Halloween crafts, games and decorations – Halloween brings to mind a variety of Halloween images and sounds that can be scary as well as fun. Halloween is the night of ghouls, little witches, ghosts and sneering Jack O’Lanterns perched on the porch of creepily decorated haunted houses. It is an opportunity to turn your house into a haunted house and to dress it up as much, or as little as you want, and to invent a selection of Halloween games, activities and crafts to entertain the young, and young at heart, for the entire spooky evening with Halloween lights, Halloween special effects, and use a variety of Halloween decorations outside too.

One of the most important jobs for a Halloween party host is creating the perfect Halloween atmosphere. Strategically placing the Halloween props, producing a creepy atmosphere by using a wide range of horrifically ghoulish decorations, playing eerily spooky background music, and providing a variety of frightfully freaky food and devilish drinks all help to guarantee that the guests at the Halloween theme party will have a great time.

Halloween Decoration Ideas for Outdoors

Putting Halloween decorations outdoors will convert any plain house and front yard into a wonderfully weird and scarily spooky haunted house! If you have a particularly large yard you may want to erect some horrendous Halloween head stones with a dilapidated graveyard gate or similar haunted house scenery. You can finish the whole creepy effect off by dangling spooky skeletons, cob webs, or ghosts from the branches of trees. Or if you live in a condo, or an apartment, then you can always use other types of haunted house decorations such as a frightening warning sign, or mini orange pumpkin lights around the door and windows.

Halloween Decoration Ideas for Indoors

Once you have decorated the outside of your house with Halloween decorations, then you can move onto the inside. It is extremely easy to recreate a haunted house atmosphere filled with floating witches, ghosts, goblins, and other spooky shapes. All you need is some imagination, and a few props. There is no need to spend ages decorating either, because you can easily create the perfect haunted house party atmosphere with some spooky displays and Halloween decorations, a few scary Halloween special effects, and some deliciously devilish Halloween food. You can use some haunting Halloween lighting, including candles, black or orange light bulbs, or indoor mini-lights. Fake cobwebs are also great for adding that terrifying touch. Always bear in mind the age group that you are catering for when you are planning your indoor Halloween decorations, because you want it to be a fun evening, and not give them nightmares for weeks to come!

Halloween Crafts Ideas

There is a wide range of Halloween crafts that are perfect for any Halloween party. Actually planning your Halloween activities for a kids’ Halloween party is almost as much fun as watching the little monsters working on them. Kids love being creative and showing off their creepy Halloween craft creations, and it is a good idea to plan some Halloween crafts for them to do at their Halloween party. You can make things easier if you set them up before hand, and make them quick to clean up afterwards. It is important to make sure that you consider the ages of the kids who are going to be doing the Halloween crafts and make sure that you pick them at the right level. If they are too difficult, or even too simple, then the little ghost might really turn into little monsters! Always make sure that all of the materials that you use are non-toxic, especially the pens, paints, and glues, and that they are washable too.

Halloween Party Games

Everyone loves Halloween games; not only are they popular with the younger guests at your party, because they love getting prizes, but the older Halloween party guests also enjoy them because they can show off their skill and have some fun. You can adapt traditional favorites into Halloween games to keep the little ghosts and ghouls occupied. For example, you could transform an Easter egg hunt into a Halloween treat hunt, or a spooky scavenger hunt, or play pin the mouth on a Halloween pumpkin instead of pin the tail on the donkey. Older kids, and adults, would enjoy a game of charades with a Halloween theme, where all of the items acting out have to have a Halloween twist to them, such as scary movies, or books. You can adapt almost any game to cater for any age group and turn it into a Halloween party game.

By: Daryl Plaza

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It’s a scary world out there, and so it is no wonder that the popularity of the holiday formerly known as All Hallows’ Eve has risen in recent years, ensuring continued healthy product sales of wholesale Halloween decorations, endless recordings of screams from cheap horror films, bulk seasonal candy closeouts, and all the other trappings that go with the one holiday devoted to scares and outlandish costumes. But why is a holiday devoted both to fright and fantasy so enduring?

Fantasy and horror are, if you think about it, mostly about control. Fantasy, like the Harry Potter books and Lord of the Rings, are often about largely powerful beings, sometimes with the help of seemingly less powerful creatures, working together to fight a very powerful evil. Horror is mainly about powerless, ordinary humans fleeing, and only occasionally defeating, an all but unstoppable evil force. The fun part is that’s it’s only a story and, in real life, we’re very unlikely to have to flee brain eating zombies, vampires, or superhuman murderers, and the enduring success of horror comedies like the cult hit Shaun of the Dead play off that real world/unreal world dichotomy.

