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A Traditional Halloween Game

Apples, Fortunes and Tall Tales


Traditional Halloween games go back as far as Celtic times when the celebrations were focused more around the harvest than the trick or treating of modern times.
Games were played with typical harvest foods and often told the future as to whether a person would marry, be blessed or have good fortune. Apples were the source of many a Halloween game, many of which are still played today in some form.

If you can't find it here we have dedicated pages for Preschool Halloween Games and Halloween Party Games, especially for the kids. Halloween Party Ideas will help with all your Halloween craft ideas for the kids and pumpkin carving too!

Bobbing for Apples
Probably the most well known and favorite Halloween game of all.

A traditional Halloween game of apple bobbing or snap apple.
Float apples in a large wash tub filled with water. The object of this game is to grab one of the apples and remove it from the water using only your mouth. Hands must be kept behind player's backs.
Be prepared with paper towels as the players generally get quite wet.

For young children leave the stems in the apples; for older kids remove the stems. Try to choose softer varieties of apple, and use a shallower tub for younger kids. Another kiddy version of the game is Marshmallow Bobbing- not as soggy as the original game.

Apple Pass
This relay Halloween game can also be played with oranges and allows everyone to get up close!
Line up the kids in two rows, the same number of children in each line.
They have to pass the apple to the person behind them only using their chin, without using hands or dropping the apple. If the apple drops a team must start from the beginning again.

Snap Apple
Tie strings around apples and suspend them from the ceiling or a tree branch (we even use the washing line!). You may need to adjust the length once your players arrive so they are at mouth height or lower.
Each player must attempt to eat the entire apple without touching it with their hands. Another prize can be given to the person who gets the first bite out of their apple. It is quite tricky, and you may want to change apples for donuts for younger children.

Apple Paring
Each child gets an apple, friut knife and a plate with all being as close as possible in size and quality.
The children each have to peel their apple, with the winner being the one who produces the longest and narrowest peeling. In times past the person then threw the apple peel over their left shoulder and the letter which the peel resembled was the first initial of the person's future husband or wife.

The Black Cat and Her Kittens
A great Halloween game for children which is neither too tricky or too scary for them.
One child is chosen as the black cat and is taken from the room for a moment. The rest of the children then take their places around the room, laying their heads on their arms so that they cannot see anything. The game leader touches several children on their heads, tapping them as the black cat’s kittens. When the black cat returns to the room, the kittens softly meow for their mother, and the mother attempts to locate them by their meows. The first kitten to be found takes the mother cat’s place for the next round, but the rest must keep up their meowing until every last kitten is found.

Setting the right mood for a Halloween story.

Ghost Stories
Setting the scene for a scary story is what is needed for maximum effect. Your story could be a real life haunting, a classic ghost story, or an urban legend. Candles, strange noises and even a hidden prankster ( to jump out at the right moment, or squeak some floorboards) will all provide suitable 'fright'.

Post Mortem/Autopsy
This Halloween game is well known and can be made much creepier by blindfolding the guests and passing around the contents of the corpse while all of your guests cringe at the feel of their gooey hands!

The source for this game is said to come from a piece written by Charles F. Smith for the Boy Scouts. A man with dubious humour, if I might say so!!

'The truth it is, and not a myth
That once there lived a man named Smith,
And it became his mournful lot,
To murdered be quite near this spot.
We now will pass out his remains,
You first will handle poor Smith’s brains....
'
At this point, 'moist sponges are passed from guest to guest.'
The verse continues, disassembling poor Smith bit by bit—his hair (corn silk), his windpipe (a length of uncut boiled macaroni), his hand (a glove stuffed with wet sand)—until little of him is left to distribute.

The modern version of this game is on the Halloween Party Games page.


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