Friday 2 October 2009

Tis the season to get SPOOKY!!!

The Dancing Queen is also the Queen of Halloween. She has always loved Halloween and over the years, our party got better and better. Recently, we have taken to moving the Halloween spectacular into the garden, and our house is now known amongst the tick or treater's as the Spookiest house in the village - which means we tend to draw quite a crowd. I thought I would share some of the things we do with you early on, in case you want to borrow the ideas.

This is our house - only joking, but how good would this be for a Halloween party? We spotted it on holiday last year. It stands on the beach in Dinard. I found out recently that it is reputed to be the house that Hitchcock based the motel in "Phsyco" on - I can see why. I think you could make it really really spooky!


I always used to carve the pumpkins, but then the Halloween queen wanted to do them last year. Now when I did them, they had eyes and jaggedy teeth - look what happens when she is let loose on the internet and then given a sharp knife!!











If you type in "Pumpkin Stencils" on google, you get spoiled for choice. She claims that they are very easy to do!!




As well as bobbing for apples, I also create a Witches cauldron that contains the chopped up body parts of a dead pirate!! This also contains a few treats, and the braver kids can dip into this for their treats. I use my grandads old pantion, and fill it with boiled spaghetti (intestines) a small cabbage (head) 2 hard boiled eggs (eyes) and chopped up carrots (fingers) I tape a black bin bag with a hand sized slit over the top so that the "dippers" cannot see in. I usually tell a bit of a story about the witch and the pirate (which I make up as I go along, but it is always very gruesome!)


We hang a collection of large rubber bats, spiders and snakes (mostly bought in gift shops over the years on the numerous school trips the kids on when they had £2 burning a hole in their pocket!) in places where the visitors will brush against them, and the Halloween queen made a huge web last year from crochet chain stitch and cheap white acrylic wool - we place this in the gateway so that the trick or treaters have to fight their way through it to get to us.



The kids decorate the garden with "ghosts" that are made using the young mans footballs (for heads ) wrapped in my decorating dust sheets and pinned up in trees, across the fence - dangling from the trampolene etc. We light the whole garden up with flickering candles and also make hot dogs for the trick or treaters using those disgusting "smart price" tinned sausages and finger rolls - with ketchup. The kids love 'em!!




We also make a few graves for the garden using this Martha Stewart template and we have used this Martha template to cut out hundreds of mice (gives the kids something to do!!) which we blu-tak all over the place. They look really effective. I really love Martha Stewart - the old jailbird! We save our Halloween decs every year in a box in the loft now, like we do our Christmas decorations and I usually buy the tacky supermarket decorations/plates/themed glasses etc when they are heavily reduced after the event to add to the collection.
I hope I have given you a few ideas. xxx

12 comments:

The Girl said...

Wow your Halloween house sounds amazing - I need to travel over to see it for a real Halloween experience.

I now have a probably shocking confession to make....I've never been trick or treating! (I know!)

Living in a flat we're unlikely to get any trick or treaters but I might have to have a go at some pumpkin carving and aspire to the levels the dancing queen has achieved!

menopausalmusing said...

Eeek! I think I will have to dress up and come over to your place..... fantastic post! (I already have the beginnings of the hairy chin, so I think I will have to be a witch!).

Rosie said...

Now why did I have Cream's 'Strange Brew' going around my head whilst I was reading this!:) Sounds absolutely fantastic, I bet you get nearly the whole of your village in your garden fishing for 'eye balls & finger bits' and having loads of spooky fun. Let's all go to Diane's house:)

sarah-jane down the lane said...

Gosh Diane, spook tastic! Are you a Tim Burton fan by any chance? I am a Bonfire Night Lover, I put all my energies into a mean Chili con Carne for all our friends and we drink mulled wine outside the village pub whilst admiring the fireworks its become one of those annual rituals that mark the seasons.
Hope you are having a great weekend,
Sarah x

Michela said...

I'm drooling just reading your party's description! Halloween is not so popular here! And I'm very disappointed as I've just been at the supermarket and have not find any Halloween item! (I'm taking part in a swap and I'm looking for orange items)
Hope you can post more pictures about it in the future..I'm dying of curiosity...what do you wear??!

Beki said...

Now how much do you think it will cost to send some of those pumpkins through the post, I don't think I could ever do that. Mine are generally like yours.
We like to decorate inside and out although we live at the posh end of town now and it doesn't seem to go down to well with the old farts who live round here, might have to put a few extra up this year ;)We fill a bucket with jelly aswell for the trick or treaters sweeties.....nice and gooey!
((hugs))
Beki xxx

Beki said...

p.s I want to live in that house xx

lesley said...

Diane, you really get into the spirit of things, I think your ideas sounds great! The "ma Bates" house on clifftop is scary, & just like the one we saw in Universal studios, it even has the little round window in it. Baz loves the pumpkins...he's a big kid at heart!

Lisa said...

Oh thanks for the links to Martha, will be doing some of those mice for sure.
One year I made a concoction of dried fruit, cereals and other stuff I forget with water to make it a bit gloopy and wrapped the sweets up in cligfilm and popped them into the mix. If the treat or treaters wanted soem they had to out their hands in the mix. Oh the squeals, they loved it. Another year I did a lucky dip. On pieces of paper were things like 'witches dandruff' and 'bat poo'. They then got given a little bag containing this item. Bat poo was chocolate covered raisins and dandruff was rainbow drops. The following year when I opened the door to a group of children they said 'you're the bat poo lady aren't you!' Something to be remembered for!
Lisa x

andamento said...

The haunted house pumpkin is fantastic. I may have a shot this year though based on previous attempts at pumpking carving I don't know how successful I'll be.

Loads of other great ideas too, think I'll try the mice to start with.

Sounds like you know how to have fun!

JuliaB said...

Oooer! Sounds very macabre, but I think you might be missing a zombie or two!! xx

The Ample Cook said...

That cauldron idea is brilliant! Halloween at your house must be really popular.