How To Have A Great Halloween Party

Editor: cupcakedreams

So you want to have a Halloween party? You want everything to be perfect for your guests, both young and old, so here are some ideas and suggestions to have that perfect, frightfully fun party.

Halloween decorations are one of the important items to create the mood for a really scary party. Also, think of your menu as part of the Halloween decorations.

Pay a lot of attention to your lighting. Turn your lights very low, or even turn them off, using only candles to create a spooky Halloween glow. Of course, be careful where you place the candles for the sake of safety.

If there are lots of kids at the party, skip the candles and either turn the lights real low or replace the bulbs with colored light bulbs. Black lights are great, but if that is all you have then they can give you a headache, so maybe dedicate only in a corner of a room to black lights. Try using red and or yellow lights to get that creepy feel.

Try using dry ice to fill the room with a spooky fog. Just make sure to always use gloves to handle dry ice for it can burn you as bad as a stove if not handled properly. Also, make sure you keep it out of reach of any children.

Dry Ice Fog

Ingredients:

• Dry Ice If you are looking for a place to buy dry ice, look under "Ice" in the Yellow Pages. If you are having difficulty finding it, some grocery stores sell it.
• Warm Water. Note: it does not have to be real hot; straight from the faucet is fine, and just above room temperature will work great. DO NOT USE BOILING WATER!
• Large Bucket or Container.

Preparation:

DO NOT HANDLE DRY ICE WITHOUT GLOVES!! Place Dry Ice in the container, pour water over dry ice, use 2 to 3 times more water then there is ice. There needs to be enough water to cover the dry ice. And wahlah! Fog.

Great Ghosts

What You Will Need:

• Plastic-foam balls: 1-1/2-inch, 4-1/2-inch, and 6-inch.
• Old white sheet or fabric.
• Black ribbon (1/16-inch- and 15/16-inch-wide).
• Large, black permanent marker.
• "Groucho" glasses or any old ones you have. You can even get real cheap reading glasses from your local drug store and Spanish moss for hair.
• Glue gun and hot-melt adhesive.
• Fishing line.

Instructions: Tear the sheet or fabric into squares large enough to drape over the plastic foam balls with plenty of room to hang down. Tie a ribbon bow around the neck of each one. Mark a face on the cover of each ball with the marker. If you want to, you can hot-glue hair, and "Groucho" glasses or any other kind of glasses onto the heads of your ghosts to give them character. Then, to hang your ghosts, carefully put two small holes in the sheet or fabric at the top of the head and thread fishing line through the holes. MINI GHOSTS Another neat variation is to make mini ghosts. They are great if you have an area with black lights! What You Will Need:

• A box of tissues
• Yellow highlighter marker ( or black marker if you do not have a black light)
• Fishing line
• Some small ribbon

Instructions: Roll a tissue into a ball. Drape another tissue over the rolled up tissue and tie a ribbon around the neck. Make a face on the ghost, the scarier the better. You do not want to put holes in the tissue since it will not hold up, so hang them by threading the fishing line through the ribbon in the back of the neck. They will glow in the black light!

Other Ideas

Make sure you have spooky music playing indoors and out. Place a speaker in the window. You can also make great scary cats to place around the house from black foam-core board. You can also make bats and other silhouettes from the same board. Try tracing a persons head and then cut it out and place it in a window. Also, no house would be complete without spiders and webs. You can get webs just about anywhere to place all over the house, along with spiders. Also, if you have some, make sure you put web by the black light. Now, on to the buffet.

The Buffet

This part can be fun and a real trick or treat. Some great ideas:

• Spooky graveyard cake
• Wormy Jell-O
• Finger cookies
• Spider cookies
• Cheesy edible eyeballs
• Jack o lantern chips (this one is easy)

The recipes for each of these are listed blow. These ideas are only to get you started to have a wonderful frightful time. In no time at all you will be coming up with some great ideas. The good thing about Halloween is you cannot go wrong. The more messy the better. Have fun and stay safe. And I am sure your friends will be talking about the party for years to come.

Recipes

Spooky graveyard cake: What you need:

• 1 package cake mix (Duncan Hines Moist Deluxe Devil's Food is the best, but you can use any mix you like).
• Chocolate frosting
• A package of Oreo cookies. Crumble about 10 oz or so by putting cookies in a sandwich bag and smash. This is fun for the kids, so tell them to smash the cookies until they look like dirt.
• Pepperidge Farm Milano cookies
• Packaged tub of cake decorating gel (green, black, orange or brown, etc.)
• Candy corn and pumpkin shaped candy
• Ghost-shaped Peeps marshmallows

How to prepare: Bake a cake as directed on the box and let it cool.

