Funny Halloween Gifts (and a Personalized Haunted House to Send)

Halloween 2026 is Saturday, 31 October. The best Halloween gift is rarely the biggest bag of sweets. It's the one that makes them jump — and then laugh at themselves for jumping.

Below: funny gifts that cost next to nothing, ideas for her, for your boyfriend and for the friend who had the skeletons up in September, messages to send with any of them, what to do when you can't be at the party — and a haunted house they open from a link, with a teddy hiding behind them.

Funny Halloween gifts that cost almost nothing

The cheap ones are often the best ones, because the joke is the gift:

• A fake spider where they'll find it — in a shoe, a cereal box, the fridge door. The scream is the present; the sweets come after.
• Their favourite sweets in a jar labelled "Witch's Remedy" — three minutes with a pen turns a bag of sweets into a joke they keep on the shelf.
• A pumpkin carved with their face — badly, on purpose. Send the photo before it collapses.
• A horror-film night where you pick the films and they pick the snacks — and you both pretend you're not behind the cushion.
• A matching costume, sprung on them — the worse it is, the better the photos.
• A certificate of bravery for whoever makes it to the end of the scariest film without looking away.

Funny Halloween messages to send

• Happy Halloween! I'd tell you to be careful tonight, but honestly the ghosts should be careful of you.

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• I was going to dress up as something scary this year, then remembered I'm already your problem. Happy Halloween.

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• Happy Halloween — may your sweets be plentiful and your jump scares mostly fake.

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• Somebody has to be the scariest thing at the party. Happy Halloween — it's you.

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• Boo! That's the whole message. Happy Halloween.

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• Eat the sweets first. The costume is optional. Happy Halloween.

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• If a ghost follows you home tonight, be nice to it. It's probably me. Happy Halloween.

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• Trick or treat? You're the treat. The trick is I've already eaten your chocolate.

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• Happy Halloween to my favourite creature of the night — the one who's never on time.

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• Happy Halloween! Don't look behind you. (Too late.)

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For her, for your boyfriend, and for the Halloween lover

For her: cute usually beats gory. A black-cat mug, a blanket big enough for two for the film, a pair of pumpkin earrings — or a note in her coat pocket that she finds on the 31st.

For your boyfriend: funny wins. A costume he'd never choose for himself, his favourite sweets in a little cauldron, tickets to the scariest film showing that weekend, and you holding his hand "for his sake".

For the Halloween lover: the friend whose decorations went up in September doesn't need another plastic skeleton. Give them something to do — a haunted walk, a pumpkin patch, a ghost-story night — or something made only for them.

A Halloween birthday

Born on the 31st? Then every birthday comes with a costume party they didn't have to plan. Wish them both at once — and if the birthday matters more this year, the Birthday Room puts their name in neon and their age in gold balloons.

• Happy birthday to the only person who gets a costume party every year without asking for one.

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• Born on Halloween. Explains a lot, honestly. Happy birthday.

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• Happy Halloween and happy birthday — two reasons for cake, zero reasons to share it.

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• Some people are born on Halloween. You were born for it. Happy birthday.

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When you can't be at the party

Halloween is a night for being together in the same dark room, which is exactly when it's hardest to be in another city. A video call in costume does more than it sounds like it should — and something they open that night, with the lights off, does the rest.

• Happy Halloween from too far away to scare you properly. Consider this the long-distance version.

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• I can't jump out at you tonight, so I've sent something that will. Happy Halloween.

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• Same moon, different cities, one very scary video call later. Happy Halloween.

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A haunted house, sent as a link

If you'd like to make them jump from wherever you are: Ghost Hunt is a haunted house they explore on their phone, opened from a link — no app, no account on their side.

It's dark when they step in. The door slams behind them, lightning shows the windows, and their phone becomes a torch that points wherever they move it. Three little ghosts are hiding — behind the armchair, behind the curtains, in the wardrobe — and giggling from wherever they are; hold the torch on one and it's caught, and suddenly friendly. Then the clock strikes midnight, the torch flickers, and something is standing right behind them. However fast they turn, it's gone again… until it trips over its own sheet. It's a teddy. BOO!

Every candle in the house flares up, the ghosts write "Happy Halloween" and their name in the air, your photos warm up on the portrait wall, and your message writes itself in the fog on the mirror. Tell them to turn the sound on — the giggles tell them which way to turn.

It's premium: one credit, and a Google sign-in on your side only. See it, or make one — with the photos ready it takes about ten minutes.