Halloween Party Ideas for Teenagers

Are you looking for Halloween party ideas for teenagers or older children? I’ve always loved planning parties and events for my family, enjoying searching for themed decorations and foods to fit the occasion. Yet, as my children get older, this gets harder and harder. I’m definitely no longer cool (or whatever word means cool now!) in my kids eyes and the sweet spooky treats I used to create for them, no longer fit the bill. Yet they (and me) still want it to feel like an occasion with fun extras so it’s stands out from any other normal gathering. This year my son turns 13 and as his birthday falls in November, he has asked for a combined birthday/Halloween fancy dress party to celebrate.

So, as I’ve just spent some time scouring online for ideas and couldn’t find a lot that catered to teenagers Halloween parties, I thought I’d share what I found and came up with instead, for my son’s Halloween party for 13 year olds…

Halloween Party Drinks for Teenagers

Obviously there’s lots of spooky themed cakes, sweets and drinks in the supermarkets at this time of year so that makes it easy to make up a lot of the spread with this, but I also wanted to create a couple of things myself, that also elevated it from a children’s themed spread, to make it feel a bit edgier, so it appealed to teenagers too.

On Amazon I found some plastic syringes that fit the bill. I think they were meant to be used for jelly shots with alcohol in, but I placed them beside bowls of brightly coloured fizzy drinks and it worked great. (We used the Halloween themed Tango drinks) and they loved filling up their syringes to then shoot in their mouths throughout the party. Another drinks option that made the spread look more sinister, was blood bags. Again I got them from Amazon (I’ve linked the ones we got below ) and again I filled them with Tango, this time a red one. These again were popular and easily refilled. My only tip with them I have, is that as I used a fizzy drink, I found they expanded a bit after I’d done them up l, so don’t overfill them. I displayed them using sticky hooks on the side of the table, but also think they would make a great wall display.

Halloween Party Games and Activities for Teenagers

Now this is a tricky one, and obviously being older, they spent the main bulk of the party doing their own thing, but we did put a couple of things out to do, that worked well. Firstly I cleared an area and had three signs explaining the contents of the different crates. If you’d like to do the same, I have turned them into a free printable that you can download below. I simply printed them out on paper and then stuck them to a piece of black card, to make them sturdier.

(If you do download any, tag me on Instagram, It’s always lovely seeing how other people use them, and if you’ve got more teen party ideas too)

So the first (and by far the most popular) was the crate full of temporary tattoos – I ordered lots of different types off Amazon and focused on finding more real life looking tattoos rather than any that seemed childish and also lots of Halloween themed ones, including body scars, cuts and ghoulish bloody ones! I then added these with scissors and some rolled up flannels to dampen and put them on with along with the sign.

If you would like to use these signs yourself you can download them for free here:

Next up was a gift to take home. Now clearly they are too old for party bags, so I was pleased with these glasses, as not only were they something to take away, it doubled up as also an activity to do during the party, we even stuck on Custom Woven Labels to make each one feel unique for the guests and an activity to do during the party. I’ve added some different options below, but we went for glasses with wooden lids and glass straws as I’ve seen lots of this type of style on Tik Tok, so thought they would appeal. I then choose a variety of different wraps. It was nice and easy to do, the only thing to watch is not to place the wrap too high up, so it crinkles around the curved part. (Although to be honest, the kids didn’t seem to mind that they weren’t perfect and bit wonky anyway)

Party Game for Teenagers Halloween Party

Now this was just a little extra and we had other games planned that we didn’t then get round to doing, but this went down so well with the kids, they just did this and then hung out the rest of the time. It was a box of jelly beans with a twist – for each colour there was a normal one and also a spicy alternative. Now a word of the warning, although the kids loved doing this, they were actually far stronger than I realised and we had teens running around the kitchen eyes streaming, downing milk and water when they got the chilli ones, so its not one for the faint hearted! There’s lots of different versions of these, we got ours from Roys of Wroxhams. Something I might invest in another time to make it feel a bit extra, is a fun invitation maker to send digital invites that match the theme and get everyone in the spooky spirit before they even arrive.

Police Mug Shot Sign Printout for Parties

I love a photobooth and I feel its one of those party extras that works well for all ages and easy to set up a DIY one at home. My son telling me he was going to the party as a convict, was the idea behind making a police mug shot backdrop for this one and all it took was this material backdrop from Amazon.

I didn’t find it as easy to buy a sign though, without spending lots, so I ended up making my own and then printing out a big pile of them. (Unfortunately, in all the chaos of party hosting, I didn’t get round to getting any good pictures of it, so I took a quick snap holding up the sign afterwards so you can see what its like.) If you’d like some free police mugshot pintables I have saved mine here you can download it for free.

All in all it was a great party and we’ve got supplies left over we can use again that I also think would work equally well for a adult Halloween party too.