Calling All Ghouls and Ghosts

Throw a Halloween Party Adults and Kids Will Love

By Donna Smith

Spider webs can be made with the black frosting, monster faces with the green, and a "bloody" cupcake can be made with the red frosting. Adult supervision is recommended when kids are using knives, even the plastic kind! Pay particular attention to children younger than 3, since the small items used to decorate the cupcakes can be choking hazards.

The decorations for your party can be as simple, or elaborate, as you would like. White yarn strung around ceiling fans, windows, doorways and hanging off tables is a great effect. Don't forget the spiders to go along with the webs. Homemade spiders can be made by painting a Styrofoam ball black and adding black pipe cleaners as legs. Hang these spiders on the yarn spider webs.

Blow up a balloon, cover it with a white sheet and hang in the corners of every room. Replace the standard light bulbs in your lamps and overhead lights with black lights. Place baskets of apples and miniature pumpkins and gourds around the house. Light some pumpkin or cinnamon-scented candles to make the house smell like Halloween, and don't forget to pop in a tape of scary haunted house sounds or Halloween music.

Want to see more?

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• Eek! It's a Haunted Open House
• Frighteningly Frugal Fun: Great Halloween Ideas for Cheap
• Talk about it!