Throw a Halloween Party!

There are so many Halloween ideas to make the holiday special it is hard to think of just a few to cover.  The wonderful thing about Halloween is people typically come up with their own traditions that are so special to them!  From hayrides to tricks and pranks, Halloween is a scary good time!

Here are some of my favorite Halloween ideas:

• Watch Horror Movies – this is typically the only time of the year I like to watch these type of movies.  My husband and I like to turn off all the lights, and pop in a good scary movie or two.
• Visit a Haunted House – we live in a fairy average sized city and there has to be at least 10 haunted houses in a 10 mile radius.  We usually stop by one or two a year, and it is a lot of fun.
• Carve a pumpkin – Jack-O-Laterns are a must for me!  If I do not visit a local pumpkin patch every year, I am one sad girl at Halloween.
• Throw a fun Halloween party – I like to invite my best friends and family over for a night of tricks, treats, and pumpkin carving!

These are just a few of my favorite Halloween ideas – what are yours?

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Halloween Food

I think the best Halloween parties are the ones with a big variety of food!  I love to throw parties and I try to make sure that I have all the food bases covered (sweet, savory, spicy, and so on).  You don’t have to spend a lot of money, or make the food super complicated either – just serve what you like and your guests will be happy!

My Halloween menu typically includes:

• Baked Brie – wrapped in puffed pastry, shaped like a heart with cranberry or cherry filling.
• Deviled Eggs – I like to add little horns shaped from red bell peppers
• Scary cupcakes – I purchase these at a local cupcake bakery
• Caramel apples – A must in my book!
• Meat Head – I purchased a skull, cover the entire thing in deviled ham, and serve with crackers!
• Meringue cookies – in the shape of skeleton bones, of course!

These are just a few of my favorite standbys.  I typically add one or two new things every year.  What are your favorite Halloween food recipes?

Related posts:

1. Halloween Food Ideas

Halloween Nom Noms

Halloween recipes can be a lot of fun, and you truly do not have to do any elaborate tricks to make great recipes.  Something as simple as a bit of red food coloring added to a beverage or dish can invoke the image of a bloody crime scene.  Another easy idea is to use ice cube or jello molds in scary shapes to add a bit of Halloween spirit to a dish.

I mentioned early one of our favorite recipes to make at Halloween is meringue cookies in the shape of skeleton bones.  Super simple and they look great as the centerpiece on a Halloween spread.  Another cute idea is to make little smokies or hot dogs in crescent rolls to look like mummies.  Simply dot on eyes with bits of black olive or pepper.

The great thing about Halloween foods is you can let your creativity shine and make the most interesting foods!  One of the neatest, tastiest, and grossest Halloween foods I have seen is MEAT HEAD.  You simply find a skull and layer the head with deviled ham or pate.  Serve with crackers and your guests will go wild!

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Morticia wig

Halloween wigs can be a great way to spruce up your costume and not break the bank!  They are so much fun to wear, because somehow when you put a fun wig on, your whole persona changes a bit and you’re ready for a great Halloween party!

My favorite wig I ever purchased was my Marge Simpson wig!  It was a big, blue, tall wig that was the hit of the party.  However, you can purchase all kinds of wigs that are not specific to one character.  For instance if you are going as a punk rock girl, you can purchase a spunky pink and black wig with a funky haircut.  If you’re going as a devil this year, think about purchasing a bright red wig.  A long black wig is great if you are thinking about going as Morticia or  Elvira.

There are so many wigs to choose from, the hardest part will be deciding which one to get!

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Halloween Props

Halloween props are a lot of fun and great if you plan to decorate your home or throw a party!  They can range from rather inexpensive and simple to quite grand, depending on what you want to achieve and how much you want to spend.

Some of my favorite Halloween props, are the most simple ones: apples and pumpkins.  You can set up an apple bobbing station by simply getting an old barrel, adding water and apples.  It is a lot of fun and something I love to do each year.  The next Halloween prop that I adore is pumpkins!  You can never have enough Jack-O-Laterns and carving them is a half the fun.  Plus, pumpkins sell for around $5 so you’re not breaking the bank.

Other prop ideas include:  hanging skeletons, scarecrows, ghosts, witches and other scary ghouls and goblins.  Some of these things can easily be made a home, or purchased online as well!

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Halloween USA

Halloween USA style is a lot of fun!  Having grown up  in the United States, I think Halloween is a big holiday for many!  Even though I grew up in a very religious household, we still enjoyed Halloween and made sure to have a lot of fun on one of my favorite holidays.

Many people in the United States enjoy the following activities on Halloween:  wearing costumes, trick or treating, watching horror films, going on hayrides, visiting haunted houses, playing tricks or pranks, going to costume parties, carving jack-o-laterns, bobbing for apples, eating caramel apples, among other fun traditions.

The great thing about Halloween is you can have a lot of fun even if you stay home!  One of my favorite traditions includes watching the old Halloween episode reruns of Roseanne.  I think there are five episodes that are just about Halloween and they are so much fun to watch!  Making your own traditions for Halloween is what being in the USA is all about!

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Halloween

Halloween, which is short for All Hallows’ Eve, is a holiday that is loved by many.  It is observed around the world on October 31st, which is the night before All Saints’ Day.  It incorporates traditions from pagan harvest festivals and festivals honoring the dead, particularly the Celtic Samhain; while other scholars maintain that the feast originated entirely independently of Samhain.

