Throw a Dracula Dinner Bash for a Frightening Halloween Party

All set to sink your fangs into a Halloween sit-down feast?

Step #1: Plan your celebration for the actual day of Halloween -- Sunday, October 31st.

If that date doesn't work for you, think about dining on the every bit as scary eve of the full moon on Saturday, October 23rd.

Step #2: Setting The Table

Orange, Black & white, and blood red are the traditional colors of the damned, which means that you should set your stage in accordance with that. Begin with blood-red, orange or black placemats or a table runner, all with coordinating napkins and napkin rings. Color- coordinated dinnerware will have monsters' mouths watering, and blood-red crackle-glass stemware delivers a gothic, medieval feel to your table. Designed for your centerpiece, load a tall container with willow branches that you have glittered, encircled with votive candles and fun Halloween confetti. For placeholders, use red apples with your guests' nametags skewered to the stems.

Step #3: Choosing The Meal

Oh, wait a minute -- vampires of the underworld never consume food! Which will mean you are going to have to get imaginative with a few blood-inspired dishes. Begin with a soup of cool homemade borscht (and never mind the gagging, it's actually quite tasty) capped with a spoonful of sour cream. Either good rare lamb chops or perhaps steaks (not to be confused with stakes) are usually always welcome. For a side dish, some spaghetti topped by a hot and spicy red sauce always goes great. Oh, and don't neglect a salad to keep the annoying vegan vampires happy. As a dessert, consider Red Velvet cupcakes with a yummy cream cheese frosting.

Step #4: Pouring The Drinks

Ah, it really gets fun now! You can make bloody-looking goblets simply by dipping the rims directly into corn syrup mixed with red food dye and then turning them upright to let the goo drip on down the sides of the glasses. After this has had a chance to set, fill the glasses with cranberry juice and ice cubes made with red food coloring (and you can even freeze plastic bugs or spiders inside them, if you dare). Or perhaps forget about ice altogether and just go with a good Pinot Noir, Merlot, or Cabernet. Everybody knows the undead really love their spirits.

Step #5: Designing The Decor

Consider decorations that are luxurious and captivating, like vibrant red, gold or purple (or even black) window curtain panels. Gleaming glass flower vases packed with apples or shiny glass beads of coordinating colors. Make bloody candles by simply dripping melted red candle wax onto white candles. Group plastic or silk plants and trees all around the party room for a woodsy feel, and then spice them up with tiny white twinkle lights to help take advantage of the magic. Finally, put on a creepy music soundtrack and take a seat at the dinner table.

Bone appetit!

For all your Halloween party decorating needs, visit the UltimateHalloweenSite.com

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How to Throw a Kid-Friendly Halloween Party

When I was a wee tot, I loved Halloween, even the scary side of it. When my friends were dressing in princess costumes for trick or treating, I was looking for the scariest costume I could find for a little girl.

That was decades ago. I'm now a grandmother to a wonderful grandson who loves Halloween, but dislikes the scary stuff. Witches, skeletons and scarecrows all give him nightmares. This got me thinking about creating a kinder and gentler Halloween party for little kids, say preschool age to about second grade--one that is heavy on the fun, but light on the fright.

If you're planning a Halloween party for a group of younger children, and you don't want to scare the pants off them, these ideas will come in handy:

Host a party for little ones during the day. This is naturally less scary, and if parents have plans to attend their own grown-up Halloween party in the evening, this won't interfere. If the weather is nice, you can have the party in the back yard.

If you want to have a party later in the day, arrange to take the children trick or treating early in the evening as a group (you'll want the help of a few parent volunteers). Then have all the kids back to your house for an hour or two after gathering treats throughout the neighborhood.

Encourage everyone to come in costume, but don't make the party about the costumes. Wearing a funny hat or a colorful wig can be just as much fun as wearing an elaborate costume.

Decorate for fun. Smiling pumpkins and happy ghosts are more fun for little ones than ghouls and goblins. Crepe paper in orange and black can be hung or arranged on tables. A table cloth in a fun motif, such as candy corn, happy jack-o-lanterns, or falling leaves will help set the tone and get the kids in the mood for Halloween fun. Or just go to the fabric store and buy some inexpensive orange fabric to cover your table with it. Disposable plates and napkins can easily be found in Halloween colors to complement your decorations.

For food, keep things simple. You can do anything from ordering in or making pizza, to creating a sandwich smorgasbord, to grilling hot dogs and hamburgers. Don't worry about making the food look gross or scary. If you want, you can call the pizza something catchy and Halloween-ish like "petrified pizza", or the hot dogs "horrifying hot dogs". Don't forget about the "screamingly scary sandwich smorgasbord". Serve punch that is "frighteningly fizzy". You get the idea.

Play Halloween music in the background--fun Halloween music. The Monster Mash, The Purple People Eater, Ghostbusters, and The Addams Family theme song are good examples of fun and friendly Halloween music. Let the kids make up their own funny dances to the songs, or teach them the words and let them have a Halloween sing-a-long.

