3 Fun Halloween Games

Do you plan to skip trick-or-treating this Halloween? You don’t have to skip all the candy fun. This year, switch up your traditions and try some Halloween candy games to get your family together for a night of craziness and laughter.

Here are three fun candy Halloween activities that will get your whole family celebrating.

1. Don’t Eat Pete!

In the game “Don’t Eat Pete,” players get to eat candy on every turn. It’s a way to be silly, make some noise, and eat candy all at the same time.

To play, draw a 3 x 3 grid on a piece of paper, and put a small candy, like an M&M or a jelly bean, in each square. Have a leader secretly choose a piece to be “Pete.” Then let the rest of the people take turns eating the candy. When someone eats the chosen piece, the leader yells “Don’t eat Pete!” and you start a new round.

For an alternative version, send one player out of the room and have the rest of the group choose “Pete.” Then the player returns and starts eating the candy. When the player eats “Pete,” everybody yells together, “Don’t eat Pete!”

2. M&M Knife Game

In the M&M Knife Game, each player gets to scoop up their own candy--with a knife! Fill a bowl with M&M’s, then pass around a butter knife and let each person try to scoop up a serving of candy. You’ll have a great time watching the tricks and techniques kids use to keep candy from sliding off the knife blade.

3. Guess the Number of Candies--With Math!

Fill a small glass jar with candies and have people guess how many are in the jar. But they can use math to guess!

Use a scale to weigh an empty jar, weigh the full jar to find the weight of the candy, and weigh extra candy pieces to find their individual weight. Then divide the weight of the candy by the weight of one candy to find how many there are total.

You can also invite kids to count the pieces they see and guess how many more there are, or just guess wild numbers. After the game, give the candy to the winner--or let everyone eat it together!

Keep Your Halloween Fun

This year, turning away from extra Halloween activities can help us turn towards our families instead. Dress up in costumes, carve your favorite Jack-o’-lanterns, and play the silliest Halloween games you can think of. Because Halloween’s not just about candy--it’s about having fun together.

Need more family Halloween activities? You can find candy science ideas on the Candy Experiments page.

4 Great Experiments for Destroying Halloween Candy

Overloaded with Halloween candy? It’s time to get your candy bubbling, breaking, melting, freezing, and oozing with candy experiments.
Here are four great ways to get your kids destroying candy and learning science at the same time.


1. Acid Test Station

Set up a table with bowls, water, and baking soda so that kids can dissolve candy and mix in baking soda to test it for acid. Keep some vinegar nearby to make a lot of bubbles for a final show-stopper!


Encourage kids to tell you what else they notice. What does the mix smell like? What colors do they see? What happens when they mix the colors? Little kids have a lot of fun just unwrapping candy and dumping it in, so give them a bowl and a big spoon and watch what happens!


2. Melting Station

When you melt candy, amazing things happen. Not only do you create beautiful pools of colored candy, you see secret ingredients like palm oil.
Starburst Candy Oil Test
Try melting candy on a microwavable plate to reveal secret ingredients or have melting races. Or cover a baking sheet with aluminum foil and put on several different kinds of candy to see how they melt and which survives the longest!
Melting Candy Experiment


3. Sink and Float Station

Can you sink a marshmallow? Can you float a piece of taffy? Smash the air bubbles out of a 3 Musketeers bar, or unwrap floating candy to remove trapped air pockets?
Prepare this station by pouring out big bowls of water. You may also want to put out a cutting board or mat so that kids can cut and smash candy as they experiment.


4. Creation Station

What about all extra candy that no one’s going to eat? Set up a Creation Station and let your kids just play around. They can stick candy together to make art, braid Red Vines, add M&M’s eyeballs, or try painting with M&M's.


Enjoy Your Crazy Candy Experiments Lab!

Once you've got your laboratory set up, your kids will have lots of activities to choose from. So get out the candy, stand back, and let your kids go crazy!