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Halloween Costume Party

The classic Halloween Party, a costume party, encourages even the most boring adults to find their inner children, dressing up in costumes that range from silly to spectacular.

You'll Need
• Ingredients for each of the recipes and any serving tools you'll need
• Orange and black construction paper
• Orange or white 5"x7" envelopes
• Glue
• An assortment of Halloween stickers (spiders, cats, haunted houses, ghosts, witches, cauldrons, monsters, and so forth)—look in the scrapbooking or card-making sections of your craft store for cute, creative, or interesting flat, puffy, or three-dimensional stickers
• Scissors or paper cutter
• Glitter, paint pens, or other decorative writing instruments
• Black felt-tip pen
• Stamps
• Décor
• Favors
• Prizes
• Spooky Feel-It items
• Costume
• CDs
• Extra CD players/boom boxes
• Candy for trick-or-treaters

Date, Theme, Budget, and Venue
Halloween—The last day of October. If the date falls on a Friday or Saturday, have the party on Halloween. Otherwise, have the party the weekend before; if you wait until the weekend following Halloween, you run the risk of losing the spooky spirit because guests become reluctant to spend one more night in this year's getups. Begin your party at 8:00 or 9:00 p.m.

Halloween! theme—All things spooky, silly, black, and orange. Pull out all the stops for this party, decorating your home to the nines, playing spooky music, offering fun activities and delicious foods, and ending the night, of course, with a costume contest. Have fun with the theme—the only thing getting between you and the most fabulous Halloween party ever thrown is your budget.

Midrange to high budget—If you have the bucks, go all out and spend up to $25 per person. Heck, spend more if Halloween is your favorite holiday and you can afford to break the bank. You don't have to go nuts with the planning; it's quite possible to have a great party on a smaller budget. However, to throw a really great Halloween party, you'll probably need to spend at least $12 a person, so plan accordingly.

Your spooky house venue—Although some Halloween aficionados turn their entire homes into haunted houses, you might not have the budget to do so. At the very least, spiff up your main party area (living room, back yard), bathroom, and entryway, and add small, thematic touches to other, less-frequented areas, such as the kitchen, office, or bedroom.

Guest List and Invitations
Your guest list should include your entire address book. Halloween is one of those great holidays that almost everyone enjoys celebrating. Share the fun with your friends, neighbors, family, and co-workers—even your nanny or dog walker! After you set your budget, invite as many people as you can swing—also be prepared for any number of extra guests because Halloween parties usually attract posses.

Paper Halloween invitations can be a lot of fun to send out. If you have the inclination, make your own! Here's an easy idea:

1. Cut construction paper into rectangles: 10"x7" black rectangles and 9"x6" orange rectangles.
2. Glue the black rectangles to the orange rectangles, centering the orange paper on the black so that a ½" margin of black paper borders the orange page.
3. Fold the card in half, with the black page on the outside. Make sure your card fits into the envelopes you'll be using. You might have to trim the edges a little.
4. Decorate the front of the card with stickers or other trim; you can also draw simple sketch outlines of Halloween figures (spiders, cats, haunted houses, ghosts, witches, cauldrons, monsters, and so forth) in glitter or paint pen (silver or gold glitter looks great).
5. On the inside of the card, use the black felt-tip pen to letter your party details: date, time, location, contact information, costume contest details, and so forth. You can also use your computer to print this information onto a white piece of paper, trim it to 4"x6", and glue it to the inside of the card.
6. Put cards into envelopes, address with black felt-tip pen, stamp, and mail.

If you don't have the time or budget to make your own Halloween party invitations, either purchase paper invitations or use an Internet-based invitation system.

Menu
Instead of spending a lot of money on a full buffet, offer a selection of scary finger foods. For each dish, create a sign on an index card and prop up next to the item. You get extra points for using a calligraphy pen or otherwise decorating the signs.

