Need help withj Halloween Party

mommyaug06

We are having a surprise 60th for my mom. It will be Halloween weekend so we are having everyone dress up! My mom did this years ago when my brother and I were very young although then they were adults only,. We are having kids because she has so many grandkids and we know she would want them there.

Anyway we want to do a costume contest to get people to dress up. What kids of prizes would you give? I have a friend who is an Avon rep and is putting together a gift basket. Should we do categories like BEST MALE and BEST FEMALE or should we do scariest, funniest, most creative? What other prizes should we get? I was thinking about maybe a basket with wine, chocolates and a candle, a case of beer, maybe a Baltimore Ravens theme gift basket. Any thoughts or other ideas? We really want people to participate. We dont want to spend a fortune but we would like to make the prizes nice. 

TIA!

ThisModernLove

Since you'll have different age groups, could you maybe give little "prize packs" to the littler kids so they don't feel left out.  I would do categories, I think it gives more people a chance to win rather than just one male and one female.  You could always do some type of homemade gifts too like tins of fudge or something like that?

crissy89

ThisModernLove:

 You could always do some type of homemade gifts too like tins of fudge or something like that?

Oh... I like fudge!

katarczyna

How many people will be coming? That will depend on my suggestion about how many categories. About 20% max should get prizes, IMO.

mommyaug06

We are inviting 80.

JennyQ1985

You could do Halloween picture frames so they can use it to put a picture of their winning costume in there.

Bags of candy & toy favors for the kids.

Bottles of wine for the adults. 

festivegal2008

I like the idea of categories too. Don't go too overboard so you don't end up spending a fortune on prizes though. Maybe stick to scariest, funniest and most original (normally I'd have said sexiest too but with kids there that one is best to be left out), then do up goody bags for the kids. For the avon gift basket, will there be men's and women's stuff inside, you know, just in case all the winners happen to be male? Also not sure about wine only for that same reason - most men prefer beer over wine, eh? I like the idea of the home made goodies like fudge and cookies or bread of some kind.

festivegal2008

JennyQ1985:

You could do Halloween picture frames so they can use it to put a picture of their winning costume in there

I like this idea too. You could easily make something like this too, if you can't find a cute one to buy as it is. Then you can put it in a basket with some Halloween or fall ornaments/candles/candle holders.