Halloween Tips and Tricks

Fright Night

Calling all ghouls and goblins! Rattle your neighbors! Wake your dead! Invite all your friends: creepy, kooky, mysterious, spooky – whatever! It’s your birthday! So get into the spirit with a Halloween Birthday Party! This fun night of chills and thrills will have guests howling with delight – even if they’re altogether, well, ooky!

A Bloody Good Invite

Invite guests to enter…if they dare…with these fun Bloody Invitations! Create a scroll with parchment paper and use fake blood or red food coloring to write all the gory party details! Burn and tear the edges of the paper for an eerie, ominous feel. Roll the scroll and seal it with a drop of red wax! Don’t worry about being too neat with it – if the wax drips and looks like blood, even better!

Or throw a How to Host a Murder party! Include instructions on your invites and be sure to let each guest know which character they’ll be playing the night of the untimely murder! Look online for step by step instructions on how to host such an event and visit Party City for everything you need to throw a party to die for!

And drop into Party City for more Halloween Birthday Invitations that are a real scream!

Setting the Scene

There’s no question that for a party like this, decorating is a must! Party City has everything you need to haunt your house! Include spider-webbing, black light bulbs and even a CD filled with spooky music to play when guys and ghouls arrive! Stuff old clothes with straw, secure gruesome masks (or plastic skulls) for heads (with party hats, of course!) and sit scarecrows at the door to greet guests! Black and orange balloons also add a festive feel!

Or you can really creep your place out with gory ghouls, coffins, graveyard fencing, severed hands – Party City’s got everything you can think of to scare the pants off family and friends!

Hair-Raising Ideas!

Check out some of these brainstorms and bone chilling ideas to make your party frighteningly good fun!

Be sure to tell guests to come dressed in costume! From scary to sweet, the sky’s the limit! Award prizes throughout the night for Most Creative, Most Gruesome, Funniest, etc. Hand out cool awards – candy, costume jewelry and fun Halloween accessories – to the winners! And remember to take a photo of the whole ghoulish group! Turn your home or backyard into a haunted house! Plant surprises around every corner – hide Michael Myers or Jason behind the bathroom door or put Psycho in the shower! Create a creepy cornstalk maze in your backyard – and don’t forget the horrific horror movie theme songs for added thrills and chills! Enlist some of your invited family and friends to be “actors” and have fun with it! Use your imagination and be creative – just be safe and make sure guests can safely maneuver their way through the frightening fun! Play a terrifying game inspired by an old classic! Turn off all the lights in the house and play a game of hide and seek! Give teams of two – or individuals – a flashlight to navigate around and dress the “seeker” in a creepy costume or mask! Play scary music and horror movie themes and award a prize to the victim who can escape the seeker’s evil clutches! If gloom and doom isn’t your thing, go back to basics with a fun pumpkin carving contest! Break guests up into teams and give each a large pumpkin to carve! Purchase pumpkin carving kits for each team and don’t forget candles to light them (votive candles, tealights or jack o’ lantern candles work great!)! If the Fall weather cooperates, decorate your backyard with Halloween lights, balloons, garlands – and even hay bails for seats – and bring the carving contest outdoors! Provide hot chocolate and apple cider to keep the chill away and award fun prizes to the most creative carvers!

Treats That Do the Trick!

Make your traditional party treats, but re-name them to create a monstrous menu! Make Roast Beast (roast or meat dish), Bloody Eyeballs (meatballs for meatball subs), Witches’ Hair (spaghetti dish)! Get creative with it and have fun – almost any food can be turned into a terrifying treat!

And check out www.wilton.com for Halloween Birthday cake ideas and recipes that are devilishly good!

Freaky Favors!

Send all your victims – uh, we mean, friends – home with spooky souvenirs to remember the evening! Make adult trick-or-treat bags filled with liqueur-filled chocolates, small nips of alcohol (adults only!), Halloween shot glasses, costume jewelry and other fun Halloween accessories! And be sure to creep on into Party City for fun Halloween Party Favors that are sure to thrill your guests!

A Photo Finish!

Be sure to take lots of great pictures at the party and send them to your guests as a “thank you” for such an exciting evening! Slide the photos in frames or mini albums as a reminder of the ghoulish gala!