• Appetizers—Grandma's Chicken Wings (call them "Barbecued Bat Wings"), Dried Scabs (a mixture of dried fruit, such as cherries, cranberries, blueberries, and anything else that resembles a scab), Iptacita's Guacamole (call it "Green Ooze") served with tortilla chips, and baked garlic (label it "Vampire Bane") with sliced baguette.
• Entree—Make pumpkin sandwiches. Layer a slice of cheese and a slice of turkey between two pieces of bread, and use the condiment of your choice to help "glue" the whole thing together (I like a little mayo and cranberry relish). Press a pumpkin-shaped metal cookie cutter (the plastic ones don't work as well) into the sandwich and gently pull away the crust. Lift cookie cutter away and discard edges of sandwich. Arrange on a serving platter. Tip: Don't forget the candy! If you expect trick-or-treaters, make sure you get a few (dozen?) bags of candy. Instead of waiting by the door for kids, place the bowl of candy near the door with a sign reading, "Help yourself!" Whoever is nearest the door can hold out the bowl for the kiddies.
• Dessert—Pecan pumpkin pie (skip the caramel sauce and serve with a dollop of whipped topping), store-bought Halloween cookies, cream cheese brownies (cut into squares and top with raspberry sauce, which will look like blood).
• Beverages—Mulled Wine (serve from the stove top), Cranberry Cocktail Punch Cooler (spike with vodka, if you'd like), assorted cocktails as your budget allows.

Décor and Favors
Because entire books, magazines, and stores are devoted to Halloween décor, I won't go into great detail about creating a haunted house in your home. However, make sure you don't forget these staples:

• Carved pumpkins—Set these on the porch, in the foyer, in the fireplace, in the bathroom, and/or in the yards. Be sure to use candles expressly made for pumpkins, lest your gourds melt.
• Hanging ghosts—Blow up a balloon, cover it with a sheet, and tie the "neck" with string. Draw on a haunted face with a black marking pen.
• Cobwebs everywhere—Purchase by the bag at Halloween stores and hang in every room. Don't forget to stud them with spiders!
• Dry ice—Put small blocks in buckets with about 6" of warm water to create a foggy effect. Place buckets on the ground in various places around the room, and guests will move the fog about as they walk around. Be sure to wear heavy work gloves when handling the dry ice as it will burn bare skin.
• Dead flowers—Visit a floral shop a week before the party and ask for their dead blooms. Call a few weeks ahead to make these arrangements so you won't be sniped by like-minded party planners.

These basics are just a few ideas to get you started. If you want to go all out, invest in a Halloween book and do some Internet research. If you have the time, budget, and interest, you can transform your entire home into a virtual graveyard.

Because this party will be large, making individual favors will be time-consuming and expensive. Instead, visit a Halloween or dollar store and pick up a bunch of spooky toys—plastic skeletons, spider rings, chocolate-filled pirate gold, candy, and other tacky treasures—for about $.50 to $1 each. Arrange in a bowl near the bar or in the foyer, and allow guests to take whatever appeals to them.

Music and Entertainment
Halloween compilation CDs are easy to find at this time of year. Here are a few that sound great:

• Halloween Howls, Andrew Gold
• Classics from the Crypt, Various Artists
• Halloween Hits, Various Artists

Consider purchasing, borrowing, or renting a few Halloween or spooky sound-effect CDs, which you can play in the bathroom, "quiet" lounging room, front yard, or foyer. You'll need to borrow additional CD players or boom boxes for this effect.

I call one of my favorite Halloween party activities "Spooky Feel-It." A buffet of brains, guts, and eyeballs. What a delight for the fingertips!

You'll Need
• 10 to 15 large grapes, peeled
• ½ lb. cooked, cold spaghetti
• ½ lb. cooked, cold elbow macaroni
• Slices of American cheese, cut into irregular shapes
• Large grapefruit, peeled and halved
• 5 large cardboard boxes, at least 18" on each side
• Scissors
• Note cards
• Colored pens or pencils

Arrange the peeled grapes (eyeballs), cold spaghetti (guts), macaroni (maggots), cheese (skin), and grapefruit (brains) in separate bowls. Cut a 4"-diameter hole in the side of each box, and place a box over each bowl. Guests should be able to reach in through the holes to feel what lies beneath. Label each box as appropriate: eyeballs, guts, maggots, skin, and brains. Encourage guests to touch and squeal.

A costume contest is a natural for this party. Reward your guests for taking the trouble to attend in costume by inviting them to parade in front of the whole party. Award prizes for the three best costumes. If you can't decide who wins, let the crowd decide with rounds of applause.

If you're on a small budget and you still want to give a first-rate Halloween party, splurge on the decorations (which are relatively inexpensive), scale down on the food, and make the party BYOB, investing only in soda, water, and a small keg of beer. Make sure your invites read "BYOB," and your guests will bring enough hooch to go around. By creating great atmosphere, your guests will feel as though they are in a much fancier party than the one your small budget allowed.