Need a fun and festive Halloween party activity? Plan a spooky and scary treasure hunt!
You can adjust the difficulty level to fit the age of the guests, and tailor the treasure hunt to complement the theme of your Halloween event.
Whether it’s a backyard celebration, spooky haunted house party or a simple classroom event, your little seekers are sure to have a blast!
Preschoolers
Send toddlers and preschool-aged children on a pumpkin treasure hunt. Fill small pumpkin containers with candy and hide the pumpkins throughout your home or yard for the children to find. Put stickers on the pumpkin containers with certain Halloween images and give the children a paper with matching stickers. Ask the kids to find one pumpkin with each sticker.
For example, put a ghost sticker on five pumpkins, a vampire sticker on five pumpkins and five of each of the other stickers you’re using if you have five children taking part in the treasure hunt. This will make the hunt slightly more challenging. Give each child a special Halloween-themed flashlight if playing after dark.
Elementary-Age Children
Write out clues for the children to follow. Tell a story or use rhyming clues that include Halloween themes. For example, give the children a clue on ghost-shaped paper that says, “Ghosts and ghouls might cause a fright, but you’ll have to venture into the night; Find Mr. Bones for another clue, he’ll tell you what you must do.”
Then hide the second clue by a skeleton on the front porch. Write that clue on a skeleton-shaped paper with another clue that sends the kids to a closet, bathroom, bedroom, slide or wherever you can hide more clues. The final clue should lead to a treasure map that guides the children to the treasure–candy.
Teens
Send teens on a scavenger hunt using Halloween themes. For example, use a mummy, vampire, ghost, pumpkin or other Halloween theme. Assign a different theme to each team of teens to make the scavenger hunt more challenging and interesting. A vampire-themed scavenger list may include garlic, a wooden stake or something similar.
Let your neighbors know about your scavenger hunt in advance so they know what’s going on when a group of teens show up. This may give the teens a chance to dress up in costumes, as well. Another idea is to send the teens on a town-wide scavenger hunt with cameras, if you can easily arrange transportation for each group. Give the teens a list with specific landmarks or places, such as a statue or particular bench. Instruct them to use Halloween props, such as a Dracula-style cape or witch hat to dress up statues or make landmarks seem more Halloweenish.
Adults
Assemble a haunted house with a maze, live people dressed in ghoulish costumes, mirrors, low light and other spooky details. Hide small tokens or bits of treasure around the haunted house behind props or in inconspicuous places. Time the adults as they go through the haunted house, see who can find the most treasure or note who screams or other interesting reactions to make it more interesting or challenging.
