Halloween scavenger hunt ideas for adults

Getting together for Halloween has been something fun to do with your friends since you were a little kid and got together with the neighbor kids to run around the neighborhood and collect your favorite candy. As children, it was all about dressing up and making sure that you had a large enough receptacle to put all the wonderful, sugary treats into throughout the entire night. As you get older, you start to lose interest in the treats and dressing up just to run around with your friends. Instead, you are now old enough to go to Halloween themed parties with your friends, enter costume contests and enjoy a few beverages instead of loads of candy. You might even know someone that loves Halloween as much as you do and likes to plan a costume themed party for all of your friends. If that is the case, other than having guests dress up as their favorite Marvel character, you could also plan other events.

One of those events could be a Halloween themed scavenger hunt. You might think these are for children, but honestly, getting together to enjoy the Halloween spirit with like minded people would not be as fun without the scavenger hunt. You could plan prizes and awards for the event, giving those that are attending a reason to participate in the hunt. One Halloween themed party that I was at when I was younger included a scavenger hunt and for the couple that found the most items on the list they were rewarded party baskets that were Halloween themed and included candy, liquor and other themed items. This gave us plenty of incentive to take the clues and run around the house and yard in order to find the most that we could so we could take home the gift basket.

People celebrate Halloween for different reasons, but for the most part it is about getting together with your friends and having a good time. One way that you can make it even more interesting is by adding the element of taking photos of the items rather than collecting them. Now that just about everyone has a smartphone with a camera on it, it is very easy to have them take a photo of any item. That way you can also add just about anything you want as an item to find because it does not have to be limited to those things that you can find and place in a bag or carry around. You could add things like the rope hanging from the tree in the backyard or the grave markers that you have planted in the front of the house. These items might be too large to carry around, but a quick snap with your camera can mark that you at least were able to find it.

In order to prepare for the Halloween scavenger hunt you are going to have to take a couple of things into consideration. The main thing is going to be how many people you think are going to be a part of your event. If you are planning the event during the Halloween Trick or Treat times in your local area, make sure that you have someone that can hand out candy while you are having fun. After all you do not want to keep the light off on the kids that are enjoying the same holiday that you like just as much. Questions that might crop up include whether or not you are going to be providing the simple costumes that others are going to wear or are you going to be having the guests arrive to the Halloween scavenger hunt party already dressed up. If you are providing simple costumes, you might want to make sure that you have enough for everyone to participate that night.

Simple costumes might include masks, hats, jackets, cloaks and things of that nature that can typically be worn over the clothing you are already wearing. Decide right away if you want the scavenger hunt to be a classic event where people are looking for items based on clues and collecting them, or if you are expecting them to take a simple photo in order to prove they found the item. Where you go from this point is based on the way you are planning the event, so that decision is somewhat important. Keep in mind the age range of the adults and that you are going to want to make sure there are clues that everyone can figure out and enjoy. You could throw a total wrench into the scavenger hunt planning and give clues that are based on the history of Halloween and reward those that know the answers with the prizes or points based on the questions.

If you love to decorate your yard in the traditional Halloween theme, it might be a cool idea to move the hunt outside so that those that are attending your party can enjoy the decorations as well. Keep in mind that the weather can change very quickly during this time of the year and depending on where you live it can turn into quite a mess before you know it. Another way that you could immerse your guests into the Halloween spirit for the scavenger hunt is by making up a story to go along with the clues. The story would be completely fictional and be based on experiences that you know or other stories that you might have been told, but the idea is to add some creepy elements to the scavenger hunt for the adults that are playing along. Telling a story with clues injected into it will also allow those that are paying attention to get a nice head start when looking for the items.

Keep the story simple, but even use the items that you hide as part of the story. A simple story might be that a demon is looking to come to our world and in order to stop him from visiting the scavenger hunters will have to find certain items for a spell that can be created to keep him away. If you take that story and add a few things of your own, you could then add the element of panic to the story by putting a time limit on how long you have to find the items needed to keep the demon away from you world. This type of thing can keep adults interested and that is a exactly what you are looking for. It is hard to get adults to gather around and enjoy the same type of themed event to begin with, but once you have it, you need to keep them interested.

The most important part of the Halloween scavenger hunt is going to be the rewards for finding the items. Just like children that are expecting all types of candy, adults will be expecting some sort of reward for putting time into finding these types of items based on Halloween clues. You could keep the rewards simple like gift cards to popular restaurants around the area, or you could go with complex rewards like a brand new costume from the store you all shop at giving them a reason to rejoin you next year when you have the same party. One of the best things about having these types of scavenger hunts planned is that you can make them however you want. Changing only a couple of things like clues, items or rewards and you are essentially dealing with an entirely different event.

Just like with any themed event that you plan you might need some help and that is where the internet comes into play. There are some resources that you can use online to help you come up with ideas for clues, items and rewards for your Halloween themed scavenger hunt so keep that in mind if you are in the planning stages and are running out of time. Halloween can be extremely fun for everyone that participates, that includes the children looking for the most candy, adults planning elaborate costume parties and even the themed scavenger hunt that you put a lot of time into planning. Keep in mind that it is all about fun for everyone, so make sure you have clues, items and rewards that appeal to your entire party.