The spookiest time of the year is coming up, which means you’re probably getting ready to dress up and get your scare on. One of the best parts about Halloween parties is that they give us a chance to transform ourselves for a night and become our favorite characters.
We’ve got great ways to incorporate your hot tub into your Halloween party this year to make it a unique and chilling experience. Here are some tips to help you throw the best Halloween hot tub party around.
Clean Your Hot Tub For a Horrific Night
Though you may want to scare your guests on Halloween, you don’t want to scare them out of your hot tub. Make sure to clean your hot tub and its water before your party. Test the water’s chemical balance and clean your filters. This will ensure that your water will stay as clean and bacteria-free as possible when your guests are in it.
If it’s been more than four months since you’ve filled your hot tub with fresh water or you notice your water is dirty, you should drain the water before your Halloween party. Then, after the tub
is drained, thoroughly clean the shell’s surface and jets. After that, fill the tub back up with water. Add in the appropriate chemicals and sanitizers, and quickly run the hot tub to move the water around with jets.
Spooky Invitations
As with any party, you can invite a large or small group of people depending on your preference. Whether you invite people online, with a letter or with a phone call, try to make it as
spooky as possible. Call your house “The Lair,” inform your guests that you think your house may be haunted and tell them you’ll be offering freshly-brewed drinks from the cauldron.
When making invitations for your hot tub party, think about the amount of people the hot tub can hold. If you want a small, intimate party, make sure to limit the number of people to that which can comfortably fit in your hot tub, or invite a handful more so that the people outside of the hot tub don’t feel like they are left out. If you’re hosting a bigger party, you won’t have to worry about this as much because there will be enough people both outside and inside of the spa.
In the invitation, tell people you have a hot tub so that they bring a swimsuit and wear costumes that they can easily change out of. For even more fun, test the creativity of your guests by
challenging them to make their swimsuit a part of their costume.
Frightening Decorations
Halloween parties are all about the decorations. To make your party a true success, you need to spend a lot of time making your party space feel haunted and spooky. We’ll start with the hot tub. We recommend transforming your spa into an “Acid Tub” for the evening. If you have a ThermoSpas hot tub with LED lighting, set your lights to green. Add
submersible green LED lights to your water for an even more striking effect. Then, hang up a “Danger Acid” sign near your hot tub to create the perfect illusion. Your guests will love it.
If an Acid Pool doesn’t excite you, how about a large witch’s cauldron where your guests become the missing ingredients? Change your LED lighting to purple and create a sign with cardboard that reads “Boiling Witch’s Cauldron: Humans Needed.” Place some witch hats, brooms and other witch props around the hot tub to reinforce the illusion. Then, watch your spa transform into a cauldron as you take off your hot tub cover and see purple-lit steam float into the sky.
Or, if you really want to spook your guests, turn your hot tub into a “Dead Man’s Pool” for the night. Switch your LED lighting to red and add submersible red LED lights to your water for a more blood-red appearance. Place plastic skeletons, bones, body parts and skulls on the area around your hot tub. Then, hang up a cardboard sign that reads, “Dead Man’s Pool: Enter If You Dare.”
If your hot tub is outside, set up a fog machine somewhere in your backyard to create a truly eerie environment. Stick fake tombstones in your grass, lay skeletons on the floor and put rubber
snakes, insects and rats in your bushes. You can also cut out bat shapes from black construction paper and hang them in trees, drape fake cobwebs over your bushes and stick motion sensor props near where people are likely to be. This will be sure to give your guests a scare.
Hauntingly Fun Games
Games are a great way to break the ice and set the mood of your party. Here are some great Halloween games you can play to get the party started and keep it going.
1. Costume Contest
When everyone has arrived, kick off the night with a costume contest. Have everyone write down their favorite costume on an index card and give it to you. Make sure to check the cards to make sure no one votes for themselves. The top five winners get first dibs on going in the hot tub. You can also offer them a prize, like a Halloween basket filled with sweet snacks and candy. After the contest, invite guests into the hot tub.
2. Scary Stories in the Hot Tub
Once people have settled into the hot tub, invite them to share their scariest stories. Make sure you have a couple of freaky stories prepared so that you can kick it off. For a truly haunting
experience, buy a submersible flashlight to pass around.
3. Guess Who
Have guests pull index cards from a hat. Each of these cards should feature the name of a famous character from a horror movie. Without the guest seeing their card, have them tape it to their
forehead so that the other guests can see it. Then, they should ask other guests yes or no questions about the character taped to their forehead to try to figure out who it is.
Bone-Chilling Tunes
A party isn’t a party without music, and great Halloween tunes can really help to set the mood. We recommend playing a mix of Halloween classics (like Thriller and Monster Mash) with iconic horror movie hits (like the Jaws and Psycho theme songs) during the beginning of the party. Once people have had a few drinks in them and they are ready to really party later in the night, stop playing the movie songs and just play the classic Halloween hits with normal party songs. For the best musical experience possible, play music in your hot tub with a ThermoSpas deluxe sound
system.
Sickeningly Good Food & Drinks
We recommend you have your party after dinner, so that it’s dark outside. For snacks, set out chips (labeled “Bone Shards”), salsa (labeled “Blended Man”) and guacamole (labeled “Blended Frog). You can also bake some “Eyeball” peanut butter balls and skeleton cookies for desserts. Wicked Ways Productions has some great Halloween recipes available.
For drinks, we recommend serving blood-red fruit punch or black as death cola. Don’t forget to have your guests drink water, especially if they are drinking sugary drinks and using the hot tub. It’s
important that they stay hydrated while soaking in warm water.
It’s best to avoid eating in your hot tub. This way, you don’t damage your filters. Keep finger foods available on a table nearby for quick bites outside of the spa. Also, make sure to only use
plastic cups in the hot tub for drinks. Remember, both hot water and alcohol cause dehydration, so if your guests are drinking alcohol, make sure they limit their time in the hot tub and drink responsibly.
More Halloween Hot Tub Party Preparations
Some guests may forget to bring towels, swimsuits or even a costume. It’s good to have a plethora of extra towels available near the hot tub, and a swimsuit or two incase someone doesn’t bring
one. Offer a variety of old Halloween costumes to guest who forget theirs so that everyone gets to enjoy the Halloween fun.
We hope these tips help you to throw the best Halloween party you’ve ever had. When another holiday comes along, make sure to keep an eye on our blog. We’ll be sure to keep posting more hot tub holiday party ideas.
