HALLOWEEN

HAPPY HALLOWEEN! And welcome to Eden’s special fright night post. Whether you’re planning a party or heading over to someone else’s, these ideas are bound to inspire terrific tricks and treats for all the family to enjoy.

PLANNING A PARTY

When it comes to party planning, you may well be in your element. If you’re not however, why not hire someone to take care of it all for you? Eden is the UK’s leading specialist recruitment consultancy, and we’ll happily find you the perfect party planner. Or perhaps, this is the time to enlist the services of a Household Personal Assistant? That way all you’ll have to worry about is turning up on the night.

DECORATIONS

You’ll want the place to look spooky. Of course you can head straight to the shop to buy the decs, OR you can think bats, cats, ghosts and pumpkins and let your inner-artist go! Whichever way you do it, decorating your venue or a room at home for the occasion will be great fun if you get the children involved. There are plenty of websites offering ideas: Good Housekeeping and Parents have tons of inspiration.

ARTS & CRAFTS

Scissors, tape, glue, card, bin liners, pens, paints, paper, crepe paper, spider webs, tea lights and LED fairy lights, plus – and this is key(!) – your imagination. That’s all you’ll need to bring to the table. Nannies to the rescue!

If you’re not so handy at drawing, don’t worry, you can find witchy templates online everywhere at the moment… We like the free downloadable ones here at tes.co/spookymakes

GAMES

Keeping the children entertained on Halloween is simple, and anyway, by the time they’ve had their face paints applied and eaten tea, there’s really only a short time before the trick or treating commences. Here are some ideas to easily fill that time…

The old-fashioned favourite, Pass The Parcel works a treat at children’s parties. It can be adapted for Halloween of course, by simply packing it with spooky contents. Why not layer Halloween tattoos inside, making yet another fun activity to do straight after?

Hide and Spook (for older children) is a favourite, and Halloween colouring sheets from sites such as Activity Village are something that will keep the younger ones busy.

Blindfold games are obligatory, as children love them. Obviously you’ll be planning a spot of apple bobbing. According to a recent study, the apples to use are Galas. They scored top marks for buoyancy, bite and stem length. Who knew?

An intriguing game is to put a set large bowl of jelly on a tray inside a bin liner. Blindfold the children, letting them take turns putting their hand into the bag (and therefore the jelly). Ugh. It will be unnerving to say the least. Set small treasures inside the jelly for them to uncover.

The new Midnight Creatures book published last month is a pop up shadow and search game asking children to switch off the lights, turn on their torch and spot the hidden creatures when they appear as shadows on the wall. Or turn off the light and turn on the torch and let their imaginations run riot with the help of a set of adventurous ghost story dice. Both from Lawrence King

 

 

 

 

 

 

FOOD

Pumpkin is great for carving Halloween lanterns, but its sweet flesh makes it a treat to eat, too. The smaller the pumpkin, the more flavour it will have. Why not try it in a curry, risotto or sweet pie? Or for

a children’s party, the flesh would make super pumpkin cupcakes. Try with a cinnamon cream cheese icing for a brilliant autumnal treat.

 

A cold buffet is easiest, with all the usual – think sandwiches, crisps, sausage rolls, fruit, carrots/cucumber and dips. Ideas for great kid’s party finger food (quite literally) could be sausage bleeding fingers inside a ghost wrap, which can be made by cutting out ghost faces in the soft tortilla, served with a red blood dip (think a tomato sauce or salsa based concoction).

Turn ice cream cones upside down on top of a turned out pot of jelly (add eyes to the ice cream scoop) to make a fun witch for dessert.

A super way to serve the children’s drink is to make a bowl of juice (punch style) with floating eyeballs or a frozen hand? Pour water into a rubber glove, tie it off and freeze it. You’ll be able to cut off the glove at the time of use, creating a foul looking ice statue.

 

 

COSTUME

Award-winning Morph Costumes have a fantastic range of horrifically awesome suits to terrify friends and family with on October 31^st. Whether you fancy going sugar skull for the night, dressing up as a vicious vampire (or vampire bat, maybe?) or a flesh-eating zombie complete with gory pulsating heart, they’ve got every Halloween party angle covered.