For additional entertainment, you can have the kids play pin the nose on the pumpkin, or the tail on the black cat. Or purchase or make your own Halloween pinata and give each child a try at whacking the filling out of it. You could also have your young guests decorate Halloween cookies to take home. Just use Halloween cookie cutters to make a batch of sugar cookies before the party. Have orange, white and black frosting ready for use, and let each child decorate a few cookies.

If you want to give party favors or goodie bags to your guests, avoid the cheap plastic toys and more candy. Instead, give a small box of crayons and a coloring book, or a small package of Play Doh to each child.

For young Halloween revelers, keep it light and keep it playful. The scary and spooky stuff can wait a few years.

Lenore Ravenwood holds a degree in Landscape Horticulture and is fascinated by everything Halloween. You can visit her blog, Raven's Rest Halloween at http://www.ravenshalloween.blogspot.com.

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Holiday Party Planning - How to Throw a Great Halloween Party

You're probably wondering where you can get great Halloween party ideas that are spooky and radically distinctive, right? You may have attended a lot of Halloween parties yourself, but realized that they just have been so dull and redundant. So, what would be your edge if you are to conduct your own party? You have to start collecting unique holiday party planning ideas and utilize them.

As usual, you need to have your guests wear the right kind of costumes. You have to let your guests understand that they should go with the main idea of a Halloween party, therefore they should look really scary.

Aside from the costumes, you also have to choose the right decorations for the party. You can choose to turn your garage into a very cool and exciting venue for the party. You need not put a lot of effort in cleaning it because after all, it's a Halloween party. Just consider adding some decorations instead. You may consider hanging a disco ball at the center of your garage and have it move freely. You can utilize the usual decorations such as webs, vinyl bats, broomsticks, pumpkins and other scary stuff.

Now, since it's going to be a party, one of the best ideas you can use is turning your garage into a dance floor. To be able to do this, you need to have some light effects and a DJ to work on the music. Just select the appropriate songs for the event. You can play the scary music after every dance music.

The next thing to consider is the food that you will be serving your guests. As a great holiday party planning idea, it would be easier for you if you're going to make your own food. For instance, you can add some designs of spooky characters to your finger foods. You may serve bat-shaped and pumpkin-shaped cookies to your guests. You can create your own designs, and if you're good in baking stuff, then this wouldn't be a problem for you, and this will also be very economical on your part. You just need to make sure that you and your guests are having a great time celebrating the party!

Mike Araujo is a party planning expert. For more information on holiday party planning, visit Party Planning Ideas.

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How to Throw a Halloween Party

During Fall there are many Halloween parties to attend. Instead of just taking the kids trick or treating you may want to gather all your friends and family and throw your own party. But just where do you start? Follow this step by step guide that will show you exactly how to throw a Halloween party that will make you the envy of all your friends.

The first thing that you need to do is choose a date and time for your party. The most obvious choice would be on Halloween itself. So if you want to secure this date, make arrangements and send invitations out early as there may be many other parties going on at the same time. My personal preference is to hold a kids party that starts at 4pm and finishes at 5.30pm. The kids then go trick or treating for an hour or so after the party.

If you are throwing a Halloween party for teenagers or adults then you will want the party to start much later. You may also be clashing with many other parties later in the evening as this is when most companies or groups tend to throw parties for workers or members and their families. An alternative date would be an evening on the weekend before or after Halloween.

Once you have found a time a date to suit you a location for the party is next on the list. Are you going to throw the Halloween party at your home or garden or are you going to rent out a hall (essential if you have loads of guests and a small house). It may be wise to draft up a guest list to help you decide on a location for the party as then you will have more of an idea of the space you will need.

Now onto the invitations. You can either buy ready made Halloween invitations or you can have some fun making your own. I always prefer to make my own as you can be sure that no one else will be the same. I usually use a word processor and some spooky Halloween clip art. It is also fun to put a little verse in whilst still giving all the party details:

"BOO, (guests name)!

Calling all witches, ghouls and ghosts on the eve of Halloween when the moon is full, at precisely (time of party) there will be a celebration of spooktastic proportions at the haunted house of (hosts name and address).

Trick or Treat? RSVP to (name and number)"

Once all the invitations are out it is time to start planing the rest of the party. Buying or making decorations and food and planning the entertainment. Oh, and don't forget your Halloween costume. There are so many choices that it might be hard to know where to start. If your creative then make your own costume to make sure its different to everyone else as I'm sure you will have a lot of witches all from the same coven!

Decorations fill many stores each falls and you can go overboard with the spook-tacular items on display. Try and think of your house (or other party location) as a haunted house and decorate as such. Ideas would include blacking out the windows, throwing white sheets over the furniture, hanging up cobwebs and fake bats and spiders and playing spooky music. Have a fog machine in your front yard and also some fake tombstones.

Use regular party food but give them gruesome names like dirt and worm pie, eyeball trifle or mummified hot dogs. Don' forget the witches or blood bath brew!

