Top Halloween Resident Events
October 9, 2019 3:26 pm Leave your thoughts
Last year brought many spectacular in-person Halloween resident events. However, this year has transformed most resident events into virtual gatherings. Despite the current circumstances, you can still host an incredible Halloween Resident Event! Take your creativity to a virtual world and watch your community grow closer, even during challenging times.
Join me as we explore innovative and fun Halloween event ideas that you can easily adapt for your apartment community. I’ll share tips and tricks to make each event a success.
1 – Spooky Stories
Host a spooky story-time! With the help of modern technology, you can use a live social media stream, and invite your community to tune in. Instagram Live and Facebook Live are both great ways to broadcast your event to your property if in-person events aren’t possible.
Choose from an arrangement of spooky stories! There are plenty of family-friendly spooky stories that you can turn into a great event for all ages. You could also hand out a treat bag prior to the event to add a little extra celebration. Encourage your residents to light a candle, or use a flashlight to feel like they’re sitting right around the fire. Now you have the perfect spooky story setting!
2 – Resident Door Decorating Contest
Give your residents a chance to get creative and win a prize! Most people love to get into the Halloween spirit, but it can often be hard to decorate when you live in an apartment. That doesn’t have to be the case at your community, though! Encourage your residents to decorate their doors with spider webs, pumpkins, lights, and skeletons. Halloween resident events don’t have to be fancy. It doesn’t take much to get into the Halloween spirit! Residents with children who will be trick-or-treating will enjoy staying within their community too!
What better way to make your residents feel at home and part of a community than seeing everyone’s door decorated for the spooky season. If your residents need more visual ideas for decorating their doors, check our Halloween Pinterest board. Pinterest has SO many creative ways to decorate. What are you waiting for? Get your apartment community involved and start decorating!
3 – Host a Scary Movie Night
Sometimes it’s easier to watch a scary movie with someone, rather than watch it alone. For your next Halloween resident event, invite your apartment community to watch a scary movie or Halloween flick in the community room. You can make it family-friendly with Hocus Pocus, Nightmare Before Christmas, and Halloween Town.
Or you can make it scary and go with movies like The Haunting or The Sixth Sense. Whatever route you go, make sure you have some Halloween treats and décor to set the mood. Rest assured, you can’t go wrong with a scary movie and candy.
4 – Eco-Friendly Halloween Crafts
Enjoy a green Halloween with eco-friendly projects for your apartment community. Imagine your neighbors making haunting homes from cardboard boxes or lanterns from old jars with scary faces. These activities encourage creativity and recycling. Imagine fun collecting trash stuff and turning them into Halloween decorations. It helps you bond with family and neighbors while protecting the environment.
Try a friendly competition to spice things up. Challenge your community to make the most creative 100% recycled Halloween decorations. Showcase these paintings in common places to inspire and decorate. Your neighborhood gets beautifully decorated for Halloween and learns about sustainability. Create something unique and eco-friendly and take delight in it. Halloween should be about scares and sustainability, showcasing that creativity knows no limitations when we care for the earth.
5 – Halloween-Themed Cooking Contest
Dive into the Halloween spirit with a “Ghoulish Gourmet” cooking contest, a fresh addition to your Halloween festivities. This event is all about bringing people together through their shared love of food, spiced up with a dash of Halloween fun. Encourage dishes that scream creativity and embody the essence of Halloween. Think “Spookiest Snack” or “Most Bewitched Dish” as categories to spark your culinary imagination. It’s not just about cooking; it’s about sharing your unique story through your dishes. Whether it’s a family recipe with a spooky twist or a completely new creation, you’ll want to see it.
You can make this more than just a contest; you can turn it into a community event where everyone learns something new. After residents have whipped up their Halloween-themed masterpieces, they could join you in a virtual meet-up to share recipes and cooking tips. This isn’t just about showing off cooking skills; it’s about building connections, sharing stories, and learning from each other. Whether someone is a seasoned chef or a cooking novice, there’s a place for them in the “Ghoulish Gourmet.”
6 – Costume Contest
Costume contests are great because everyone can participate! You can have your contest be for all the kids in your apartment community or make it just for adults. We suggest you make it about your resident’s kids and pets. Not every adult likes to dress up, but it’s fun for most people to dress their kids and pets up for the day!
Don’t forget to include a special prize for the winner and as always post pictures on social media. That way everyone can see how much fun people have while living in your apartment community! If your residents need help with pet costume ideas, you can refer them to our Pinterest page. It has plenty of ideas to get those creative juices flowing.
For more innovative resident event ideas for Halloween, think about incorporating a costume swap to promote sustainability and provide new options for everyone’s Halloween attire.
Adding a DIY costume workshop before the costume contest allows residents to make their own costumes with help from local designers and artists. Shared activities and material reuse promote community, creativity, and sustainability. Add a “Best Homemade Costume” category to commemorate and encourage neighbors to participate. A video of the costume-making process and final contest on social media can extend participation beyond the event day, demonstrating community creativity and spirit.
7 – Virtual Halloween Costume Parade
Adding a virtual Halloween costume parade to your lineup of resident events brings a fresh twist to the classic costume contest. This digital parade allows everyone to show off their Halloween spirit from the comfort of their homes. Here’s how to get the ball rolling: First, choose a video conferencing platform like Zoom or Google Meet. This will be your parade ground. Next, spread the word through your community’s social media pages or email lists. Encourage participants to prepare a short story about their costumes. This adds a personal touch and makes the parade more engaging.
