Halloween Fairy Tale Games – 5 Magical Games for Children and Adults

Nasty witches, evil fairies and hungry wolves – fairy tales are full of horror characters and are therefore perfect for Halloween. Here are 5 Halloween fairy tale games that will provide fun and entertainment at your Halloween party.

Halloween is the evening of the year when the veil between this world and the other world is at its thinnest. In ancient times, the Celtic festival of the dead, Samhain, was celebrated in Ireland on the night of October 31st to November 1st. It was believed that the gates to the spirit world opened temporarily between sunset and dawn. And other beings were also up to mischief on this night: Witches and goblins, ghouls and werewolves – a veritable pandemonium of the uncanny.

Perhaps to avoid attracting attention in such eerie company, or to frighten the unwanted visitors from other worlds, the Irish began to dress up themselves. Irish immigrants brought the tradition to the USA and from there it spread around the world and the rest, as they say, is history.

Halloween is a festival of fantasy and many of the classic characters associated with it, such as witches and ghosts, also appear in fairy tales. There are also some Irish fairy tales and legends associated with Halloween, particularly the legend of ‘Stingy Jack’, the miserly Jack who is the origin of Jack O’Lanterns, the hollowed out pumpkin lanterns.

But Grimm’s fairy tales are also a popular source of inspiration for Halloween costumes, as the magical world conjured up in fairy tales fits in perfectly with the special atmosphere of Halloween. Especially in their original versions, many of these fairy tales are also quite dark and scary and are therefore a treasure trove for horror fans.

5 Halloween Fairy Tale Games

While the best-known Halloween tradition is certainly children parading around the houses and emphatically asking for sweets (“trick or treat”), there are also many Halloween parties, whether for children, teenagers or adults. In addition to Halloween decorations and original costumes, a proper Halloween party also includes a few suitable games.

The following Halloween fairy tale games all celebrate the dark, spooky side of the fairy tale world and are perfect for your Halloween party. These five Halloween fairy tale games are a great way to combine the mystical world of fairy tales with the spooky fun of Halloween. Whether indoors or outdoors, for children or adults – these games will turn your Halloween party into an unforgettable experience full of excitement and magical moments.

1. The Murderous Fairy Tale Quiz

Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, Little Red Riding Hood or The Frog Prince – almost everyone knows some fairy tales. But how good is your knowledge of fairy tales really and which gruesome details do you remember? You can put your guests to the test with the murderous fairy tale quiz.

Game Rules

• Prepare a series of questions about well-known fairy tales that have a spooky twist. For example: “Which fairy tale tells of a witch who eats children?” (answer: Hansel and Gretel) or “Who lives in a gloomy castle and forces a young girl to stay with him?” (Answer: Beauty and the Beast).
• Divide your guests into teams and take it in turns to ask them your questions. Each correctly guessed fairy tale is worth one point and, of course, the team with the most points at the end is the winner. Alternatively, you can set up the quiz like a pub quiz, i.e. each team writes down their answers instead of saying them out loud and they are only evaluated at the end or after each round.</li

Spooky Twist

To add variety to the quiz, you can also have the participants guess a scary sound. For example, you can play the sound of someone biting into an apple (Snow White), frogs croaking (The Frog Prince) or the sound of a knife slashing something (Little Red Riding Hood or The Wolf and the Seven Billy Goats).

2. The Cursed Fairy Tale Characters

This role-playing game combines dressing up with puzzle solving and makes for an unforgettable Halloween night. It is ideal for a manageable number of players (approx. 4-8) who all enjoy dressing up. In this game, they slip into the role of cursed fairy tale characters and the aim of the game is to lift their curse.

In order to prepare the game, you need to know in advance which fairytale characters will be playing, so you should consult with your guests beforehand so that you know which fairytale characters are coming to your Halloween party. The characters should be as well-known as possible, e.g. Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, the Frog King and Hansel.

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Game Rules:

• Each player chooses a classic fairytale character, such as Snow White, Sleeping Beauty or
  Puss in Boots, and is given a background story in which this character is afflicted by an evil curse.
• At the start of the game, all players receive a puzzle with clues about their curse and how to break it. They must solve these puzzles to find out which items they need to find and what action they need to take to break the curse.
• The first person to lift the curse on their fairytale character wins.

It is not absolutely necessary for a curse to actually occur in the fairy tale, as you can always invent a suitable one. You should also think about which object or action will lift the curse. Here are a few examples:

Snow White

• Curse: was poisoned with an apple
• Redemption: must find an antidote. This could be a pear, for example, which Snow White has to bite into.

