[WickedWitch]

I've been throwing huge Halloween parties for my kids for years but now they are teenagers and I feel lost! Last year I had 42 kids, we did limbo, dancing, egg hurling and the scarey movie. They even snubbed their noses at the gravestone cupcakes (which looked pretty dang good if I say so myself). I need help! They think they are too cool to dress up for a party but want to go trickortreatin. I just want to do a fun teenage halloween party where there won't be twenty kids piled up on my couch. Any idears out there?

 

[WickedWitch]

Forgot to mention: The kids I'm trying to entertain are 15 and 16. AND we live in Western PA where it's normally not to warm around Halloween...last year we had a whiteout snow storm.

 

[edwood saucer]

Hey Wicked...

This might seem a bit out there - but what about the local teenage garage band? I've thought about it for our kids that oldest of whom is 10 (his friends are just starting to "rock out".

Anyway - teenagers and a basement or garage, with supervision - sort of entertain themselves.

(I know this post probably didn't help)

:^)

 

[Beth]

OOoooooo, you may be able to convince the band to dress up and the others may follow suit!!! (Maybe help the members with their costumes!!)

 

[AzKittie74]

I'm in the same boat, mine is 13 and she is way to cool for halloween parties now, boys can't see her in a costume, that is imbarrassing!! UGH! she wants a day time BBQ at the park!!! at first my world seemed to be crashing down around me when she said that, we always have huge bashes and she is usually excited and liked to plan it with me, we would spend hours going over things, but it is her day NOT mine (I keep telling myself that hahaha) so she can have a BBQ, and I'll have to live with it. just ask him/her what they want.
Maybe you can go with a more gory kind of atmosphere instead of graveyard cupcakes you could do a torso and guts cake?
http://www.theyrecoming.com/
Good Luck!

 

[EvilQueen1298]

From my experience, scavenger hunts are pretty cool. They can go door-to-door looking for stuff from neighbors. Most teens enjoy this. Of course this totally depends on the weather.
Google ideas on the internet. Loads of stuff out there.
Creating their own pizza is pretty fun as well making every item something gross. This will take some planning. For example: the cheese will be in a jar labeled "shaved brains" etc.
Olives can be marked at "warts"
Sauce of course is "Blood"
Then they have to come up with the name of their pizza!
This is a team activity. BTW, pizza crust is actually "skin"
Gee...are you hungry yet?
Younger kids love this but teens will still enjoy it.
Of course you'll have your girl teens that will think this is so completely gross and won't even eat it but the boys will LOVE IT. There are always exceptions lol
Maybe a walk in the woods at night?
Good Luck Mom.
I would also make costumes mandatory!

 

[EvilQueen1298]

One more thing....
get material for them to create their own stuffed monster which will be displayed on Halloween night. This is HUGE hit with teenagers.
It's best just to do the old stuff newspapers into pants, shirts etc (attach clothing with clothespins).They can decorate it by choosing a mask, cobwebs, spiders, blood, ax in head, put them in chairs whatever.
I am assuming the party is the Saturday before Halloween? If so, then this can work well. If on Wednesday night, not much time allowed.

 

[DeathTouch]

Teenagers are easy. Well not easy per say, but all you have to do is put a cooler out there in your front yard and let them gab for 3 hrs stright. When you are tired of them, just call the cops. LOL

 

[spideranne]

Hats and wigs. I worked at a Halloween store one year and the teenagers were addicted to the hats table, it was a real pain to have to straighten up after them. If you had a selection of hats and wigs or had them each bring one that will keep them busy for a long time.

With the scavenger hunt idea you can also do a photo hunt. Instead of collecting items they have to get pictures of certain items or situations. Like shaking hands with a neighbor or swinging on a swing set or making a human pyramid with at least one person not at the party. You can give different points amounts for the harder ones. It used to be done with Polaroids but now with most cell phones having camera's it probably would be easier. Then when they come back they get to see all the pictures of what everyone did. Teenagers love pictures.

 

[EvilQueen1298]

great ideas Spideranne

 

[WickedWitch]

Excellent Suggestions! Thanks to everyone!

 

[Ghostess]

I hosted a Teen party one year for one of my 17 year old friends. Well, she's actually our neighbor's daughter that lived down the street who watched my kids for us when we went out... she practically lived at our house because apparently I'm MUCH cooler than her mom AND I cooked food. Now she's a college girl living in Tampa. :sniff: I miss her!

Anyway, she asked me if I would allow her to have a party here since I had the house all decorated up, and I said yes which made 3 separate parties for me to do that year in my house, 2 of which were on the same weekend.

She made up a bunch of beaded necklaces for her friends to wear once they got here for the "word-which-must-not-be-spoken" game. Basically, she picked a word (she picked "scary") and if anyone was caught saying it, they had to give their necklace to the person who caught them. The person with the most necklaces at the end of the night won a prize. I let them choose between a Bucky Skull and a Blucky skeleton since that's what I had on hand at the time. (This game was a hit at my kids party as well and is a request for this year's event by my daughter)

As far as the rest of the time, they spent it mostly talking. I had my Ouija board out on the table for decor, and they asked if they could use it. So they spent like 2 hours playing with the Ouija. I got in a few really good screams from behind them and made a couple of them nearly wet their pants.

They didn't eat much either. I had a ton of food left over.

 

[Lagrousome]

Maybe time to not have a specific party just for the teens....maybe incorporate it into your "adult" party, but have the kids start helping with the atmosphere. Scaring people, being part of the props? Just a thought. Of course, getting them to follow thru might be part of the problem, depends on the kids. This year I've asked some of the older kids if they would help with some of the "stations".. I have name tags for everyone when they arrive since everyone doesn't know everyone else ( I used these little tomstone place cards and put velcro stickies on the back) and also to help with some of the younger kids games. I would like to have someone in charge of taking pictures at the "setting" which I would like to make a skelly prop using an old fashioned camera like this

but with a skelton and a prop made to look like an old camera. Maybe someone interested in taking pictures might like this job.
Just some ideas tossing out.....hope it helps...even just a little.