So we had a combo party this year. We had both decors up as we had guests who loved both Halloween and Samhain. The weather was stormy and it was a perfect time for a spooky party. We also kept it very simple this year. Has to be fit in to a busy work week as it was on a Thursday. But everyone had a blast.
DECORATIONS
So the most impressive part to a party of course is the decorations. For the front porch we did a spider cave. Our porch is long and rectangular and hugs the house. It is open on one side and one end. We bought about ten bags of fake spider webbing, 4 packages of spooky netting, cotton balls, four bags of tiny spiders, five larger spiders, 6 medium spiders, and some yarn. We used the netting to hold up some of the webbing in the walls. We used yarn to make braces to hold some webbing on the open side. We used a staple gun to attach the netting and webbing to the ceiling. There was so much webbing that you couldn’t even see through it! We had old boards thru out to give an effect and support. We had spooky carved pumpkins through out for effect. It was so closed in that it felt like an oven when the sun shined just right. We had a wreath on the front door covered with webbing with spider inside it. It was a really affordable way to give a big effect to who entered the home. Love my Spiders! Spooky as ever!
As for the inside we had spider webs as well, everywhere! I let everyone, including the guests have a blast throwing webbing all of my dining room, Ha. On October 20th we had a birthday party, and she wanted it to be witchy, so a lot of her party stuff was included in our Halloween/Samhain party. We got this set from Amazon.
We then had a lot of balloons of course. We had black table clothes, orange plates, orange napkins, orange utensils, & black and orange cups. We had decorative pumpkins everywhere. We had crocket pumpkins, pumpkin paintings, pumpkins sculptures, a pumpkin punch bowl, black serving bowls and plates, and the kids made a whole lot of construction paper decorations. We had a witch hat for everyone. There were creepy candles, and a red light in the ceiling fan that added to the nuance. Halloween and Samhain music was playing in the background.
FOOD
The decorated food definitely added to the decor. We had a cauliflower brain soaked in beet juice with mashed bananas around it, also soaked in beet juice. We had cocktail sausages in bloody BBQ sauce posing as fingers. There were spooky cheese sticks that we decorated with ghosts faces with a marker. There was Oreos made into bats, and orange Jello containers decorated with jack o lantern faces. We bought some popcorn balls as they are a family favorite. Our veggie tray was decorated with jack o lantern peppers, skeleton celery bones, carrot witch noses, and some carrots cut like pumpkins, plus some cucumber slices shaped like skulls. The onion dip was labeled a chemical ooze. We baked some pumpkin bread shaped as skulls, pumpkins, and ghosts. We of course bought a bucket of mixed candy. We had purple tortilla chips that posed as skin chips with salsa as blood and guts, Ha. We also bobbed for Adam’s apples. Kiddos took the pics so some not as good but they were tickled pink to help.
GAMES
So the main reason people come to our parties apparently is the games. People love to just have fun. And so goofy it is, Ha. Of course the first game was already mentioned and that was bobbing for apples. Since most were grown, we added a timer this year. The water is changed out regularly. Then we bought a large container of cheese balls and had everyone guess how many were in it. There were 740 of those “Pumpkin Poops” in there! The numbers were funny. They ranged from 100 to 1000. The one who got the closest won, she was still 100 off, Ha. Another game was the pong ball in the cup game. My family and friends love this game! We got some orange cups, put spooky stickers on them, bought some clear balls that we decorated with crazy faces with a marker, marked the cups with numbers so to keep score, and set them out in a pyramid at one end of the table. Opponents stood at the other end and tossed them in the cups. We put a little bit of water in each one to make sure they didn’t tip. We had one guy who got the top pointer of 50 points every time he played! Crazy! He of course won, but it was a lot of laughs. Another game was the hanging donuts. We put 4 small donuts on a string spaced out. Each person had to eat the donuts off with in a set time limit. Very fun to watch! Then we played Halloween Charades. I made 40 simple cards with words from the holiday. Watching the theatrics that they come up was hilarious!
SAMHAIN
During this time of year we honor our dead, spend a moment looking inward into the deep darkness in all of us, and ponder what we want to let go of in each of our lives. So candles were lit by each person for someone they lost this past year with a moment of silence. Then after some quiet time with Samhain music playing, everyone wrote down something they wanted to let go of on a piece of paper. Then we each burn them with a intension of moving on from it. So, we normally do this in a bonfire, but since it was stormy, it was done in a fireplace. This activity is normally a family activity but we asked the guests if they wanted to participate and they were happy to do so. They left feeling like they really celebrated this holiday fully.
Life is Entertaining
