Halloween can be a fun holiday for all, especially if you have teenagers. Planning and organizing safe activities with costume themes and fantastic decorations can keep your teenager and his or her friends entertained for the entire evening.

Here are some ideas for planning your own teen Halloween parties so everyone can have a safe Halloween.

* Discuss the rules with your teenager prior to the event. If you’re hosting a themed party at your house, determine if areas of the house will be off limits to guests, when the party will start and end, if guests can bring additional guests, and if an additional parent chaperone will be needed to help enforce the rules.

* Have plenty of food available so the party attendees can graze while standing, dancing, playing games, or sitting around. Halloween candy will work well, but other teen-friendly foods like pizza, popcorn, mini burgers or chicken nuggets will also be a big hit.

* Host a scary house walk or barn walk to keep teenagers busy and entertained. Have your teenager invite his or her friends to dress up as the scary monsters inside the walk, and ask your neighbors or community members to donate a canned food item as the entrance fee. After Halloween, they can collectively take the donations to a local food bank. The teens could spend many weeks planning and decorating to make the walk special, and it would allow them to put their creativity to work. If your community has a lot of younger children, consider making the walk more of a fun activity, rather than a scary place.

* Consider organizing a neighborhood block party to help everyone in your area have a safe Halloween. Ideas your neighborhood could consider are closing off one end of a street or a cul-de-sac, renting a tent and having the party outside with potluck foods and plenty of Halloween candy to go around. Invite all your neighbors to contribute to the decorations and request everyone to dress up in a costume. Some suggested activities include having a best costume contest, decorating pumpkins, a scavenger “bone” hunt for plastic bones and showing Halloween movies targeted to the appropriate age of the children.

Halloween safety doesn’t have to be a scary subject in your home if you have teens wanting to party on Oct. 31. Sit down with them to discuss their thoughts and plans for the holiday and you might be able to come up with an exciting solution so everyone can have fun and be safe.