Halloween is the perfect opportunity to be as eccentric and creative as you want, and if you’re hosting your own party, you have an excuse to be even more imaginative. Stretch your scaring skills with these ideas to take your party to the next level.

• A terrifying theme. Coming up with a theme for your party, such as masquerade or night of the living dead, can help you narrow down everything from your costume to the decorations to the menu—making your job easier (and taking the pressure off guests to come up with totally unique costumes).

• Ghastly games. No party is complete without a little friendly competition between guests, and there are plenty of ways to take your get-together up a notch with games. Think outside the box with a freaky feels game to test your partygoers’ sense of touch. All you have to do is fill a few tissue boxes with items like bat ears (dried apricots), worms (cooked spaghetti), and eyeballs (peeled grapes). Or opt for a game of pumpkin-patch ring toss by attempting to hook glow-stick bracelets onto the stem of a pumpkin.

  

• Best dressed. Encourage guests to put some effort into their costumes by offering a prize for best dressed! You can base the award on peer vote or choose a winner yourself, but friends will have a blast competing for the title. Consider giving out secondary prizes for “most creative couple,” “funniest costume,” or even “scariest costume.”

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