Halloween Snacks for Kids: Savoury, Sweet & Drinks for the Party

For a kids' Halloween party, 3–4 savoury snacks, 2 sweet treats and 1–2 drinks are plenty. More variety doesn't make a better party — it just means more dishes and more half-eaten plates.

A menu formula that works:

• A filling savoury base: hot dog mummies or mini pizzas. These disappear first.

• Something crunchy and veggie: veggie "fingers" with an orange dip.

• Fruit in disguise: banana ghosts, clementine pumpkins.

• One "wow" dessert: graveyard pudding cups, brownie monsters, or a Halloween cheesecake.

• A drink with an effect: blood-red lemonade, an ice hand floating in a bowl.

As a rough guide, for a two-hour afternoon party, plan on 6–8 savoury bites and 2–3 sweet treats per child. Younger kids (ages 3–6) tend to eat toward the lower end, school-age children the higher end. If the party runs into dinner time, add one more substantial savoury dish.

Savoury bites kids already know work best — just in costume: hot dogs, pizza, cheese, veggies with dip. An unfamiliar flavour plus a spooky look at the same time is too much for a lot of children.

• Puff pastry hot dog mummies. Cut puff pastry into strips 0.5–1 cm (¼ in) wide, wrap them around a hot dog leaving a gap at the top for the face, and bake at 200°C/400°F for about 15–18 minutes until golden. Add the eyes after baking with two dots of ketchup or mustard — they'd just run in the oven. For children under 4, slice the mummy lengthways before serving (see below).

• Pizza mummies. Spread tomato sauce on a small round of pizza dough, lay a few strips of mozzarella crisscrossed over it like bandages, and add two olive slices for eyes. You can make the dough using our perfect homemade pizza recipe — one batch makes a whole tray's worth.

• Cheese brooms. A pretzel stick for the handle, a piece of sliced cheese snipped into fringes at one end and tied on with a chive. Ready in a minute, and kids love them.

• Veggie fingers with dip. Cut carrot and cucumber into batons, and stick an almond flake on the end of each as a "nail" (older kids only, see below). For children under 4, lightly cook the carrot or swap it for cucumber cut into thin strips. For an orange, "muddy" dip, carrot hummus is perfect — the colour fits Halloween exactly.

Tip: put the savoury food out first and save the sweets for half an hour later. Otherwise the mummies will go untouched.

Sweet Halloween snacks come down to three things: dark chocolate, orange colouring, and eyes. You don't need a three-tier cake — one eye-catching dessert plus a few fruit "monsters" is enough.

• Graveyard pudding cups. Chocolate pudding topped with crushed biscuit "dirt" and gummy worms peeking out. Find the full method in our Halloween graveyard cups with Haribo sweets recipe.

• Brownie monsters. Brownie balls coated in colourful icing with candy eyes — just like our chocolate brownie monster balls recipe. These can be made a day ahead.

• Halloween cheesecake as one big showpiece in the middle of the table: Halloween cheesecake.

• Pumpkin cupcakes with orange frosting: autumn pumpkin cupcakes with mascarpone frosting. For tips on turning them into spiders or pumpkins, see Halloween cupcakes and cakes, step by step.

• Banana ghosts. Cut a banana crosswise in half, stand the pieces cut-side down, and press in three chocolate chips — two for eyes, one for a mouth. Drizzle with lemon juice to stop them browning.

• Clementine pumpkins. A peeled clementine with a small piece of celery stick poked into the top as a stem. The quickest "dessert" on the table.

Pretzel ghosts: dip pretzels or breadsticks into melted white chocolate, and while the chocolate is still wet, add candy eyes and sprinkles. Sugar sprinkles work well here — they only stick to wet chocolate, so sprinkle right after dipping, as it won't hold after 1–2 minutes. White chocolate scorches easily if overheated; we cover how to melt it smoothly in How to Melt Chocolate Without Lumps.

With Halloween drinks for kids, the effect comes from colour and ice, not a complicated recipe. Two drinks are enough: one red, and one green or orange.

• Blood-red lemonade. Sparkling water with raspberry or strawberry syrup, roughly 1:7. Dip the rim of the glass in syrup first so the "blood" drips down the side.

• Witch's cauldron potion. Orange juice diluted 1:1 with water, served from a ladle out of a big bowl or pot.

• Ice hand. Fill a disposable nitrile glove with no powder with water (coloured with juice if you like), tie it off, and freeze overnight, at least 8 hours. Before serving, dip it in warm water for a few seconds, then cut and peel off the glove. The hand floats in a bowl of lemonade, keeping it cold all party long.

• "Eyeball" ice cubes. Pop a raspberry or blueberry into each ice cube tray compartment and top up with water.

For a kids' party, plan on 200–300 ml (7–10 fl oz) of drinks per child per hour — running around in costumes is thirsty work, more than you'd expect.

From age 4 up, kids can handle decorating on their own: banana ghosts, cheese brooms, sprinkling pretzels, and poking stems into clementines. Knives and the oven stay with you.

Turn the food prep itself into party entertainment. Set up a decorating station: a plate of chocolate chips, a bowl of sprinkles, icing in piping bags with a small hole snipped off, and biscuits or muffins baked and cooled ahead of time. Each child decorates 2–3 pieces and takes them home — that solves half an hour of entertainment and doubles as a party favour.

Practical tip: put baking paper or a disposable tablecloth under the station, and pour sprinkles into shallow bowls — straight from the bag, kids will tip the whole lot out at once.

For children under 4, watch two things: the shape of the food, because of the choking risk, and how long food sits out on the table. The spooky look is secondary.

Allergies: ask parents of invited children in advance. The most common ones are milk, eggs, peanuts, tree nuts, and sometimes wheat. Put small labels on the plates noting what's in each dish — it saves you fielding questions and keeps parents at ease.

Almost everything sweet can be made ahead; savoury dishes are best baked on the day. A timeline that works:

1. 2 days ahead: brownie monsters (keep in a sealed container in the fridge), biscuits for decorating.

2. The day before: cheesecake (needs to set overnight), hummus, the ice hand and ice cubes in the freezer, chopped vegetables wrapped in a damp towel in the fridge.

3. Party morning: graveyard cups assembled (add the gummy worms just before serving — they'll go soft in the pudding), syrup for the lemonade.

4. An hour before: hot dog mummies into the oven, banana ghosts and clementine pumpkins — bananas brown, so do these very last.

Mummies are best served warm, so feel free to bake them in two batches: one tray at the start, a second an hour later.