Halloween Charades is a fun and easy Halloween party game that you can play with all ages. And the best bit is that you can play charades without needing any preparation! But if you do like to be a little more organised, I’ve got a free printable Halloween charades game for you to grab!
My kids love playing Charades whenever we have catch-ups with the extended family! I love this because they are typically quite shy kids but they love the chance to have their go at acting out a word or activity. But sometimes we all get stumped on words to play next, so having a themed Charades game can make it much easier to come up with words and a little easier to guess too.
If you’re looking for more Charades themes to try, grab my free printable Christmas Charades game, and camping Charades game.
How to Play Halloween Charades
Charades is a classic party game that can be easily adapted to a Halloween theme.
Best of all, there are a few different ways to play charades (and these 3 below aren’t the only ways to play). Mixing it up is what makes the game even more exciting and it can help make the game more fun for people who don’t necessarily enjoy the acting out part!
Ideally, you will need a timer to play. Although not essential, it does keep things fair and keep the game moving. If you don’t have a digital timer or similar, you can use the timer on your phone too.
Below I share a few variations for you to try next time you play charades:
1. Traditional Charades Rules
- Divide players into two teams.
- Each team will take turns acting out Halloween-related words or phrases for their teammates to guess.
- The person acting out the word cannot speak, use props, sing, mouth words or make any noises. They can only use body language, movement and facial expressions to convey the word or phrase.
- Their teammates have a set amount of time (usually one minute) to guess the word or phrase. If a teammate guesses the word correctly, their team gets a point.
- Then switch to the other team for their turn to guess a word.
- The team with the most points at the end of the game wins, either when you reach a set number of points (i.e. first team to 10 points) or when you decide to finish playing.
2. Rapid-Fire Charades
This version works similarly to regular Halloween party charades, except this time you have rounds for a set amount of time, such as 2 minutes. During this time, teams must try and guess as many Halloween charades words as they can before the timer ends. Then switch to the other team to do the same.
Typically each round has a different person acting out the words so it rotates per round rather than per word.
This can be a much quicker, fast-paced way to play and it’s a great Halloween game for teens and adults or even as a classroom or work Halloween party game.
3. Pictionary Charades (Draw It)
For a twist on the traditional game, you can also play a Pictionary version of Halloween charades using the same word list. This version does require a little extra prep since you will need paper and pencils to play.
A pair of large sketch pads or scrapbooks work great! Alternatively, use a large dry-erase board and some dry-erase markers or a chalkboard and chalk instead.
- Instead of acting out words or phrases, one person from each team will draw a Halloween-related word or phrase on a piece of paper. They cannot use any words or numbers, either written or spoken.
- Their teammates have a set amount of time to guess the word or phrase based on the drawing.
- The team with the most points at the end of the game wins.
List Of Common Charades Actions
If you’ve played charades before, you might already know a few of these charades actions that help your team guess a bit easier. Start your round with these cues to help speed up the process, especially if you’re playing rapid charades!
- Number of words: Hold up the corresponding number of fingers.
- Song: Pretend to sing (without making a sound).
- Movie: Mimic cranking a film camera.
- TV show: Use your fingers to draw a square (a TV shape).
- Book: Open and close imaginary book covers.
- Play: Pull an imaginary curtain open.
- Sounds like: Tug on your ear then mimic the action of a word that rhymes.
- Quote or phrase: Make air quotes.
- Person: Point to yourself.
- Object: Hold out your hand as if presenting an object.
Halloween Charades Word List
Don’t have a printer? That’s okay! You can use this list of Halloween Charades words to make your own charades game for your spooky celebration. Just write them each on pieces of paper or sticky notes and fold them up in a bowl.
Or just go in order of the list (without peeking ahead). If you’re doing it this way, having a person who isn’t playing the game who can share the words is a good option to prevent accidentally looking ahead at the next words.
Here is a list of Halloween-themed words and phrases:
- Witch
- Ghost
- Pumpkin
- Candy corn
- Vampire
- Trick or treating
- Decorating for Halloween
- Werewolf
- Frankenstein
- Mummy
- Spider
- Haunted house
- Watching a scary movie
- Skeleton
- Zombie
- Ate too much candy
- Making a Halloween costume
- Cauldron
- Riding a broomstick
- Carving a pumpkin
- Bobbing for apples
- Telling ghost stories
- Monster mash
- A Nightmare Before Christmas
- Hocus Pocus
- Full moon
- Group costume
- Getting a fright
- Halloween party
- Toilet papering a house
- Scream
- Graveyard
- Horror movie
- Spiderweb
- Riding a ghost train
- Casper
Free Printable Halloween charades Game
Halloween charades is a game that you can play without needing any equipment or prep, but if you want to be organised for your Halloween party, grab my free Halloween charades printable and cut them out ahead of time so there are no excuses for not coming up with spooky words to play!
There are 36 cards in total ranging between easy and more challenging. There are also blank cards for you to create your own in case you want to add your own favourite Halloween movies, songs, foods or scary traditions into the mix. You can get this free printable, along with other printable games, in my free printable library!
Halloween-themed charades is a simple game that can be enjoyed by people of all ages making it a great game to play with the family or friends during your Halloween party or as a Halloween group game. I hope my free printable Halloween Charades ideas bring plenty of fun to your spooky celebrations!