Boy, did you come to the right place! Halloween is a favorite holiday around here, and every year we look forward to concocting ideas for a frightfest kids won't soon forget. A school festival sounds like a super way to celebrate, and the following ideas for games, crafts and foods can help make it a screaming success.

Games are the backbone of any great party, so have several running simultaneously to ensure kids won't wait long to participate. Besides bobbing for apples and participating in a dangling cookie-eating contest, there are plenty of Halloween games that are appropriate for all ages. Kids can test their aim by playingring-around-the-pumpkin, try to guess the pumpkin's weight, run hurry-scurry in spider relays and Waiter! races. Younger kids will enjoy rounds of Mummy Wrap while older kids get a thrill from meeting the chilling Mr. Kreeps. Everyone will love fishing for fortunes from a mysterious teller.

Setting up craft booths is a great idea. They can help organize the crowd into manageable groups while giving the kids an entertaining way to take a break from the action. Invite artists to unleash their creepiest creativity while crafting ghost prints, decorating painted pumpkins (possibly for a contest), whipping up batches of oozing slime, creating jet-black cats or adding their mark to a huge glow-in-the-dark mural. These projects are frightfully fun, and the cost of supplies won't strain the school budget.

With all the fun activities going on, partiers are likely to work up monstrous appetites. By offering treats baked in the spirit of the night, like vampire or creepy cupcakes, jack-o'-cookies, ghost lollipops and chocolate-covered marshmallow spiders, your sale is guaranteed to make a killing. A grinning jack-o'-lantern cake centerpiece is also sure to lure customers.

Of course, no organized event would be complete without a parade finale. Kids are sure to jump at the chance to show off their spooky splendor. Play some monster music and invite kids to march around the room. Once everyone has a chance to admire and be admired, declare everyone's costume equally gruesome and hand out pumpkin-head pencil and spider pop favors.

For even more party, craft and food ideas, visit our Halloween Fright Site.