Typical festive Halloween activities include trick-or-treating, attending costume parties, carving jack-o’-lanterns, lighting bonfires, apple bobbing, visiting haunted attractions, playing pranks, telling scary stories, watching horror films, participating in hayrides, and attending haunted houses.

For me, I love Halloween for so many reasons!  It is the start of the Autumn season and I love that Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years are soon to follow.  My husband and I make a point to do many Halloween festivities before the actual night of Halloween, as that night we typically stay home, watch horror movies, and pass out lots of candy to the neighborhood children!

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Ghost Meringues

I make this recipe every year for my family and for Halloween parties and it is always a big hit!  It’s great because the recipe is easy and the treats come out light and tasty.

It’s also a great Halloween project to do with the kids, because they can get creative with the shapes and decorations.  In our house our favorite Halloween meringue cookie shapes are ghosts and bones, but the possibilities are endless.

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups of sugar
• 5 egg whites at room temperature
• 1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar
• A pinch of salt
• 1 to 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract to taste
• Black gel icing

Directions

1. Line two cookie sheets with parchment paper.
2. Preheat oven to 220 degrees fahrenheit.
3. Beat egg whites and cream of tartar with mixer until soft peaks form, this could take from two to five minutes.  I alwys use a Kitchenaid standing mixer but a hand mixer will work as well.
4. Gradually add sugar while also gradually increasing the mixing speed to medium.
5. Add vanilla extract and continue beating until stiff peaks form.
6. Spoon the mixture into a cake or pastry piping bag with a 1/4 – 1/2 inch tip or with a plastic bag and cut off a 1/4 – 1/2 inch tip at the corner of the bag.
7. Pipe a swirl to make a ghost and repeat until the cookie sheets are filled.
8. Bake for one hour. Then, turn off heat and allow the cookies to sit for at least an hour. Do not open oven at any time during the baking process.
9. Use black gel icing to make eyes and mouths on the ghosts.
10. Carefully remove cookies from parchment paper and enjoy them while they are fresh or store in an airtight container.

If you want to make meringue bones, simply pipe a 3-4 inch line and add two balls to the end of each.

Recipe yields 3-4 dozen.

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Party Favors & Halloween Bags:

• Halloween Grab Bags
• Spider Favor Boxes
• Halloween Candy Box
• Pumpkin Party Favor Bag

Crochet & Quilts

• Happy Halloween Candy Corn Mini Quilt
• Crocheted Ghost and Candy Corn Figurines
• Crocheted Ghost Halloween Bag

Jack o’ Lanterns, Candles & Lights:

• Secrets to a Perfect Jack-o-Lantern
• Easy-to-Make Gourd Candles
• Spooky and Glitzy Candles
• Soda Bottle Luminaries
• Halloween Lanterns

Halloween Birdhouses:

• Haunted Birdhouse
• Pumpkin Harvest Birdhouse

Halloween Treats & Party Ideas:

• Warm & Creamy Halloween Drinks
• Nutella Spiced Sugar Cookies
• Haunted Gingerbread House
• Candy-Speckled Popcorn Cakes
• Roasted Pumpkin Seeds

Halloween Decor:

• Halloween Tombstone Yard Decorations
• Ghastly Halloween Garland
• Pumpkin Placemat
• Make a Friendly Ghost
• Soft Sculpture Pumpkin
• Ghoulish Gourds
• Spooky Spider
• Bat & Pumpkin Mobile
• Haunted Halloween Tombstones
• Witches Brew Wall Hanging
• Haunted House Centerpiece

More Halloween Craft Projects:

Halloween Crafts – find loads of crafts to do including making a pumpkin tree, a scarecrow, a glass pumpkin candle, hanging ghosts, costumes, games, and more.

Halloween Crafts for Kids – lots of fun and easy crafts for kids of all ages, perfect for school projects or for doing with the family.

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Top 10 Halloween Stuff on the Web for 2009

Haunted Gingerbread House at Savvy Halloween

1. Make your own Halloween gingerbread house! Savvy Halloween shows you how to make a Halloween Haunted Gingerbread House, gives a recipe for the gingerbread and icing, and even provides a pattern for users to print off and use.

2. Halloween recipes galore!  Disney’s Family Fun has enough recipes to keep you and your family busy for all of autumn!  Most are easy, fun, and best of all, they come with pictures so you can get a good visual of the treats.

3. Who doesn’t love checking out pets in costumes?  Well the Baltimore Sun has a ton of user-submitted dressed up pets all for the looking.

4. Sometimes commercials can be just as entertaining if not more than the shows themselves, and Smashing Apps has highlighted 19 great Halloween ads for your viewing pleasure in their post, 19 Creative Halloween Advertisements.

5. Play one of our favorite Halloween games, Halloween Pumpkins, right here!

6. Pumpkin carving at Martha Stewart – MarthaStewart.com offers pumpkin templates, pumpkin projects for kids, pumpkin creatures, and more of Martha’s tips and tricks for creating gorgeous jack o’ lanterns of your own.

And the last four are our favorite Halloween videos with instructions on making some fun & spooky Halloween crafts and treats!

7. Halloween Cat Origami for kids and adults:

8. Halloween Marshmallow Ghosts and Ghouls Recipe:

9. Spirited Halloween Cupcakes from Food Network:

10. And finally, catch up on your Halloween history with this video from National Geographic:

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