To make things even more interesting, introduce a virtual background contest. Participants can get creative with spooky or Halloween-themed backgrounds, adding an extra layer of fun to their presentations. This not only encourages creativity but also engagement, as everyone will be eager to see the different backgrounds. Set up a simple voting system for the best costumes and backgrounds. You could use online polls or have participants cast their votes in the chat during the event. Remember to offer prizes that excite, like gift cards or special treats, to motivate participation.
The virtual parade is inclusive, allowing everyone to join the fun, regardless of their comfort level with physical events. Plus, it’s a great opportunity for residents to connect, share laughs, and enjoy the Halloween festivities together. With a bit of planning and creativity, you can turn this virtual event into a highlight of your community’s Halloween celebrations.
8 – Fitness Challenge
Picture this: a virtual 5K “Zombie Run” where participants dash away from virtual zombies, pumping adrenaline and burning calories, all from the safety of their neighborhood or treadmill. Add to that “Monster Yoga” sessions led by local fitness instructors, featuring Halloween-themed playlists to keep the vibe spooky yet soothing. These events are not just about getting fit; they’re about having fun and embracing the Halloween spirit in a unique, active way.
Partnering with local fitness experts brings a professional touch to these sessions, ensuring they’re not only enjoyable but also beneficial for your health. Imagine doing yoga poses like the “Witch’s Cat” or sprinting in the “Vampire Dash,” all while dressed in your Halloween best. It’s a fantastic opportunity to start or continue your fitness journey, meet neighbors with similar interests, and celebrate Halloween in a lively, healthy manner.
9 – DIY Haunted Apartment
Transforming your apartment community or clubhouse into a mini haunted house brings a thrilling twist to Halloween festivities. Or, encourage residents to turn each of their apartments into their own versions of a haunted house.
Start by repurposing common household items for decorations. Think outside the box: white sheets become ghostly figures, red food coloring enhances spooky scenes, and string lights set a chilling mood. Safety is key, so use battery-operated candles for that flickering effect without the fire risk. Get creative with spaces, turning closets into mystery rooms and balconies into eerie lookout points.
Why not share this haunted experience with the community? Host a virtual tour or a photo contest of these spooky spaces. This approach lets everyone join the fun without stepping outside. Use social media or email to showcase your haunted house creations. Encourage storytelling by asking participants to share the tales behind their eerie setups. This strengthens community bonds and makes this Halloween one to remember.
10 – Host a Pumpkin Carving Party
Pumpkin carving is fun for both kids AND adults! Get your apartment community into the Halloween spirit by carving some pumpkins! You know Market Apartments will always encourage you to make it into a contest! Why? Because it gets people excited! Who doesn’t like a little competition now and then? You can pick up pumpkin carving stencils and patterns from just about any store, and they’re pretty cheap too! Put together carving kits for your residents and let the fun begin!
Another fun way to use pumpkins is to decorate them using paint. If you’re not into the mess pumpkin carving makes, you might opt for pumpkin painting instead.
There are so many ways to go about this and make it so great! Option 1: Have residents do it before a certain date and have them email in their submission. You post in on social media and let your residents and friends vote for their favorite. Option 2: Have a little pumpkin carving contest. You can do BYOP (Bring your own pumpkin). Have snacks and drinks and at the end of the night, you pick your favorite pumpkin. Option 3: Have residents Carve pumpkins by a certain date and put them in front of the leasing office as a cute decoration. As residents or prospects come through the office, they can vote for their favorite!
Add a prize to up the fun!
As Halloween quickly approaches, you’ll need to get started on your Halloween resident events planning. You can do one or all of the things mentioned above for an epic Halloween resident event! Make sure to tag Marketapts on Instagram so we can see how it turned out! If you need help with anything regarding apartment marketing, be sure to visit our MarketApts website! Happy planning!
Apartment Halloween Cards
It’s the most wonderful time of the year! ‘Tis the Season! Hope your days are spooky and bright! Uh oh. We might be mixing up our holidays…it’s just that Halloween is such a great time to give out cards alongside the candy, that sometimes we look at it as a gift-giving holiday as much as a candy-giving one!
As a property manager, don’t you want to give your residents the same glow that December brings? Then hand out these great Halloween cards to all your residents’ doors! Just email sales@marketapts.com with the subject line “Halloween cards” to get a free download of these cards! (PDF only).
Boo!
To Conclude
With these unique ideas for Halloween celebrations within apartment communities, we hope we’ve highlighted the variety of ways you can engage residents. From pumpkin carving to costume contests and haunted houses, there’s a rich tapestry of opportunities for property managers to create memorable, impactful events.
As you try out these thoughtful approaches to celebrating, you can foster a stronger, more connected community spirit, proving that Halloween is more than just a night of frights—it’s a season of significant communal and economic engagement.
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Categorised in: Apartment Marketing, For Property Managers
This post was written by Isabella Housel
Isabella Housel is a passionate and versatile professional writer with a deep love for words and a commitment to crafting compelling content that engages, informs, and inspires. With many years of experience in the industry, she has honed her skills across various genres, from creative storytelling to informative articles and technical documentation.