Halloween is a big deal at our house. My husband has always had a fine appreciation for all things creepy and I have to admit that I didn’t love Halloween until I married him. I’ve always loved everything about the fall season (like the menu and the wardrobe), but just not the Halloween holiday itself. But that has changed over the years and now I can honestly say that I love Halloween! Almost 8 years ago we brought our first baby boy home from the hospital on Halloween day. Since my little guy’s birthday is so close to the holiday, we often have Halloween-themed birthday parties and I’ve made quite a collection of easy kid-friendly party food. I wanted to have them all in one place here so that when you’re planning a party you won’t have to search far! If there’s one thing I’ve learned it’s that you can turn any food into a Halloween food with the addition of a) eyes or b) plastic spiders. Seriously. But here are some of my favorite things that make appearances at our house around this holiday. The great thing is that a lot of them are healthy (or semi-healthy) options, which is a nice thing compared to the loads of candy you usually see. Enjoy!
These are super duper easy, and a great make-ahead treat.
I think these are so stinkin’ cute. They’d be adorable for a monster-themed party.
This is a childhood favorite and always the most popular of our Halloween spreads! Cut crescent roll dough into thin strips and wrap around hot dogs. Bake according to crescent package directions and use ketchup or mustard for eyes. I cut my hot dogs in half to make them bite-sized.
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Quarter apples and take a wedge out of the center of each quarter. Dunk them in water with a little lemon juice to prevent browning. Use slivered almonds for teeth (I toasted mine for color and taste!) Eyes are optional. I stuck pretzel rods in and attached candy eyes with peanut butter.
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Use breadstick dough (store bought or homemade) and cut into strips. Use scissors to snip the ends into 2 pieces and roll them down to make the bone shape. Dip in “bloody” marinara! For extra flavor sprinkle with garlic and Parmesan or this seasoning.
Easy peasy! Plain cheese pizza, just make a ring of cheddar around the outside edge and mozzarella in the center. Cut into wedges to make the candy corns.
Super kid friendly- who doesn’t love string cheese?? Again, I cut them in half to make them kid-sized. Use the flat side of a knife to make the knuckle marks and attach slivered almonds with a dab of cream cheese for the nails. I also used a knife to shave off just a bit of the cheese at an angle before attaching the almond.
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You’ll need maraschino cherries for this one. Make sure you buy ones with stems. Drain them and dry them well with paper towels. Dip in almond bark, or chocolate bark. When they are semi dry, attach a chocolate chip for a nose, slivered almonds for ears, and little candies or sprinkles for eyes.
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Another classic. Use chocolate pudding for your mud and put some crushed Oreos on top for dirt. Hide those gummy worms in there for eeek factor!
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This is a great staple for a Halloween party spread because it pleases both kids and adults, and is something with substance! Use Halloween cookie cutters to cut your bread. I like to fill some with peanut butter or cream cheese and orange-colored jam (like peach or apricot) for the kiddos, and something more sophisticated like Teriyaki Chicken Salad for the grown ups!
Nutter Butters are naturally ghost shaped, which make them perfect for dipping! Give them a bath in some almond bark and put on a couple of mini chocolate chips for eyes. And might I add that white chocolate covered Nutter Butters taste really good!
Dipped Pretzel Rods are instantly transformed into “Witches Wands” with a little Halloween pizzazz! I sometimes have a hard time finding them in stores, so you can get them here if you find yourself in the same boat. Put them in containers with candy corns to hold them up. The little mini buckets pictured are from the Target dollar section. SO cute!
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Red Hots and licorice turn Oreos into creepy (but kinda cute) spiders. Shoestring licorice is hard to find these days, but I did find some here. If you don’t want to order online, Twizzlers makes “Pull-Apart” candy that works perfectly.
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This trick works for pretty much any dip that you could pipe sour cream on top of! I always do a basic 7-Layer taco dip. Put some sour cream in a plastic baggie with the end snipped off and use it to draw a web pattern. Throw on a fake spider or two and your favorite party dip is instantly creepy!
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My son seriously thought these looked too gross to eat-he wouldn’t even touch it! Just slice hot dogs and drop them into boiling water for just a minute or two and they’ll curl a bit. Dunk them in some BBQ sauce and you have slimy worms 🙂
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Witch Hats
One of the easiest Halloween tricks (and treats!). Place a Hershey’s Kiss on top of a Keebler Fudge Strip Cookie (in case you need a mental image of the cookies I’m talking about, here you go) and you have a little hat. Use the little tubes of frosting you can buy in the grocery store baking isle. Pipe a ring around the outside of the bottom of the kiss and press onto the cookie. It will squeeze out and make the ring around the kiss. Then pipe on the bow.
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A witch with a cute hat needs a broom to match! Use cookie dough to form a broom shape around the end of a large pretzel rod. Use a tooth pick to make indentations in the cookies if you want. If your cookies spread too much during baking just use a knife to trim the edges when they come out of the oven and are still warm. Then decorate as desired. I just used a packaged PB cookie mix to make it easy, but I added a bit of flour to make the cookies hold their shape better. You could also use this PB cookie dough or this sugar cookie dough.
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One of our favorites gets a Halloween makeover! Click here for the recipe.
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Halloween Cookie Pops
Here’s a great sugar cookie recipe and a tutorial on both glace icing and cookie pops. Make some spooky shapes and let people pick up some yum on a stick! Click here for a tutorial on making the spider web designs.
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We started a trend with these adorable candy corn themed cupcakes. Click here for the recipe, and also a how-to on making those pretty swirly tops!
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Autumn Pretzel Turtles
These quick and easy bites get a quick fall makeover by using Reeses Pieces in the centers, or drizzling colored candy melts over traditional nut centered ones. Click here for the recipe.
