Halloween Party Ideas with Dry Ice

Are you hosting a Halloween party this year? Create a spooky setting with dry ice and you’ll have a scary party that no one will forget! We’ve put together a list of a few haunting ways to use dry ice to wow your party guests, but make sure you stay safe with these guidelines before you get the party started.  

Dry ice safety tips: Dry ice is a highly compressed, solid form of carbon dioxide. It gives off a safe, thick smoke when submerged in warm water. Dry ice should be handled with care, however, because it is extremely cold. Wear thick gloves or use tongs when handling dry ice to avoid prolonged contact with skin, which can cause irritation similar to burns. Dry ice should always be stored in either an insulated cooler or a Styrofoam container. Remember: Never place dry ice in an air tight container as the pressure built up could cause the container to burst.

Spooky Halloween Party Ideas with Dry Ice

Graveyard Fog

Get guests excited for your party before they even walk through the door. Decorate the front yard with a thick layer of fog. Create an eerie graveyard setting by placing fake gravestones on your lawn. Purchase gravestones at a décor store or make your own out of spray-painted Styrofoam or wood. Cover the lawn with leaves and make sure to aim some lights on the scene. Use a dry ice fog machine to get perfect movie-quality fog flowing over your graveyard.

Smoking Jack-o-Lantern

Did you spend time carving a pumpkin? Show off your jack-o-lantern with flowing fog seeping out of its mouth! Just before your guests arrive, place a bowl of hot water inside the pumpkin, put a piece of dry ice in with the water, and watch the fog begin to flow out of the pumpkin. Place your pumpkin on the table to have the fog float around or put your pumpkin outside and let the fog flow down your front steps.

Important note: The carbon dioxide from the dry ice will likely snuff out the candle in the jack-o-lantern. Use battery powered pumpkin lights to keep your pumpkin glowing. These lights are a safe and popular choice, and are widely available for purchase at low prices.

Witch’s Cauldron

A boiling witch’s brew is an easy option for a spooky centerpiece. Get a black cauldron from a Halloween store or dollar store. Cover the sides with cobwebs and spiders to make it look extra ghoulish. Place a piece of dry ice inside the cauldron and add hot water. Watch with delight as the cauldron boils over! You will need to add or replace hot water and dry ice pieces over the course of the evening to keep the cauldron’s boiling over effect looking great. Keep an electric kettle full of water in the kitchen and use it when the smoke starts to dissipate.

Dry ice tips: Use a 3:1 water to dry ice ratio to create a thick fog. It’s best to use a heavy plastic bowl that is 4-5 times as large as the piece of dry ice you place in it. Then fill it with the 3 parts hot water.

Mad Scientist’s Lab

The mad scientist’s lab is a great décor and costume idea. Get glass jars, tubes, and beakers and fill the containers with water and food colouring. Have a few “experiments” underway in your laboratory, using the same process as the witch’s cauldron: place dry ice in a few of the beakers and fill with hot water. Wear a white lab coat, coke bottle glasses, and thick green rubber gloves. Make sure you mess up your hair and add baby powder if you want to add some grey. Carry around a large test tube flowing with fog and you’ll complete the look. The best part of this costume is that it makes it easy to manage the dry ice throughout the party; you’re already wearing protective gloves!

Creepy Cocktails

Don’t limit dry ice to table decorations. You can create spook-tacular cocktails that are safe to drink. MistyStix are dry ice swizzle sticks filled with food-safe dry ice pellets. Once the stick is placed in the cocktail it will start to create a fog that flows over the brim of the beverage. These flowing foggy cocktails are crowd pleasers that are sure to have your guests raving about your Halloween party for years to come.

We hope you like these crafty and creepy Halloween décor ideas using dry ice. If you want to incorporate dry ice into your Halloween party then place a dry ice order with The Iceman today. We’ll set you up with the right amount of dry ice to keep your party guests spooked all evening long. We supply Toronto with a wide range of dry ice products, along with rental items and MistyStix.

Make sure you send us photos of your Halloween decorations to show us how your party décor turned out. Share them with us over The Iceman Facebook page.