No one enjoys being actually frightened for any extended period, but from our earliest ages we love safe, short-lived, scares – a trusted friend or relative sneaking up behind us and saying “boo” is fun because the result is actually a kind of reassurance that our terror was groundless, after all – our momentary lack of control provides the tension, and the fact that we were fine all along provides the release. Thrill rides are similar in that we willingly subject ourselves to something that appears to be extremely dangerous, while actually being much safer than crossing the street. And so, there is a reason that every classic fairy tale, and most great family films, includes an element of terror. We’ve heard rumors that theater owners used to have to spend a fair amount of money to replace a certain number of urine-soaked seats whenever screening Walt Disney’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. She might have caused countless nightmares for little ones, but without the terrifying, witch-like Evil Queen, there would be no one for the once powerless heroine and her diminutive friends to triumph over.

And so, Halloween celebrates both side of the fantasy/horror equations, and what the products we buy to celebrate mirror that dichotomy. Just as horror films range from once horrifying but now enjoyably dated monster classics like the 1930’s productions of Frankenstein and Dracula, to innumerable more recent ultra-disturbing opuses produced on the cheap, so do popular costumes range from superheroes (power fantasies), to **** nurse outfits (celebrating a different kind of power), to masks resembling political figures (depending on your opinions, a different kind of horror, perhaps), to the budding make-up wizards who try to turn our stomachs in the style of famed gore make-up genius Tom Savini.

Of course, while adults have been increasingly co-opting Halloween for their own purposes, it remains very largely a children’s holiday. It is therefore the more fun and cartoony bulk products and cheap items that prevail at sellers of wholesale Halloween decorations or that you see at the drug store closeout discount counter – scary/silly false teeth, coloring books, and themed bulk candy in various shapes that give little ones a sense of empowerment over their most fanciful fears. What better way to show your mastery over a monster than to eat it?

By: Marc Joseph

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Store your Halloween decorations so they will be easily accessible and in one piece year after year. Here’s the scoop on how to do just that.

Designate a special color marker, such as the Halloween color orange, to use when labeling the outside of your Halloween decoration storage boxes and containers. This color-coding technique will make them easier to locate.

When you buy plastic storage containers for storing Halloween decorations, ornaments or costumes, make sure that either the lids or the entire container is a Halloween color (usually orange, purple, black or grey). That’s another easy way to find your Halloween items at a glance in your garage, closet or attic. Obviously, you’ll mostly find these colors at walk-in retailers sometime between September and November. But if you look around, you can problem find them at some online retailers year-round.

Original boxes and containers, including the custom shaped Styrofoam, work best for storing Halloween decorations. But if you don’t have these, you can still wrap items in newspaper, tissue or even soft paper towels. Store the really fragile or breakable Halloween decorations in smaller storage boxes and tins for extra protection. Then put those smaller boxes into your larger plastic container.

Store candles in a box with a lid in a cool, dark, dry environment so they don’t fade or melt. Store long, tapered candles on their sides so they don’t warp.

Halloween decorations that normally hang by cords, including fragile ones like thin cardboard scarecrows or even bulky ones, can hang from a wall hook in your garage. You can hang these decorations one in front of another. That will take less room because you’ll be hanging several on the same “large” wall hook (such as a hook used to hold bikes, ladders or hoses). Cover these hanging Halloween decorations with old pillow cases and plastic trash bags.

If you’re storing Halloween masks (or some Halloween costumes) that you plan to keep for a long time or that have sentimental value, be sure to check their care instructions or ask the store where you purchase them about this. If you don’t do this, next Halloween you may be surprised to find your Halloween mask crumpled and cracked due to improper storage.

You may want to put all Halloween decoration hardware such as wreath hangers or other special Halloween ornament fasteners in one small box (that goes into one of your larger containers). Put it near the top for easy access and label it “Halloween Hardware–Open First”. That way you can get started right away next year with your Halloween decorating.

By: Karen Porter

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Well it is that time of the year again and if your little ones are anything like mine, they are probably getting pretty excited about carving pumpkins. Pumpkin carving is a very entertaining hobby but as with most hobbies you need to take precautions so that you and your little ones have a fun and safe experience.

