How to throw Hallowe’en Party

This year, Hallowe’en falls on a Saturday, which is great news for everyone who loves to celebrate Hallowe’en (and I do!).

If you share my passion, read on for some ideas for how to throw a Hallowe’en party for children…

The setting – dedicate one or two rooms to the party and create an atmosphere with clever lighting. If you turn off the overhead lighting and bring in lamps that are set up on different levels (one on a shelf, one behind the TV or plants) you can create atmospheric shadows.

A traditional Jack O’Lantern is great. Use a large pumpkin. Design a face on a sheet of paper and use this as your template (Pumpkin Lady has hundreds of free pumpkin carving templates). Another tip is to use an ice-cream scoop to scoop out the pumpkin seeds.

In Scotland, it’s more traditional to use a turnip (swede), rather than a pumpkin – but the larger pumpkin is more readily available than a large turnip.

For spooky Hallowe’en music, try SpookySoundTrack.

The costumes – you can buy your kids some ready-made costumes a la the supermarket, but it’s great fun to make your own. All black costumes – black leggings and a black polo can be the starter for all kinds of costumes, from skeletons (there is a life-size print-out here) to bats – use black bin liners, to cats with a pair of ears, a tail and some face painting.

The entertainment – why not go old school with apple dunking and toffee apple grabbing? Apple dunking needs a clean washing up bowl, lots of tea-towels, apples obviously and to be carried out preferably in an uncarpeted room.

You can also fix some toffee apples hanging up from a rod or tree branch and get the children to try to eat them with their hands behind their backs. You can also use donuts for this.

There’s also the Mummy Wrap. Divide the children into two teams and provide them with white toilet tissue. The object of the game is for the children to completely wrap one of their team members in white tissue paper. The winner is the first team to complete the task.

To recreate guising or trick or treating, you can also get the kids to perform for small rewards.

The food – there are lots of imaginative things you can do with food to make it Hallowe’en friendly. BBC Good Food has more than 40 Hallowe’en recipes – from Zombie fingers (that are naturally sweetened with dates) to a witch’s cauldron with glow in the dark goo.

And if you are looking for ways to use up that left-over pumpkin, try these suggestions from the Birmingham Mail.

Do you have any ideas for how to throw a Hallowe’en party for kids? We’d love to know. Drop us a comment or send us a Tweet @moscookiedough  #halloween2015