A Halloween party already has everything a scavenger hunt needs: a room full of decorations, a crowd of costumes, and kids who can't sit still. A list turns all of that into a game, with no hiding and no setup beyond pressing print.
The lists below work with whatever is in the room. A toy spider counts as a spider, and somebody's costume counts as much as a decoration does.
What's on the list, by age
Ages 4 to 6
- Something orange
- A pumpkin
- A spider (a toy one counts)
- A mask
- Something that lights up
Ages 7 to 10
- Something with eight legs
- Something that looks like a bone
- A costume with a cape
- A decoration hanging from something
- Something orange and black at the same time
11 and up
- A costume detail you almost missed
- The scariest thing in the room, and argue about it
- A decoration made from something that isn't a decoration
- Something that would be scary if the lights went out
Running it at a party
- Make teams of two or three, mixing ages if you can, so the older one reads and the younger one spots.
- Give it fifteen minutes. Long enough for every team to get most of the list, short enough that nobody gets bored halfway.
- Costumes count. Tell them at the start. It gets everybody looking at each other, which is half the fun of a costume party anyway.
- Check the lists together. Let each team show one thing they found that nobody else did.
Want more than a list?
If they race through the list, turn it into a proper hunt. The same builder makes a clue trail instead: each clue leads to the next hiding place, and the last one leads to the treats.
And for a group of older kids, a haunted house escape room gives the party a whole hour of puzzles, with the password you choose:
