Shadows creep steadily across the room as screams and peals of maniacal laughter echo around, surrounding a motley assortment of the frightening, whimsical and fantasy-like characters. What better way to spend the night of horror than by hosting a Halloween party? Here are some easy do it yourself ideas that will cover all of your party needs.
Food
Having good food equates to having a good time when you’re with friends, as well as at a party. If you’re going to make the effort to host a party, make sure the food is enticing. No one wants to eat cardboard five dollar pizza with cans of de-carbonated soda. Halloween is the perfect time to go all out on decorating food, but have some restraint. Personally, I don’t have the urge to eat food that I find disturbingly grotesque.
Dessert is the least time-consuming to fix up. The easiest route is to use different cookie cutters such as pumpkins, triangles and gingerbread men. You can then tint your cookie dough with black or orange food coloring. With colored icing, pipe designs such as jack-o-lanterns, candy corns and skeletons. Cupcakes are also a great and quick option. Take a chocolate or vanilla cupcake and ice it with black frosting. Add candy corn or a graham cracker gravestone, and now you have a festive and delicious treat.
Dessert doesn’t constitute for an entire meal, however. For an easy snack, include guacamole with black beans and a side of purple tortilla chips. You can also make mummy hot dog bites with three ingredients. Take some pretzel or regular bread dough and roll a piece out into a thin long strand. Wrap the dough around 3/4 of the way, leaving a sliver of the hotdog peeking out. Bake in the oven at 350°F for 15 minutes and use mustard to dot two eyes.
Decorations
No party is complete without decorations. You don’t have to go out and spend money on flimsy plastic when you can make a few pieces with items around the house.
A mason jar is like a blank canvas for a great painting due to its availability and versatility. All you need is some cloth and a few decorative Halloween pieces; the possibilities are endless.
To capture the essence of a mummy, take an old white shirt and cut it into horizontal strips, so that you have a circle of cloth. Wrap it around the jar until it covers the entire surface. Take a black marker and dot two eyes and you have yourself a cute mummy.
Create the cute pumpkin feel without going out and buying a pumpkin. Spread a layer of glue inside the jar, and with any orange or black fabric lying around, smooth it inside the jar. Cut off excess cloth and use an orange or black marker to carve out a design on your pumpkin.
With the lids of your jars, make a very small slit at the top using an X-Acto knife. Get some Christmas lights and gently push each individual light bulb through the slit of the lids. Tape around the opening to secure, fasten the lids on the jar, and string them around the house.