How to throw a simple Halloween carnival

You can still hold a Halloween carnival without stressing yourself out. Here’s some simple stress-free steps to throwing a fun and creepy Halloween bash, fun for all ages.

How to throw a Halloween carnival — Prizes for our carnival games.

So, we held a Halloween carnival as part of our cub scout group. We wanted to involve the boys so we kept it as simple as possible. It was hardly any work at all and everyone had so much fun! Here’s what we did.

Plan your Halloween carnival games

We put together six simple carnival games that weren’t too expensive and easy to set up and put away.

Sucker pull: Just get some Styrofoam, orange wrapping paper and some suckers. Color the tips of a few of the suckers. When a child gets one of those, they get a special prize.

2. Bowling: This game needs no explanation but it was surprisingly popular. Even if it didn’t really have a Halloween theme to it, everyone liked it.

Halloween carnival games — Bowling carnival game

3. Halloween fishing: You don’t need to design this fancy fishing backdrop. Just get a blue curtain and a shower rod and hang it in a doorway. Add a Halloween banner and you’re done!

Halloween carnival — Make your own Halloween fishing game

4. Balloon pop: Attached a bunch of orange and black balloons to a poster board and hang it on the wall. Make sure you fill each of the balloons with a special treat. Kids love popping balloons too.

5. Knock the cans: For this game, all you need is a bunch of metal cans, some bean bags and a table. You can require the older kids to throw from farther away from the table.

How to throw a simple Halloween carnival — Knock the cans Halloween game

6. Musical hats: This game is a fun twist on the popular musical chairs. All you need is a bunch of hats. They can all be the same or all different. For complete instructions on how to play this game, click here.

Create posters for each game

Instead of doing all of the work, you can recruit the artistic skills of your own kids or the kids who are going to come to the carnival. Plus, they get more excited about the games when they help out a little bit.

Add simple Halloween decorations

You don’t have to go crazy and spend a bunch of money on decorations. A few strips of crepe paper, balloons and the Halloween cutouts should do the trick. Amazon sells this cute set of Halloween party decorations that is only $24.