Here are a few recommended safety tips so that everyone has a happy and fun filled Halloween.

Artificial Lights

Looking for a safe and secure way to light your pumpkin? Artificial lights make great alternatives for candles. Wal-Mart and many other great stores have inexpensive battery operated lights that are designed specifically for pumpkins. If you are unable to find the battery operated lights there are also pumpkin lights out there that you can plug into a wall. Just cut a notch out of the back of the pumpkin that allows you to run the electrical cord to the wall.

Sharp tools safety

We all probably already know that sharp tools like saws and knives are needed to carve pumpkins and that taking precautions when using the tools is a necessity. However, with that being said, if you have little ones that are going to get involved with the carvings this year, extra precaution needs to be taken.

The general rule here is safety first. Always supervise your young ones if you feel that they are old enough to participate with the actual carvings this year. Just remember to take your time when carving and be mindful of the sharp tools.

Properly gutting the pumpkin

One of the most important safety tips is to make sure that the pumpkin has been gutted properly. You want to insure that there is not any hanging pulp inside the pumpkin that could possible catch on fire (especially if the pumpkin was dried out).

Candle safety

Here are a few safety tips you may want to use if you plan to use candles in your pumpkin.

1. Never leave the lit candle unintended.

2. Create a chimney in the pumpkin – Basically a chimney is a hole that is cutout from the pumpkin’s upper back. The function of the chimney is to create an area that allows the heat from the candle’s flame to escape from the pumpkin.

3. Place the candles in a glass jar and the glass jar inside the pumpkin. The glass jar should provide additional stability for the candle.

4. When you gut the pumpkin, make sure that the bottom of the pumpkin is completely flat. This will provide a more secure base to put the candle on.

5. Cut the bottom of the pumpkin out verses the top; you can place the candle on the floor and sit the pumpkin over it. If you do decide to cutout the bottom of the pumpkin, make sure that you are placing the candle on a secure floor that does not have a chance of catching on fire.

6. Never use a candle in an artificial pumpkin. They are flammable and artificial light should be used when lighting the pumpkin.

Carving pumpkins is a fun activity for the entire family. I few extra safety steps can help insure that everyone has a fun and safe holiday.

By: Gerald Gore

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Everyone uses pumpkins and orange lights during Halloween, but that doesn’t mean that you can’t find unique Halloween decorations to use both inside and outside of your home. Sick of seeing every house on the street put up the “crashed witches” or huge garbage bag pumpkins? Here are some ideas to keep your neighbors talking about your neat decoration ideas!

Masks: Masks don’t have to just be for your face-they can be some great Halloween decorations as well! Try lining and entryway with scary masks or even hanging one on your front door. This can also be an inexpensive way to decorate, since you’ve probably collected a number of masks over the years. Put a mask on your scarecrow, on your garden features like statues, and even your kids’ dolls. If you’ll be using the masks outdoors, make sure that they are weatherproof. Glass vases: You can fill glass vases with almost anything! Orange, red, brown, and gold are the traditional colors of fall, and you can use strictly black and orange right around Halloween if you wish. Try filling vases with colored leaves, marbles, or orange and black candies. If you want to really get gruesome, you can also use unusual things like plastic bugs!Spider webs: Most people use the fake spider webs outside, but they’ll last longer inside as well. The added bonus? It’s ok if they get a little dusty! Spider webs are supposed to be spooky, so put away your cleaning products for a few weeks! Make sure that you spray your spider webs with repellent to deter any live inhabitants from making a home! If you want a less scary, try spraying the webs with spray glitter for a pretty touch. Murals: Let your kids go crazy by painting a huge Halloween mural or banner. Buy a large piece of white cloth or even a white bed sheet and allow them to use paint or markets to create something your can display along your wall or even in your front yard. Allow your kids to be creative or, if your children are still young, outline the words “Happy Halloween” or “Trick or Treat” in big, black letters so that you’ve created a big coloring book page for them to color. Small Changes: You can really make a big impact with just a few small changes. Put up orange and black curtains. Use a Halloween-designed throw rug. Cover the pots of your indoor plants with plastic Halloween containers. These little changes can really make a big difference in your overall holiday spirit!The bottom line is that Halloween decorations can really help you to enjoy the holiday. You don’t have to go overboard or even spend a lot of money to decorate your house. Choose a few key items both inside and outside, and you should be well on your way to a great Halloween. Every year, add a few more items to really build up to a wonderfully decorated house.

By: Colin Joss

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