Keep everyone entertained with some spooky Halloween music and a costume competition. But you can also try some of these horrifying games:


Pass The Orange - Players stand in line and take turn to pass the orange to the next player via their chin. Arms must be behind backs and the players that drop the orange are out of the game and must do a forfeit of your choice!
Bobbing Apples - The traditional game of apple catching with your hands behind your back.
The Mummifier - Divide the teens into groups of 3 or 4 with a couple of toilet rolls each. One person must volunteer to be the 'mummy' and the others must race against the clock to mummify that person using the toilet roll. The fastest team wins.
Ghost Stories - Sit in a circle with the lights off and using a torch point the beam at each teen in turn to see who can tell the spookiest story for a real scary Halloween party idea for teenagers.
Pumpkin Toss - Using a cleaned out pumpkin get the girls to throw small plastic bats and spiders into the pumpkin. Whoever gets them into the pumpkin wins.
Pin the Nose on the Witch - A simple Halloween party game idea game using a large poster of a witch and a cut out witches nose. Who can be the first one to pin the witches nose in the right place.
Then finish off with some trick or treating!

Still stuck for spooktastic ideas well take some advice from the Pink Heaven Party Angel on Halloween party ideas for kids or Halloween party ideas for teenagers and you will soon be throwing the most devilish Halloween party in town!

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Throw a Spooktacular Halloween Hunt Party

As Halloween approaches so do the preparations for all sorts of monster bashes. Here are some great ideas to make your party a "spooktacular" success by combining the Halloween classic games and activities with a ghoulishly fun Halloween hunt!

Set the stage for your party. For younger children keep it "friendly scary" with happy ghosts, jack-o-lanterns, corn stalks, and scarecrows to accompany the classic orange and black décor. For older children and adults the sky is the limit for as creepy and ghoulish as you wish to be with your decorations. Don't forget to set the overall mood using some blue light bulbs or other dim lighting, and the perfect music selection of spooky tunes to fill the air.

Plan a Halloween treasure hunt to be the highlight of your party. Kids love the thrill of a hunt and when the clues lead them about all sorts of spooky Halloween characters and creatures the excitement is doubled. Plan out a fun trail of clues that when solved will lead your guests all about your Halloween decorations including ghosts, witches, spiders and more. The hunts can be planned for indoors or outdoors. Hide your clues before the party begins, when you're ready to start the hunt simply hand the children the first clue and send them off on their hunt for the next clue. Plan a treat either at each clue stop or some final treat bags for all the guests at the final destination. There are great printable ready-to-play Halloween hunts available online at Treasure-Adventure if you need help with your clue creation. (http://www.treasure-adventure.com/halloween.html)

Don't forget the classic Halloween party games, these can be a great way to break the ice and get your party going. Plan a game of "bobbing for apples", you can use any large metal or plastic pale (plastic witches cauldrons make great bobbing containers) simply fill the container with water add apples and you're ready to go. Remove the stems from the apples to make it more challenging. Pin the wart on the witch; a Halloween version of pin the tail on the donkey is a simple and fun game for younger children. Plan an activity such as carving small jack-o-lanterns to send home with the guest, although younger children may need more guidance on this project.

No Halloween party could be complete without some ghost stories, and this can be a great way to bring an end to your evening, choose a selection of age appropriate tales for your guests. For older children you can't go wrong with some of the old favorites "who stole my little toe", or the story of the creepy guy following the young girl flashing his headlights, that turns out to be alerting her of the man hiding in her backseat. Many great tales are readily available online. For younger children stick with more friendly monster, Halloween and ghost stories.

The bottom line is if you can bring together the basics of ghost and ghouls, candy and treats, games and activities, and ghostly tales you will surely have a "spooktacular" Halloween party.

Treasure-Adventure.com is an online party game company that offers ready-to-play interactive and themed treasure hunts with custom challenging clues for all ages. Visit Treasure Adventure.com on line at http://www.treasure-adventure.com

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Throw a Woodstock Halloween Costume Party

To continue honoring the 40th anniversary of the famous rock fest, throw a Woodstock Halloween costume party. The possibilities for creative ideas using this theme are endless.

First and foremost you would definitely need a prize for the best costume. The outfits from Woodstock were colorful and varied. Vests, fringe, striped pants, long skirts, flowing blouses and sandals were the look. Just putting an outfit together would be a hoot. You could go as one of the featured performers (i.e. Jimi Hendrix), a flower child, a war protester or simply a hazy hippie. Perhaps you could get some friends to join you and go as a complete band such as The Who or The Grateful Dead. Just remember, there was lots and lots of hair, headbands, beads, weird glasses and peace signs on the scene.

The main feature of your party would, of course, have to be the music. Continuous songs by Janis Joplin, Joan Baez, Joe Cocker and numerous others should be playing in the background. You could even have a "Name that Tune" contest with music from the three days of peace, love and music or play a "Where Are They Now" trivia game. Surely someone would know whatever happened to Sly and the Family Stone band!

Anything you need to decorate for your party could be found at your nearest Dollar Store. Remember, the more psychedelic the better. Rainbows of crepe paper and plastic flowers should be perfect. Beads draped over lampshades and hanging from doorways. Move anything retro you have front and center and throw a few tie dyed pieces around.

Great memories were made that day in rock history and you can add your own unique touches to create even more great memories for your friends. Show your love and throw a party!

For more great ideas for a Woodstock Halloween costume party.

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