Holidays

DIY Halloween Party Food Ideas to Try

Instacart

Instacart

Last Updated: Feb 5, 2024

Halloween is probably one of the most fun holidays to celebrate, whether you’re in it for the trick or the treat.

But have you thought about what foods could help contribute to your scare factor on Halloween? Well, now’s the time to start.

Here are a few ideas for DIY Halloween party food ideas.

What are DIY Halloween snacks?

Halloween DIY foods are just ordinary meals that you turn into sinister-looking dishes. You might do this by adding red food coloring for blood, using candy corn as an accent, or even creating ghoulish faces using toppings.

Halloween is the perfect opportunity to test out fun food combinations that scare the pants off your partygoers. Just when they’re going to grab their severed finger or their gushy eyeball, something pops up from the table and scares the life out of them.

Best DIY Halloween party food Ideas

Halloween parties can be scary and fun, and it’s a chance to let your creative side shine. There are tons of ideas you could try for your next Halloween party. Let’s look at some cool Halloween-inspired finger foods for your Halloween party.

1. Halloween eye of newt

Fun food for kids. Halloween boiled eggs with black olive spiders on top of them. Alternative to candy. Free space for text.

Wanna make scary-looking eyeballs for your Halloween party? Grab yourself some deviled eggs, green food coloring, and sliced black olives. Alternatively, you can create a fun spider design.

2. Mandarin pumpkins

Peel a bunch of mandarins, stick a piece of celery in the middle, and you’ve got instant mini-pumpkin lookalikes that the kids will devour. The adults might have a go at them, too.

3. Ghoulishly good Halloween snack mix

Want something that’s slightly nutritious but still scares the pants off the little ones? This ghoulishly good Halloween snack mix can be made with popcorn, crackers, pretzels, candy corn, peanut butter candies, and a gooey candy coating.

4. Halloween fruit faces

This is an easy way to incorporate healthy foods into your Halloween. Stick some stickers on your fruits, like grapes, dried apricots, and dried mangoes (or have the kids do it for fun).

5. Bloody fingers food

Wanna make a cool-looking bloody finger display that people can actually eat? Grab some peanut butter dough and carve them to look like fingers. Squirt some plum jam at the top of the “fingers,” and you’ve got a Halloween finger food people won’t forget.

6. Halloween Pizza Scape

Hands taking slices of halloween-themed pizza with pizza cutter

Create a Halloween pizza scape with simple ingredients like pepperoni, black olives, and plenty of tomato sauce for a guaranteed crowd-pleaser.

7. Pumpkin cheese fondue

Pumpkin cheese fondue is a great addition to any Halloween party snack roster. Make the cheese fondue and pour it into an open pumpkin. Put it on a platter and serve it with celery, carrots, and other food you’d find on a charcuterie board.

8. Meatball creepy crawlers

Make your meatballs, wrap them in the dough, and pinch the edges to seal them. To make a creepy crawler, line up 10 of the dough-covered meatballs in a squiggle pattern. Then, poke shoestring potatoes on both sides of each ball to make the legs, along with two in the top (the head) for the antennae.

9. Mummy stuffed peppers

Stuffed peppers make great mummies when wrapped with crescent dough strips and topped with caper eyeballs. Fill the quartered bell peppers with cream cheese.

10. Mummy dogs

sausage baked in pastry "mummy" food for Halloween party or children's party

Hot dogs wrapped in dough strips make good mummy dogs. Add mustard drops and pepper flakes for the eyes, and you’re good to go on Halloween.

11. Halloween sandwich treats

Make your kids’ favorite sandwich, whether it’s turkey and cheese or peanut butter and jelly. Then get cutouts in the shape of ghosts and other Halloween creatures.

12. Halloween swamp dip

Wanna make a dip that looks like a swamp? Whip up some spinach dip and mix in whatever ingredients help make it look swampy. Then add some bread sliced and assorted veggie sticks for the headstones.

13. Eyeball tacos

Imagine picking up a taco and seeing two googly eyeballs in it. That’s the experience your guests will have when they pick up your eyeball tacos.

14. Creepy graveyard dip

Make a dip that looks like body parts are sticking out of it. You can accomplish this with meat like hot dogs, turkey, and other types of meat.

15. Goblin party mix

Homemade Halloween trail mix with candy corn, popcorn and pretzels

Another take on snack mix, goblin party mix, is just a mix of your kids’ favorite snacks. Throw in some cereal, M&Ms, candy corn, and whatever else floats your boat.

16. Cauliflower brain dip

You know how cauliflower resembles a human brain a little? Put it to good use this Halloween and fashion yourself a cauliflower brain dip holder display with carrots, tomatoes, and apples.

17. Rat cheese ball

A cheese ball shaped into the likeness of a rat is a great way to scare your guests. Add some grass whiskers, candy eyes, and a strawberry nose.

 18. Haunted forest

Grab some veggies that resemble trees (like broccoli) and create the forest. Use hard-boiled eggs as your forest ghosts and have fun with the decorations.

19. Monster mouths

Halloween is all about the scare. So why not scare your little munchkins with a monster mouth made out of apples, marshmallows, toothpicks, and peanut butter.

 20. Pumpkin hummus

Pumpkin hummus with pumpkins

An easy-to-make dish that doesn’t require you to dress up food is pumpkin hummus. It’s delicious and makes a great healthy alternative dip.

Additional tips for DIY Halloween food

Make your Halloween-themed food by looking at examples online. Get yourself some orange, green, and purple food coloring and maybe some cute wrappers. You might also want to get foods that resemble eyeballs, blood, mummy wrap, and all things spooky. Try hard-boiled eggs, strawberry syrup, and cream cheese frosting.

You could also decorate cookies with frosting in the shape of spiders, jack-o-lanterns, or ghosts.

Final thoughts on DIY Halloween food

DIY Halloween snacks can be a fun way to celebrate the holiday with your friends and family. It can also be fun to spend some time preparing for Halloween with your kids.

If you’ve got too much on your plate, know that you can just get your party food ingredients delivered right to your door with Instacart. Just choose same-day delivery, and you’ll have all you need for your party in no time.

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