Sleeping Beauty

• Curse: lies in a hundred-year sleep after pricking itself on a spindle
• Redemption: must find a prince to kiss her awake. Instead of the prince’s kiss, eating a cookie from a “prince’s roll” could bring redemption in the game.</li

The Frog King

• Curse: The Frog Prince is actually a prince who was turned into a frog
• Redemption: The frog must be thrown against the wall. In the game, the task could be to hit a small Forsch made of rubber (or wine gum frogs) with a badminton racket so that it flies through the air.

Hansel

• Curse: is held captive in a cage by a witch who wants to cook him
• Redemption: He has to fool the witch by holding out a bone instead of his finger. There are plastic bones as Halloween decorations, which Hansel has to find in this case.</li

3. Fabulous Treasure Hunt in the Haunted Forest

This game is perfect for outdoors or in a larger room that is transformed into a “haunted forest” with Halloween decorations. The players embark on an adventurous treasure hunt in which they discover fairytale clues.

Game Rules:

• • Hide clues and small treasures (for example sweets or small toys) in various places that lead to a bigger prize
  • Each clue is linked to a fairytale riddle. For example: “The witch lives in the gingerbread house, find the path to her oven!” or “There is a key in the enchanted tower – look for it near Rapunzel’s hair.”
  • The players have to solve the puzzles to get to the next station and finally find the “cursed treasure”

To create a suitable Halloween atmosphere in the “haunted forest”, you can use spooky and atmospheric music and set up suitable decorations such as artificial cobwebs or ghostly figures. Glowin-the-dark pumpkins (Jack O’Lanterns) also make perfect decorative highlights.

Incidentally, this applies to all Halloween fairytale games: the more effort you put into the decorations and your costumes, the more atmospheric and unforgettable your party will be.

4. The Homemade Witch’s House Board Game

The witch board game is an idea for a self-designed board game. To realize it, you need fun and motivation to do a bit of drawing and crafting. The game is based on the fairy tale “Hansel and Gretel” and is ideal for children who love the spooky but don’t like it too scary.

Preparation

Draw a simple playing field on paper, cardboard or even a real board with a path leading through the forest to a witch’s house. The path should consist of many squares and there should be a starting square at the edge of the forest. If you like, you can also include forks in the path so that there are several routes leading to the goal.

Some of the fields should trigger events that are related to spooky fairy tales or Halloween. You can find some ideas on what these could be in the gameplay section.

You also need a dice and a number of playing pieces for the witch’s house board game. You can either use small wooden figures from another board game such as “Mensch ärgere dich nicht” or (even better) make some yourself that look like fairy tale figures. In any case, you need a figure that represents the witch.

Game Rules:

• The players roll the dice in turn and move forward on the board. They have to complete tasks on certain spaces, such as answering fairy tale questions, “tasting” a witch’s brew (a fun, harmless Halloween sweet), or completing a small craft task (e.g. painting a gingerbread man).
• After all players have rolled the dice and placed their figure, it is the witch’s turn. Her figure starts in the witch’s house and she moves through the forest in the direction of the starting square until she reaches it, then she turns back to the witch’s house. If the witch comes to a square with one or more players, she captures them. They must sit out a round and then start again at the starting square.
• Tougher rules: to make it more difficult, you can also play so that the witch always moves in the direction where she can catch the most players or, if this is not possible, then in the direction of the player figure that is closest to her. This way, the witch is always close on the players’ heels.
• The aim is to reach the witch’s house first without being caught by the witch. The reward is gingerbread (or other sweets) for everyone.

5. The Ghost Dance of the Fairy Tale Characters

This movement game combines the well-known “musical chairs” with a fairytale, spooky theme and is particularly suitable for younger children.

Game Rules:

• The children dress up as fairy tale characters (for example as witches, princes, fairies or ghosts).
• Scary music is played and the children dance around a row of chairs decorated as a “haunted castle”.
• Each time the music stops, the children must quickly “flee” to a chair. Anyone who doesn’t get a chair is eliminated until there is only one winner left.
• If someone is eliminated, they have to help scare the other players as a “ghost” by quietly walking around them and making scary noises.

We wish you a spooky Halloween and lots of fun playing these Halloween fairy tale games! Also check out our templates for more Halloween games to print out in our store!

Here at Greatime you will not only find more Halloween ideas, but also numerous tips for other occasions, such as Christmas and New Year’s Eve, Valentine’s Day or Easter. But our website is also a treasure trove of ideas for leisure activities, whether for friends, couples or families.

While you’re here, take a look at our shop and browse through the occasion-related games that are available there as PDFs to print out.

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