The Best Halloween Party Cocktails

If you're going to host a party, there's a lot you have to think about, from figuring out the guest list to the menu and snacks to the music and decor. And if it's a Halloween party, it's easy enough to get spooky decor but what about your drinks? What can you do to make the drink options on theme for Halloween?

First think about how much time you're going to have to make drinks for your guests; is there someone whose job it will be to make drinks? Then you can have cocktails that need a little more care and attention, like adding a sugar rim or creating a layered look. Do you want something you can make ahead and then ignore? Then make a punch you can walk away from and guests can serve themselves.

Whichever route you chose, we've got you covered! These fun, themed cocktails are sure to help make your Halloween party memorable.

This one you can make one by one or as a batch: the eyeball cocktail. It's basically a gin and tonic but with a spooky eyeball surprise. Start by mixing gin and tonic. You can make as strong as you want, though it's traditionally made with 1 part gin to two parts tonic, and then you can add in a splash of red grape juice or cranberry juice for a bit of color. What makes it a Halloween cocktail are the eyeballs.

Drain a can of lychees, and then stuff the lychee with a frozen raspberry or frozen blueberry to make it look like an eyeball. Then pop it in the drink to turn a basic cocktail into a spooky one (from Elephantastic Vegan).

The bright red color of this cocktail is perfect for Halloween. The feature of the drink will be the raspberry liqueur; probably the best known option is Chambord, a French liqueur based on a recipe dating back to the 1600s (from Vine Pair). Some versions of the raspberry liqueur based cocktail include sparkling wine or champagne, there's no one right way to make this one (from The Spruce Eats). But here's one good option.

You'll need .75 ounce of raspberry liqueur, divided, then a little more for the rim, red sugar, and 1.5 ounces of both vodka and sparkling wine. Dip the rim of a martini glass in raspberry liqueur, then roll it in the red sugar. Then add half of the raspberry liqueur and all the vodka into the glass followed by all of the sparkling wine. Finally, pour the remaining raspberry liqueur over the back of a spoon to create a layered look.

Optional "garnish" — add in some fake vampire teeth!

Another colorful cocktail that's perfect for Halloween is the witch's brew sherbet punch; bonus, it's perfect for a large event, since you can make it all beforehand to keep the bartending duties to a minimum. Put it in a clear punch bowl to really show-off the bright green color.

Add 1/2 gallon of lime sherbet to your punch bowl and then pour in 1 46-ounce can of unsweetened pineapple juice, 1 liter of both ginger ale and lemon-lime soda, and then you make it a cocktail by adding 3 cups of chilled vodka (via The Kitchn).

What's Halloween without some pumpkin flavor? A White Russian, the cocktail that was made popular in modern times with the movie "The Big Lebowski," traditionally contains 2 ounces vodka to 1 ounce kahlua with a splash of heavy cream (from Liquor.com). But if you want to make it Halloween style, keep the liquors the same, but swap out the splash heavy cream for 1.5 ounces of pumpkin spice creamer. Optional garnish is a cinnamon stick (from Delish).

If you really want to go all out with this one, crush 3 tablespoons of graham crackers and mix them with 1 teaspoon of pumpkin pie spice and put them in a shallow plate or bowl. Then wet the edge of your glass and dip the rim into the graham crackers and pumpkin pie spice.