I love Halloween parties but I hate it when no one dresses up. One sure fire way to encourage costumes is to have a costume contest! Granted the party I go to is mostly other theatre people so it doesn't take much encouragement, but I have been to boring no costume parties.
I my quest for trophies I found that most store bought trophies were pretty boring. Then I saw this awesome idea at dollar store crafts:
http://mizerella.blogspot.com/2011/03/20-and-award-goes-to.html?m=1
We don't need as many categories but this is the first year we're doing the contest, so maybe next yer we'll need more. I only did scariest, funniest, and most creative.