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Host a HAUNTED HALLOWEEN Fright-Fest
By Penny Warner

Eerie Invitations

Send the guests “Pumpkin Pal” invitations to get the party started. Blow up orange balloons and hold the neck of the balloon without knotting it. Then write party details on the outside of the balloon with glow-in-the-dark pens, deflate and mail to guests with a note to inflate the balloon in the dark to read the surprise.

Decrepit Decorations

Turn your party room into a Haunted House with stations for various activities and games. Begin by erecting cardboard or Styrofoam tombstones in the front yard. Cover white helium-filled balloons with white tissue paper, draw a couple black circles for eyes, add an oval mouth, and place around the yard to look like floating ghosts. Cover the front door with cobwebs and play haunting sounds or music.

Continue the fun inside with decorated stations, such as “Frankie’s Laboratory,” “Body Transplant Hospital” and “Alien Autopsy.” Include “specimen jars” with yucky stuff inside and make sure to include green, purple, and orange helium-filled balloons with the black ones to give the room a creepy yet festive atmosphere. Set up a fog machine, keep the scary music going and add glow sticks throughout the darkened room. Once in a while pop a balloon to give the guests a scare.

Mummy Wrap

Divide into teams and give players rolls of toilet paper or black and orange crepe paper. Have them select a “mummy” from the group, then race to wrap the mummy (all but the mouth), without tearing the paper. The team that wraps its mummy first wins a prize.

Alien Autopsy

Prepare “body parts” from various foods and other objects, such as cooked spaghetti for brains, peeled tomato for heart, Jell-O for liver, cooked penne pasta for intestines, dried apricots for ears, peeled grapes for eyeballs, popcorn kernels for teeth, and so on. Have the guests feel inside containers and try to guess what they’re really touching! Keep a camera handy for those wicked facial expressions.

Fearsome Refreshments

You could always serve the “body parts” as appetizers or snacks – as long as they haven’t been handled by all the guests first! Include Vienna sausages for fingers, deviled egg for eyeballs, and cow’s tongue for an added (and frightening) delicacy.

Serve Witch’s Blood – blood red punch – in a caldron, with a green floating “hand,” made by freezing green tinted water in a rubber glove. Remove rubber glove “hand” at serving time by running lightly under warm water, and peeling back the glove. Place ice cubes in guests cups, tinted green, with a gummy worm frozen inside!

Penny Warner has more than 25 years of experience as an author and party planner. She has published more than 50 books, including 16 specific to parties. For more Halloween ideas, visit www.BalloonTime.com.