To decorate, frost the cake evenly with the chocolate frosting. Sprinkle frosting all over with crumbled cookies (Oreos) . Using gel frostings, write sayings like, R.I.P.; Ill be back; Youre next or Oh, my head hurts, on 1/2 of the Milano cookies. Press the cookie into the cake and icing to resemble a standing tombstone. Place ghost marshmallows in a standing-position on top of the cake using toothpicks, if needed, to help them stand. Finally, place the candy around wherever you like. Enjoy!

Wormy Jell-O: What you need:

• Any color Jell-O you like
• Gummy worms

How to prepare: Make Jell-O according to package except only chill for about 30 hour or so until the jello becomes a little thick. Next add gummy worms. Then chill for the remaining time according to package.

Ladies Fingers Recipe Credits: Recipe from: Martha Stewart Living Makes 48 pretzels

24 blanched almonds, halved lengthwise Red food coloring, optional

• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1 scant tablespoon active dry yeast (one 1/4-ounce package)
• 5 1/2 to 6 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for work surface
• 1 tablespoon salt
• 2 tablespoons baking soda
• 1 large egg
• Sea salt
• Dried rosemary (optional)
• Vegetable-oil cooking spray

1. Place a small amount of food coloring in a shallow bowl and, using a paintbrush, color the rounded side of each split almond; set aside to dry.

2. Pour 2 cups warm water (110) into the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the dough-hook attachment. Add sugar; stir to dissolve. Sprinkle with yeast, and let stand until yeast begins to bubble, about 5 minutes.

3. Beat 1 cup flour into yeast on low speed until combined. Beat in salt; add 3 1/2 cups flour until combined. Beat until dough pulls away from bowl, 1 to 2 minutes. Reduce speed to low; add 1/2 cup flour. Knead 1 minute more. If dough is sticky, add up to 1 cup more flour. Transfer to a lightly floured surface; knead until smooth, 1 minute.

4. Coat a large bowl with cooking spray. Transfer dough to bowl, turning dough to coat with oil. Cover with plastic wrap; let rest in a warm spot to rise until doubled in size, about 1 hour.

5. Heat oven to 450. Heat 3 quarts water to boil in a 6-quart straight sided saucepan over high heat; reduce to a simmer. Add baking soda. Lightly coat two baking sheets with cooking spray. Divide dough into quarters. Work with one quarter at a time, and cover remaining dough with plastic wrap. Divide the first quarter into twelve pieces. On a lightly floured work surface, roll each piece back and forth with your palm into a long finger shape, about 3 to 4 inches. Pinch dough in two places to form knuckles. When all twelve fingers are formed, transfer to simmering water. Poach for 1 minute. Using a slotted spoon, transfer fingers to baking sheet. Repeat with remaining dough, blanching each set of 12 fingers before making more.

6. Beat egg with 1 tablespoon water. Brush pretzel fingers with egg wash. Using a sharp knife, lightly score each knuckle about three times. Sprinkle with salt and rosemary, if using. Position almond nails; push into dough to attach. Bake until golden brown, 12 to 15 minutes. Let cool on wire rack. Fingers are best eaten the same day; or store, covered, up to 2 days at room temperature

Spider cookies: What you will need:

• Oreo cookies, regular size
• Mini Oreo cookies
• Thin black licorice ropes, cut into small Pieces
• Mini chocolate chips
• Frosting or decorating icing in a tube

How to prepare: Use the icing to glue a mini Oreo cookie to a regular size Oreo cookie. This will form the head and body of the spider. Stick the licorice pieces into the cream of the body (the regular size Oreo). The spider should have 8 legs. Use icing to glue chocolate chips to the head (the mini Oreo). The chips are the eyes for the spider. The spider has 8 eyes.

Cheesy Edible Eye Balls: What you will need:

• 1/2 pound (2 cups) cheddar cheese, grated
• 1/2 cup margarine
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon paprika
• 1 cup flour
• 1 6-ounce bottle stuffed green olives

How to prepare: Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Shred cheese in work bowl of food processor, then place metal chopping blade in work bowl and add margarine. Combine salt, paprika, and flour in separate bowl. Turn on food processor, and slowly add flour mixture through the feed tube. Stop processing as soon as ingredients are combined. Measure approximately one teaspoon of this mixture and form an "eyeball" around an olive. Turn the olive in the "eyeball" so that it is "staring" outward. Line up the eyeballs on an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake in the oven for approximately 15 minutes. If you want to make these ahead of time, freeze them UNBAKED on the cookie sheet and transfer to a plastic bag when frozen. Then just thaw and bake when needed.

Jack o lantern chips: This one is easy. All you need is a jack o lantern plastic pumpkin they sell for kids to collect their candy. Just add your favorite chip.

Categories: Parties | Costumes | Entertaining