Halloween Parties

Halloween is the time of year when horror movies come out in droves like the zombies of B-films. It is the time of the year that costume stores and candy manufacturers expect their largest sales. It is the time of year when adults remember how trick-or-treat was thrillingly spooky, fun and tiring at the same time.

Remember trick-or-treating, running around at night with a sack, wearing the spookiest or fanciest costume your parents could make or afford? Halloween allows an adult to walk around dressed as a lobster without inhibition. A person can act the role of a musketeer, a movie star, a monster, a mad scientist, or almost anything within the limits of one's creativity. But at some point in one's life, going door to door begging for treats gets old. Though candy might have lost its appeal to most adults, the fun in make believe does not have to. Parties are the adult version of trick-or-treat.

Throwing a Halloween party is not much different than throwing any other kind of party except for the effects. Food, beverages, rooms and the people invited can all be the same, but costumed in either name or appearance. For example, red wine can be served as ancient blood; food coloring makes a vegetable dip into a witch's concoction; spaghetti can be served in a molded shape and called brains in the right light.

Black lights, black yarn for webs, and painted cardboard tombstones add the touch of horror. The same cotton fluff you use for snow as a Christmas decoration can be pulled apart to create cobwebs and place in doorways or on windowsills. Dry ice in an inch of water creates a fog that can be fanned to cover the floor.

Costumes

Costume rental stores live for this time of the year and have a great variety of outfits and accessories. But if you do not want to spend much on a costume, you probably have the makings of one right in your house.

A cork from a wine bottle, burnt on one end, is a great make-up stick to draw beards, moustaches, black eyes and other dark designs on your face.

A hairspray or gel works well in shaping hair into animal ears or spikes.

Use a small amount of school glue or paste to attach cereal pieces to your face and then with make-up, paint it to look like scars or warts.

Yarn, mop heads, strips of cloth and even hay or grass can be used for hair.

Black pantyhose stuffed with newspaper makes animal tails or insect arms.

A real pumpkin cut as a jack-o-lantern and with an extra hole at the bottom is great for a mask!

For one Halloween, I sowed a black beak and eyes on a white knee sock to make the neck of a goose and then dressed as an old woman. With the sock on my arm as a sock puppet and my arm through a stuffed white pillowcase with wings drawn on it, I went to a party as Mother Goose. My date painted a body sized cardboard box like a brick wall. Then with paper mache, made an egg-shaped mask that would fit over his whole head. He attached two paper legs to the bottom of that mask and hung them over the top of the box. He was Humpty Dumpty.

This reminds me, paper mache makes a wonderful lightweight mask. It is simple to make but it may take two or three days to finish a mask. Blow up a head-sized balloon and tie it tightly so no air can escape. Then you shred newspaper or plain paper that has the character of newspaper and soak it in a mixture of water, flour and salt (shredding is best as opposed to cutting). You may use strips of the paper or chop and blend it to make a pulp. Layer or mold it over the balloon to the shape of your mask. Let it dry for a day or two in the same room and keep the room temperature steady. When it is dry, use an emery board or fine sand paper to smooth it.