Hallowe'en games

What about having the game where 'treacle scones' are suspended from a line of string? Lots of treacle/syrup is spread over girdle scones (or even thick slices of bread) which are hung from the line. The children have to be able to reach up and eat them with their hands behind their backs. Guaranteed sticky, messy and lots of fun!

My Mum used to hang apples from the airer that we had hanging on the kitchen ceiling, she'd tie the stalk onto string and hang them the first one to get a bite got the prize.. I'll keep thinking.

That's a Scottish Halloween game, by the way, MrsJamJam!

I suppose snapdragon – dried fruit, soaked in brandy, set alight and you have to pull off yummy pieces to eat – is probably politically incorrect these days. You could do the bit where you half-fill a large (1 pint?) glass with flour, add a biscuit and fill up with flour, then turn it out on a plate like a sandpie. Children have to have a go at eating the biscuit. Actually, what I'd do is a treasure hunt with prizes at difference stages.

Most of my children's parties were held at home with games like pass the parcel and grandmother's footsteps.
The favourite was a variant of absent's game with flour - we called it flour pie.
You put a 10p coin (it was a sixpence in the old days) in the bottom of a pudding basin and then fill it with flour. Press down well to condense. Then invert the basin onto a plate and remove - you are left with a 'pie'' of dry flour with the coin on top.
Spread old newspapers all over the floor and put the plate in the middle.
The children then take turns to cut away small slices of the pie, avoiding at all costs causing the coin to fall into the flour.
Eventually you are left with a column of flour supporting the coin.
The child whose cut makes the coin fall into the flour then has to retrieve the coin with their teeth, getting themselves covered with flour in the process and causing general hilarity. Of course they get to keep the 10p

We always enjoyed Silhouettes. This requires two rooms with a connecting door, a sheet, two torches and a selection of hats. Hang the sheet over the door, half the company, half the hats and one torch in one room, the other half in the other room.Lights out in both rooms! One person from one room sits in front of the sheet and somebody in that room shines the torch to make a silhouette on the sheet. The people in the other room have to guess who it is. The hats are to make for confusion. We also had a Hot Dog stand made from a tea trolly, a sheet and a Hot Dog banner held up by two garden canes. It is much more fun to queue for your hot dog than to have it served at a table. It was quite fun making the stand!

Thanks for the brilliant ideas. I can certainly see silhouettes working well in our house and I remember the flour pie from my own childhood. Sticky scones on strings sounds good to me but OH is not so sure! (His childhood was a bit deprived of messy fun!!)