Halloween games are a fun way to spend time together with your family during the holiday. Print out your own FREE Halloween games today!
I love holidays. They are the perfect excuse to make some wonderful memories with the kiddos. Not that you need an excuse to make wonderful memories. But, you know… sometimes life just gets busy. So holidays are a good reminder to focus on the more important things. Namely: time spent together.
One of our family’s favorite things to do together is to play games. We’re a game playing family. But not of the electronical variety. No thank you. When we play games we sit down the good ol’ fashioned way with some cards, or a board, at the table or on the carpet, and laugh and joke and enjoy each other’s company.
We have our usual favorites that we like to play, but Hubby is also quite adept at making up the silliest games on the spot. Any time he says, “Okay, I’ve got a game!” the kids come a-runnin’ and are excited for what is sure to be some family laughs.
Family Game Time
An easy go-to game is Charades. An impromptu Charades session at our house involves nothing other than our creative minds. Each person takes a turn thinking up something they want to act out and get the others to guess. Our littlest kiddo–currently 5 years old– is the funniest. His acting almost always looks like some form of a monkey ballerina. I’m pretty sure he has one thing in mind, tries to act it out, gives up on what he’s doing, and then just listens for whatever answer he likes best. 🤣 Good times, y’all!
But for the holidays, cute little games and activities amp up the fun. You know my motto: cuteness makes the world a little brighter.
Okay, that’s not really my motto. But it could be. 😝
So I’ve made a cute Halloween games version of charades for our family to play. But the awesome part about this is that it can also be used to play other games as well! The same cards you use for charades could easily be turned into a Halloween game of Pictionary just by adding some paper and pencil.
Or if you want to play Halloween BINGO, I made some coordinating BINGO boards as well. Bingo is especially great for gatherings with a bunch of kids– like a school class party, or a family/friends halloween party. Or even just for fun with your own kiddos sitting around the kitchen table! 😉
How to play Halloween Charades
If you’ve never played Charades before, it’s quite simple. You can either play it family style or in teams. (Family style is helpful if you don’t necessarily have enough people to make decent teams.)
For family style, one person (oldest to youngest? the person with the next birthday?) starts off the fun by picking a card. Then, without using any words, they act out what is on the card while the rest of the family tries to guess what it is.
Set up some house rules for what happens next. Some options could be that whoever guesses it first gets to go next. Or maybe the winner gets a point, but the next oldest person is the next one to act. We usually don’t keep points and just let the person who guessed it go next. But it is helpful to work out something so that each person will get a turn to act out the cards.
For team style, you will divide your group into two teams (or more). Each team sends one representative to go look at the top card of the deck. (All teams will be acting out the same card.) The actors go back to their teams and when someone says “go”, they begin acting out the card to their team. Whichever team guesses the card correctly first gets a point.
You can decide how long you want to play. Play until all the cards have been used, or play for a given amount of time and see which team has the most points at the end. Either way, most points wins. 😁
How to play Halloween Pictionary
Pictionary is going to be exactly the same as Charades, except that instead of acting out the cards you will be drawing. Talking is still against the rules, and you also cannot write any words or typewriter symbols on your paper (unless it’s a word the guessers have already said).
You can do this one family style or team style as well. (Check out these options in the ‘How to play Charades’ section.)
Obviously REAL Pictionary has a game board that you move around. But for this version, you would just keep track of points to determine a winner.
How to play Halloween BINGO
There was a farmer, had a dog and Bing… oh. Sorry. This isn’t that kind of Bingo. My bad. 😂
Halloween Bingo is a fun and easy game that is helpful for keeping a lot of kids entertained and still. At least until you load them up on candy. 🤣
To play, you give each player a BINGO Board and some marking pieces (usually some sort of small candy… like candy corns, m&ms, etc.) Place all of the individual calling cards in a bowl and take them out, one at a time.
Each time you take a card out of the bowl, call out what it is and show the picture. Each player tries to find that picture on their Bingo Board. (Note: Not every picture is on every board, so it’s possible they will look and not find it.) If they find the picture on their board, they place a marking piece on top of that picture.
Keep calling out cards until someone gets five squares in a row (which can be horizontal, vertical, or diagonal) and calls out “BINGO!” At which point, they get to eat their candy, or get a prize, or whatever you want to do for the winner.
You can keep going until some more kids get Bingo, or you can have everyone start over, or you can be done with the game. Whatever floats your boat. 😉
But whatever games or non-games your family enjoys, just make sure to spend some quality time with the ones you love this holiday season. A favorite quote of mine says:
“In family relationships, love is really spelled T-I-M-E.”
-Dieter F. Uchtdorf
Wishing you all a wonderful and happy Halloween! 🧡💛
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