Ideas needed for a Halloween Party

[aceflor]

So my kids are both teens now, and for the first time we are throwing a Halloween Party in our house. We are in a country in Europe where Halloween is just starting now to be popular, so I cannot rely on big shops to offer me the decorations I need. There was a bit of stuff at ToysRus so we bought some spider webs and such, but it was nothing compared to the US, so we will need to rely on our own means and ingenuity for the rest. I'd be really thankful for any homemade decorations and recipes ideas.... Half Term starts Wednesday so it is also a nice project for the kids to keep them busy.

[tubemonkey]

How about a pumpkin carving contest? Divide the kids into teams and provide each team with a pumpkin and carving tools. Set a time limit, then give prizes for the best pumpkin.

How to Carve a Pumpkin

[poohbear_nc]

If you don't want to distribute lots of sharp objects to teens, you might consider decorating orange balloons using black markers.

Bobbing for apples?

[Barbara1955]

Telling Scary stories & a Prize for the spookiest one!

[Cinisajoy]

Here is a quick search for diy decorations.

[aceflor]

Thanks guys ! No knives for them though . They are very good kids all, but my DD might end up harming her big brother because my does she have a temper... !!! We will carve the pumpkins before the whole gang arrives to have great decoration outside.

The scary stories contest is excellent, and it'll be great fun for sure. I have downloaded free Halloween scary music today, so that's done.

If I don't find them in a shop, how do we do eyeballs ? Hard boiled eggs or rather ping pong balls ? The kids want them swimming in a cauldron...My son also wants a fog machine, but that's not gonna happen

[aceflor]

Originally Posted by Cinisajoy

Here is a quick search for diy decorations.

Something's missing, but what.....

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by aceflor

Thanks guys ! No knives for them though . They are very good kids all, but my DD might end up harming her big brother because my does she have a temper... !!! We will carve the pumpkins before the whole gang arrives to have great decoration outside.

The scary stories contest is excellent, and it'll be great fun for sure. I have downloaded free Halloween scary music today, so that's done.

If I don't find them in a shop, how do we do eyeballs ? Hard boiled eggs or rather ping pong balls ? The kids want them swimming in a cauldron...My son also wants a fog machine, but that's not gonna happen

Dang, that lets out the "carve-the-pumpkin-blindfolded" contest too

Eyeballs

[Cinisajoy]

Originally Posted by aceflor

Something's missing, but what.....

Found it.
https://www.google.com/search?q=home...obile&ie=UTF-8

[John K]

Science Friday recently did a radio show on "DIY This Halloween".

Green fire, magic mirrors, fiber optic fairy wings—just a few of the ways to geek out this Halloween with do-it-yourself projects. Eric Wilhelm, founder of Instructables, joins Ira to suggest a few of his favorites, like an arduino-powered skull that follows you as you move, or truly realistic edible eyeballs (sorry, peeled grapes.)

I thought the dry ice fog was interesting.

[tubemonkey]

There's always room for Jell-o

Brain Mold

[poohbear_nc]

If I don't find them in a shop, how do we do eyeballs ?

Grapes in water

[cromag]

Walnut halves make good stand-ins for mini-brains.

(Personally, I'm trying to avoid "brain mold!")

[HomeInMyShoes]

Last year we did a Hallowe'en party for my four year old. Had lots of fun. We did all or decorations ourselves.

I made tombstones for the front yard out of the 2" dense panel insulation. Just use a band saw or utility knife to cut the shapes and then use a utility knife to cut in the names, dates, other decorations. Use black paint to fill in the dates and stuff and then grey paint while the black is still a little wet to finish off the entire tombstone. A couple of wooden dowels in the bottom and you can set them up wherever in the yard.

I made paper mache heads and painted them green and strung them in the trees (one I made into a piñata and the kids had a blast whacking it and the rest of the heads out of the trees.

The main decorating inside the house was the sunroom windows which I did a spooky sunset outline by gluing tissue paper from red to orange to yellow to green (from sky to earth) on the outside. Then I used stick tack and stuck up a haunted house outline, some tombstones and some spooky clouds. I used a spotlight in the sunroom to illuminate the whole thing. It ended up working really well.

I also used tin cans and punched holes in them in the shape of spooky faces and then put candles inside as lanterns for the front step. I also used construction paper to make the door look like a giant mouth with big teeth.

Probably not all that scary for teens, but my son and I had a blast doing everything. We even made a couple more tombstones this year.

I will try to dig up some photos tonight.

[aceflor]

Originally Posted by HomeInMyShoes

Last year we did a Hallowe'en party for my four year old. Had lots of fun. We did all or decorations ourselves.

I made tombstones for the front yard out of the 2" dense panel insulation. Just use a band saw or utility knife to cut the shapes and then use a utility knife to cut in the names, dates, other decorations. Use black paint to fill in the dates and stuff and then grey paint while the black is still a little wet to finish off the entire tombstone. A couple of wooden dowels in the bottom and you can set them up wherever in the yard.

I made paper mache heads and painted them green and strung them in the trees (one I made into a piñata and the kids had a blast whacking it and the rest of the heads out of the trees.

The main decorating inside the house was the sunroom windows which I did a spooky sunset outline by gluing tissue paper from red to orange to yellow to green (from sky to earth) on the outside. Then I used stick tack and stuck up a haunted house outline, some tombstones and some spooky clouds. I used a spotlight in the sunroom to illuminate the whole thing. It ended up working really well.

I also used tin cans and punched holes in them in the shape of spooky faces and then put candles inside as lanterns for the front step. I also used construction paper to make the door look like a giant mouth with big teeth.

Probably not all that scary for teens, but my son and I had a blast doing everything. We even made a couple more tombstones this year.

I will try to dig up some photos tonight.

Thanks, the tombstone idea we can do and it is brilliant !!!

The purpose is not only to have a good party, but foremost to have my kids do the things themselves which I personally think is all the fun and a nice holiday activity, as we are as of yesterday on a 10 day break from school. So we are going to do every day something for the party, which will culminate on the Saturday 31st (obviously). And then.. they'll have to clean on Sunday, which I hope we'll manage to turn into a fun activity too....