Back in the day, fall harvest festivals were celebrated by everyone to give thanks for a bountiful harvest. Harvest season varies from country to country, but in most four-season locations, they usually fall under the autumn season. Whether you’re living in the city or the country, you’re sure to have fun hosting your own fall harvest party. After all, people have been doing it for many years and it’s never fizzled out of style.

Inviting Fall Harvest Invitations

Fall harvest parties are usually tied up with other events like carnivals or fairs, so make sure that your invitation design also reflects that. Printing your invitation with pictures of carousels, ferris wheels or a colorful concessionaire’s stand will be inviting to anyone who’s receiving the invite.

If you’re having a fall harvest festival party at home, you can make your invitations shaped like familiar things you’ll see during fall harvest—a picturesque barnyard overlooking a field with a scarecrow, or even an array of typical fall harvest fruits and vegetables. You can also make your invitations look like typical fall leaves in orange, brown and red colors.

You can also request your guests to bring their own special fall harvest recipes to the party as part of a potluck. Don’t forget to include it in the invitation. Otherwise, as soon as people know about the party, you’re all set.

Decorating for a Beautiful Fall Harvest Party

Whether you’re living in the city or in the country, you’ll want to capture that wholesome harvest time look, or at least enhance your surroundings to make it look more festive. Stick with the fall colors of orange, gold, red, yellow, dark green and honey. You can mix and match these up with your furniture upholstery, streamers and balloons. If you can find balloons that come in the shape of fall leaves or pumpkins, those will be a welcome addition to the party, too. Keep an eye out for tinsel garlands made specially for fall parties. They come in the appropriate colors and are shaped like fall leaves as well.

Use natural or plastic versions of fall leaves, acorns, pumpkins, apples, unhusked corn, grapes, pears and other fall harvest fruits. Pile them in baskets and leave them around the house as decorations or centerpieces. You can string them up and hang them from the ceilings. You can also make wreaths out of corn husks decorated with flowers. Prop up scarecrows standing guard over these precious fruits of the land, even indoors. (Learn how to make a scarecrow)

Pumpkins

Scarecrow

Grapes

Since fall harvest calls to mind farms and a generally agricultural setting, think rustic. If you’re holding your party in an actual barn, make sure they are clean and that the haystacks you’re using are fresh. If you can’t hold your party in an actual barn, make it feel like one by setting up your space with corn stalks, colorful mums, pumpkins, hay stacks or hay bales and other kinds of produce like cabbages and fruits.

If you want to have some outdoor space for your party, take note that the weather is probably going to be chilly and there’s possibility of rain. You can have outdoor heating lamps or even an old-fashioned bonfire going to keep your guests warm.

You don’t have to stress too much with your fall harvest party decorations since most of the elements that you’ll be needing for that perfect look will be available at this time. Remember, you’re still going for a relaxed, family-friendly atmosphere, so don’t get stressed out too much over your decorations.

Prepare a Delicious Fall Harvest Party Menu

Fall harvest means three things: Food, food and more food. Come up with dishes made from harvested fruits and vegetables of the season, and you’ll see and taste the reason why the fall harvest is celebrated in the first place.

• Toasted Pumpkin Seeds. You can buy delicious pumpkin seeds or make them yourself by baking clean seeds for about eight minutes, turning them once halfway through.

• Chips and Dips. Have a wide selection of sliced vegetables and tortilla chips with an assortment of dips like cream cheese, cheddar and salsa to choose from.

• Fall Fruit. Serve fresh fall fruits like apples, grapes, pears, fresh corn on the cob and raisins in a clear glass bowl for a healthy treat.

• Fall Popcorn. Freshly-popped kettle popcorn is the best, but with a mix of sugar, pecans, raisins and candy corn, it gets even better.

• Main Dishes. Comfort food like roast chicken, sloppy joes, cheeseburgers and chili are a very welcome addition to any menu. You can also have roasted hotdog sandwiches with lots of mayonnaise, mustard and pickles. Have corn bread on the side to round it all up.

Chips and Dips

Fall popcorn

Yummy hotdog sandwich

• Roasted Desserts. Since you already have a bonfire roaring, why not take advantage of it and roast some marshmallows and s’mores on the side as well? This will be a great hit for adults and kids alike.

• Pumpkin Punch. Clean out a pumpkin and wash out with iced water. Put in some ginger ale and vanilla ice cream with a bit of cinnamon for a bona fide autumn look and flavor to your drinks.

• Chocolate Pumpkin. Clean out miniature pumpkins well using iced water. Fill them with instant chocolate pie filling or a mixture of chocolate pudding and jell-o. Instant chocolate pumpkins!

• Hot Drinks. Since the weather will be pretty chilly, have some hot drinks at the ready like spiced apple cider or some cinnamon tea. Paired with warm cinnamon doughnuts, it’s like having a bit of autumn heaven.

Merry Fall Harvest Games and Activities

Our parents always told us to never to play with our food, but fall harvest season is the exception to this rule. Integrate this season’s harvest with these fun fall harvest games.

• Apple Relay. Divide your guests into three or four groups. Each group is assigned an apple that they must pass along in a circle using only their neck and head. No hands, please. The group who passes it around in a complete circle first, wins.

• Bobbing for Apples. Did you know that this game has been around since the time of the Romans? Have your guests try their luck getting the most apples floating in water in a large-mouthed barrel.

• Burlap Sack Race. Another traditional game that requires an ordinary burlap sack, pairs of competitive guests, and a determination to win.

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  Leaf prints
  Leaf Prints. For this activity, you’ll need newspapers, paintbrushes, white paper, tempera paint and old t-shirts. Leaf printing is an activity most kids enjoy during the fall season, so ask them to pick out the prettiest leaves outdoors. Parents can help their kids carefully put paint on one side of the leaf and press it down on the white paper to leave a colorful imprint.

• Largest Pumpkin Contest. Pumpkin contests are all the rage during the fall season, and you can have it in your party, too. A month before the party or printed on your invitation, ask your friends to bring their biggest pumpkin, purchased or homegrown. Award a medal or trophy for the biggest pumpkin. (Tips on how to grow pumpkins)

• Musical Hay Bales. A variation on musical chairs, but instead of chairs you’ll be using hay bales instead. You can also put a scarecrow or a corn stalks in the middle for a real fall harvest feel.

• Pumpkin Spitting. This may sound gross, but spitting out pumpkin seeds can be loads of fun, too. Give guests ten seeds each. Each group of seeds must be color-coded (you can use food coloring for this purpose). Put a masking tape along the ground about ten feet long and have your guests try to spit pumpkin seeds the farthest.

• Apple Picking. If you have an apple orchard somewhere nearby your party, you can also have your guests pick apples to bring home.

Watch this Bobbing for Apples

Having a fall harvest party is literally a cool way to celebrate the fall, family and friends. This traditional celebration also connects us with our ancestors who also celebrated the fall harvest generations ago.