat cupcakes
Include a gold crescent moon & stars, bats, rats, crows, bones, skulls, & black cats
Drape witch capes, wizard robes and/or warlock cloaks on the back of dining chairs
Use a large old book for “Spells” and add an eye looking out the front
Serve cocktails and/or hors d'oeuvres with eyeballs (hollowed out radishes with olives inside)

Harry Potter: Recreate the magic and adventure of Harry Potter’s life at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

Make invitations that look like tickets on Hogwarts’ Express
Attach flameless tea-lights inside spray-painted paper towel rolls & hang with fishing line; drip wax or hot glue down the sides for effect
Create flying letters out of the fireplace by hanging with fishing line
Decorate with snowy owls and pillar candles on pedestals

Serve mandrake cupcakes, plastic babies with plant tops hot-glued to the head, inserted in chocolate cupcakes, served in terra-cotta flower pots
Make the front door all bricks
- Use a sponge the size of a brick
- Randomly dip the long side in one of 3 shades of brick red paint
- Paint the bottom & right edge of the sponge black for a shadow/3-D effect
- Press the painted sponge to a door-sized sheet or paper painted mortar gray
Dip, frost & decorate upside down ice cream cones to make wizard hats
Print banners for each house at Hogwarts on parchment paper or affix to house-color fabric/flags

Use coat hangers and a Styrofoam ball to shape cheesecloth dyed black into a Dementor then spray with liquid starch, leaving some areas dry for a flowing effect. Hang or mount on a pole just above the ground.
Make small tree branch wands
Decorate with potion bottles of various shapes, colored liquids and labels
Print Hogwarts wizard & magic book covers for a stack of books
Suspend a golden snitch (discreetly); spray paint a wiffle ball gold and thread white tulle through for wings
Serve butterbeer
Greet guests with a wood directional sign
Stack vintage-style suitcases