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Stove Top Kettle Corn
You don’t need a fancy machine for this classic fall treat. Just a pot on the stove top and our tutorial and you’ll be snacking in no time. Click here for the recipe.
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Chocolate-Dipped Owls
You’ll be amazed by how quick and easy these little owls are! Click here for a tutorial
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Caramel Apples
What’s a fall party without caramel apples? Click here for great tips!
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Honey Caramel Apples
Speaking of caramel apples, here’s a great honey version. This homemade caramel only requires 2 main ingredients! Click here for the recipe.
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Caramel Apple Cider
Need a drink to serve with all these goodies? Look no further than this delicious Caramel Apple Cider. Click here for the recipe.
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Shrunken Apple Heads
Click here for the tutorial.
Mason Jar Lanterns
These easy-to-make mason jar lanterns instantly add festiveness to your party!
Click here for the tutorial.
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Glow in the Dark Drinks
Curious? Click here to find out how to turn any drink into a spooky glowing one!
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Slime
Makes a great goopy party favor! Or have kids stick their fingers in it while blind-folded. It’s sure to get some screams! Click here for the recipe.
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This is such a quick and easy way to completely wow kids at a classroom party or adults at a grown-up Halloween party. Feel free to use your favorite brightly colored drink when you’re brewing up your crazy concoctions! Click here to see how we did it!
Questions & Reviews
Wow I am going to try that blue goop stuff and chocolat covered pretzels that stuff is fun easy cheap and totally adorable!
these are amazing ideas!i canont wait to see the look on my friends faces
would you pretty please do one about activities for 12+ ?!?!?!?!?
I loved the recipe mad scientist potion. It looks really cool. Everyone who trys it, I garantee you’ll kids will love it. I’v never made it, but I still think it looks super cool.Thanks for reading my comment.
Thanks,
Tinana Klouplouskie
I tried 5 of the recipes and all of them came back with page not found 🙁 They all look awesome so I’m pretty bummed out! I’m thinking this is a new problem judging by other recent comments. Can you tell me if this can be fixed or if it’s just me?
just what I was looking for, everything in one place , thank you
WOW.. you have came up with such great ideas that will guarantee a great party for all. Thanks for sharing.. 🙂
Awesome ideas. I’d love it if you linked your mummy dogs to my Mummy Roundup post. Great site. This is my first visit.
Um, how in the world did I miss seeing those Pumpkin & Cream Cheese Whoopie Pies before?? I need to make those. NOW.
This website is too cute! I found a lot of ideas for my Halloween party. Love this website!
I have a halloween party every year and this is the first year that I have had the money to actually make the food for it. I found your site and I am making almost everything on the list!! I love it all!
I would just like to say how freakin AWESOME you are!!!!! I was looking for the perfect drink, snack and fun recipes to make my first anniversary out of this world…YES I got married on Halloween. How many people do you know want to go to an anniversary party every year? Not me…they’re boring. But what if it’s a fun costume party at a time of the year that most want to go to a party. So I really wanted to start this out with a blast. And I truely believe that your recipes and ideas will help make this great for all!!! THAAAANK YOU for helping me make my annual special day great!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Thanks for all the great Halloween ideas!!
These look amazing just wondering what icing you used!
Ridiculously clever!
When I was little my babysitter would make me spiders and blood (a.k.a hotdogs and ketchup) for lunch. It’s easy to make and nothing beats a hotdog and ketchup. Take 1 hotdog and on each end make 2 cuts (so you have 4 “legs”). Make sure to leave about 1 1/2 – 2 inches in the middle of the hotdog (the body). Boil the hotdogs until cooked and serve with ketchup! Every so often I make for myself and I like a kid again!
I know Halloween has passed, but I’m still going to make those mummy dogs. Yum!
Help, I need Christmas ideas!! For my kids school Halloween parties I made the spider oreo cookies and the fudge stripe witches hats. (They were a huge hit by the way, thank-you very much!) Well I have been told that the kids can’t wait to see what I come up with for Christmas. Seeing as how I am not a ‘crafty idea’ person myself (I borrow ideas) and completely lost in the kitchen I need all the help I can get. Eagerly waiting for the next installment that I can steal and pass off as my own. Those kids are pretty harsh critics.
I made those oreo bats for our ward party this year and for my sons pre-k class. They were a HUGE hit in both places. Thanks for the idea. I loved that I didn’t have to spend hours and hours trying to make something cute.
You poor thing, glad you’re okay. I am very accident prone in the kitchen too, doesn’t stop me though and the food is fantastic… just comes with some injuries. Worth it though, right? We used several of your ideas this year. The laterns were cute and the toffee caramel dip with apples and cinnamon sugar tortilla chips was lovely. Thank you!
You’re a food blogger and you still peel garlic? Don’t you have a garlic press? No need to peel! I hope your hand is feeling better soon.
oh the worms on a bun nearly made me sick to look at. My son would love that, LOL
Sooo many yummy recipes!
You guys are amazing!! All of the Halloween/Fall food ideas look simple, easy to prepare and require little ingredients! My kind of plan! Thanks for all of the great tips! Plan on remembering this when it’s time to crank out the creative, fast recipes! Thanks!! Heidi
http://www.browneyedgirlygirl
What an amazing collection of ideas and recipes! I made the candy corn cupcakes for my sons class party and they were a hit. As I read through these ideas I am thinking how easy many of them would be to make for christmas parties with a few seasonally appropriate tweaks. You two are amazing. Thanks!
Love all the ideas! I made Monster Munch for work today and everyone raved about it. I tried to do the Nutter Butter ghosts but couldn’t find peanut shaped ones any where. They only have round ones in my area, so I just made circle shaped ghosts. People loved them just the same.