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you make your checklist, decide how to decorate and what to serve.
Start shopping a few weeks before the party to make sure you can
find what you need.
Before you buy food and decorations, it is helpful to choose a party
theme. In “Throw a Halloween party on a budget,” Heidi McIndoo says
by starting with a theme, “you can then gear all of your decorating
and food around that topic instead of having a mishmash of ideas.”
Themes McIndoo recommends include a pumpkin carving party and a
Halloween movie theme.
Other themes McIndoo shares can provide easy ideas for decorating.
Among these themes are spiders and webs, bats and vampires and
ghosts and graveyards.
For the spiders and webs, much of the décor will be black and white.
Fake spiders can be placed throughout the house, Fake cobwebs can be
stretched “over your table, chairs, doorways and more.”
With a bat and spiders’ theme, a mixture of karo syrup and red food
coloring creates fake blood you can put on serving glasses. Fangs
cut out of white paper can be placed on photos. Plastic bats can
decorate walls or be hung from the ceiling.
To create graveyards, McIndoo suggests you “[l]ine your sidewalk
with gravestones made of foam. Hang ghosts of different sizes from
the ceiling and light fixtures.” On your serving table label foods
“with cards resembling gravestones and get creative with your food
names such as bat wings (chicken wings), calzombies (calzones),
chocolate-covered flies (chocolate covered raisins), and (of course)
witches’ brew.”
Since food is an important part of a Halloween party, consider
serving “spooky” foods like mummy dogs, monster jaws, bones and
blood, spider web dip and dirt with worms.
In the article “Easy Halloween Party Food,” Sara Wells tells how to
make these yummy treats.
For mummy dogs, “cut crescent roll dough into thin
strips and wrap around hot dogs." By cutting hotdogs in half, you
can make them bite sized.
Monster jaws are made by cutting apples into quarters then taking “a
wedge out of the center of each quarter. Dunk them in water with a
little lemon juice to prevent browning. Use slivered almonds for
teeth.”
To make bones and blood, “[u]se breadstick dough (store bought or
homemade) and cut into strips. Use scissors to snip the ends into 2
pieces and roll them down to make the bone shape. Dip in ‘bloody’
marinara.”
Spider web dip can top any dip you can put sour cream on. To make
the spider web, “put some sour cream in a plastic baggie with the
end snipped off and use it to draw a web pattern. Throw on a fake
spider or two and your favorite party dip is instantly creepy!”
For dirt and worms, “Use chocolate pudding for your mud and put some
crushed Oreos on top for dirt. Hide those gummy worms in there for
eeek factor!”
Once you have decided on how to decorate and what to serve, choose
some games, create a playlist of spooky Halloween music and find
accessories and props that can be used in a photo booth.
Finally, while you make sure everything is going well at your party,
try to enjoy some fun yourself.
Once Halloween is over, it is time to start getting ready for the
upcoming Thanksgiving holiday.
About four weeks before Thanksgiving, plan your menu. If you want to
have a fresh turkey, order it three weeks before the holiday.
Hosting Thanksgiving can take quite a bit of planning
and preparation, especially if you have a big family. In “How to
Prepare Your Home to Host a Beautiful Thanksgiving Celebration,”
Blythe Copeland says, “from planning the menu to accommodating
overnight guests to deep cleaning the kitchen and setting the table,
each element helps lay the foundation for a festive, seamless
celebration.”
If you are planning to have overnight guests, make sure to prepare
the guest rooms so your guests have a comfortable place to stay with
anything they might need.
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In “The Ultimate Guide to Thanksgiving,” Amy Bell
says a few days before Thanksgiving, “[c]lear any clutter in the
guest rooms. Don't forget to replace the sheets with fresh ones.
Ensure that you also stock towels, washcloths, and toiletries for
guests.” To provide space for guests to store items, “you might also
think about clearing out closets or drawers. Once you've dusted and
vacuumed, it's a good idea to close the guest room doors to keep the
rooms fresh and clean throughout the week until the guests arrive.”
In the last two weeks before Thanksgiving, buy non-perishable items
and clean your refrigerator to make room for the food.
As Thanksgiving day nears, make sure you have enough
plates and silverware and figure out how long food preparation will
take. If using frozen, thaw your turkey a few days before
Thanksgiving and start cooking it early in the morning.
This planning will help make the day smoother. In the article
“Prepare your Home for Thanksgiving,” Entertaining expert Brenna
Gilbert of Feste says, "Thanksgiving is not as much about good
cooking as it is about good execution and planning…Sure, you want to
nail that famous stuffing recipe, but if guests are eating two hours
late or you don’t have enough plates, no one remembers how good your
gratin was."
To simplify food preparation, have others bring side dishes. Make a
list of what dishes each person is bringing to ensure you don’t have
too much of one dish and not enough of another.
When it comes to food, the first piece of advice in Si Foster’s
article “How to Host Thanksgiving Dinner” is “stick with
traditional. Trust me. Traditional is best for Thanksgiving. That
means turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, stuffing, sweet potatoes,
cranberry sauce, rolls, salad and of course, pie.”
Once everything is ready, it is time to sit back and enjoy
Thanksgiving dinner.
Though preparing for Halloween and Thanksgiving may be time
consuming, it should be worth it when you spend time celebrating
with friends and family.
[Angela Reiners]
Resources
Bell,
Amy. “The Ultimate Guide To Prepping For Thanksgiving.” 15. Nov.
2022.
https://www.mashed.com/1102021/the-ultimate-guide-to-prepping-for-thanksgiving/
Copeland,
Blythe. “How to Prepare Your Home to Host a Beautiful Thanksgiving
Celebration.” 2 Nov. 2023.
https://www.marthastewart.com/prepare-your-home-for-thanksgiving-8384532
Foster, Si. “How to Host Thanksgiving Dinner.” 8 Nov. 2023.
https://abountifulkitchen.com/how-to-host-thanksgiving-dinner-101/
McIndoo, Heidi. “Throw a Halloween party on a budget.”
https://livingonthecheap.com
/throwing-haunting-halloween-party-budget/
Wells, Sara. “Easy Halloween Party Food.”
https://ourbestbites.com//easy-halloween-party-food/
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