Host the Perfect Halloween Party

Ghosts, goblins, and ghastly witches - sounds like the ideal group of party guests! Show them all a frighteningly fun time by hosting the perfect Halloween party with your children. To ensure your party is a monster bash they'll never forget, include the following spine-tingling essentials.

Make sure to invite your guests in style. Then, give them a wicked welcome with Halloween decorations you can make with your kids, and add festive accents with black and orange balloons, tablecloths, and crepe paper. Create the perfect Halloween glow with creative jack-o'-lanterns -- carve out some sinister creatures with your family and display your work!

If you want to step the spookiness up a notch, you and your kids can transform your house into a haunted one:

• Set an eerie mood by switching your regular lightbulbs with colored bulbs or black lights.
• Turn your front yard into a graveyard with tombstones made from plywood and silver spray paint. Assign your children the task of coming up with clever epitaphs.
• Make haunting dummies and mummies by stuffing old clothes with newspaper and topping them off with homemade scary masks and fake blood.
• Stretch out some cotton batting for spider webs and fill them with the plastic creepy critters.
• Place morbid centerpieces and displays (think dead flowers and dusty candelabras) throughout your "haunted mansion."
• And the most haunting part of your house? Enlist some of your friends to hide out and scare your guests when they least expect it! (This tactic is probably best used only with older children.)