For many centuries, Halloween has been celebrated in the West on the night from October 31 to November 1. It is customary to prepare for the holiday in advance: sew a costume, stock up on sweets to treat the neighbor’s children with, and, of course, decorate your home.
The United States approaches this on a larger scale: large compositions appear on every lawn as early as mid-October - and the more creepy they create, the better. In Europe, skeletons and bloody footprints are less common in holiday decor; the main elements are usually pumpkins, old books, cobwebs and black objects.
Whatever style you choose, preparing for the holiday is a great opportunity to have fun with your family and create a holiday atmosphere that resonates with you: from a classic horror film to the cozy Hogwarts castle from the Harry Potter books. You won’t have to spend much on decor: we’ll tell you how to decorate your home using scrap materials.
You don’t need to spend a lot of money for holiday decorations; you can create everything yourself
You don’t need to spend a lot of money for holiday decorations; you can create everything yourself
Holiday colors
The traditional colors of the holiday are black, white and orange. Black is associated with deep night, mysticism, evil spirits, as well as with the main attributes of the holiday: spiders, bats, witches and other evil spirits.
White color is often found in decor: sticky cobwebs, wandering ghosts and cheerful skeletons from “The Secret of Coco.”
You can decorate your house for Halloween in a palette atypical for this holiday, for example, diluting the traditional black with doll-pink
For those who like bright colors, the aesthetics of the Mexican Night of the Dead, glorified in the cartoon “The Secret of Coco,” will suit you.
Fortune telling
In our country, it is customary to tell fortunes during Christmas time, however, as experts assure, fortune telling on Halloween is no less accurate and certainly more terrible.
As a rule, girls are into fortune telling and want to find out who they are going to marry. There are quite a few options for telling fortunes about the groom. The most famous one is with a mirror and a candle. You need to sit completely alone in a dark room, placing a candle in front of the mirror, and comb your hair (in some versions of fortune telling, it is recommended to leave your hair alone and start eating an apple). It is believed that if you look into the mirror for a long time, you can see the image of your future spouse.
If doing fortune telling alone is scary, then you can do this exciting activity in the company of a friend. For example, you can try to conduct a seance at home by preparing a sheet of paper with letters written and a saucer with an arrow drawn on it. It is believed that on the night of Halloween, the door to the world of spirits and ghosts opens, so the likelihood that one of the loitering spirits will drop in to see the fortune tellers increases.
However, not only girls, but also guys are into fortune telling. So, if a young man wants to find out what his future wife will be like, then he will need to crawl under the branch of a blackcurrant bush (in extreme cases, a rose hip or acacia bush will do). It is believed that at the moment of crawling on the ground, the fortuneteller will be able to see the shadow narrowed. And from this shadow he sees, he will be able to judge what his wife will be like - short or tall, fragile or “in body.” Of course, in our climate at the end of October it is not pleasant to crawl outside under the branches of bushes. But for the sake of fortune-telling one has to make other sacrifices.
A very ancient collective fortune telling at a fire can be carried out if the celebration takes place outside the city, for example, in a country house. Fortune tellers placed stones around the fire, remembering where and in what position “their” stone was located. The next morning we had to go and see the “mosaic” that had been made. If all the stones are in place, then a good year awaits all fortune tellers. If the stones are moved out of place, you should expect trouble.
Determining fate using an apple is also an ancient form of fortune telling. Before eating the fruit, it must be cut in half with a knife. If all the apple seeds turn out to be intact, then prosperity awaits the fortuneteller. If at least one seed is damaged by a knife, you should expect trouble. But worst of all, if several seeds are damaged at once, it means that the year will be very difficult for the fortuneteller.
Decoration of the facade of the house and garden
It is better to start decorating a country house from the external facade. Legend says that on the mysterious night of Halloween, all evil spirits appear on the streets of the city. When approaching your house, no one should suspect that respectable people live here. Therefore, according to tradition, it is on the porch and in the entrance area that the largest (and most intimidating!) compositions are placed. To make them you will need pumpkins, balloons, paper decorations, leaves, straw, old driftwood and more.
You can use old things, pumpkins, cobwebs and even driftwood for decoration.
Throw a feast for the whole world
Just like Dr. Lecter in the first season of Hannibal: here the charming psychopath hosted a dinner party where there was not a single vegetarian dish.
No, we do not urge you to imitate Hannibal in everything and taste human flesh: this is, at a minimum, immoral! However, nothing prevents you and your partner from repeating some of the recipes using available ingredients: you can be inspired by the blog of the project’s food stylist Jennis Poon and prepare a Sacromonte omelette with Parmesan and turkey liver, ox heart tartare with balsamic vinegar, jellied meat broth... All this needs to be washed down with a glass of Chianti in tribute to Dr. Lecter from The Silence of the Lambs, of course.
Mysterious lighting
It is impossible to imagine the atmosphere of this holiday without twilight and flickering candle lights. To create the right mood in the room, use only spot lighting: dim light from floor lamps or night lamps.
Tip: It is better to abandon cold white light and replace the bulbs with yellow ones with a color temperature of 3000 - 3700 K.
To create such a candlestick you will need a jar, scissors, corrugated paper, plain paper and a black marker.
Equally important for creating an eerie atmosphere are shadows. Silhouettes of bats, witches and their black cats can be created by applying a stencil to a lamp.
Arrange a photo shoot in a corn field
Let's remember the film "Scream", where the main characters always found the most unfortunate locations in order to hide from the maniac, and yes, the corn field is one of them. Take this episode as a basis for your photo shoot. All you need is a camera, a pair of skilled hands, and an antagonist mask - you can buy it at any joke store. The field will be a little more difficult, however, if you live in an agricultural town, you will certainly find the right location. Use your imagination to the fullest and beware of guard dogs!
Original interior decorations
Funny or artsy, scary or simply imbued with a cool autumn spirit - there are plenty of options to decorate your interior. We offer you some of the most spectacular ways to prepare your home for the holiday without spending a lot of time and money.
Skulls and skeletons
With these classic Halloween props, you can easily turn your home into a haunted mansion.
A fake skeleton can be purchased in a specialized department of the store. They can be placed on the street, facade, room, staircase and fireplace
Update your mantel or hallway console by adding some black coasters and skulls. It is unlikely that you will be able to make these yourself; they can be purchased in souvenir shops.
Skulls are a necessary paraphernalia for creating a Halloween horror room.
Spiders and bats
From small pumpkins and improvised materials, you can create various small decorations. From plasticine - creepy owls, spiders or black beetles. From small pumpkins and paints - bats, witches.
You can paint a small pumpkin with black paint, cut out wings and eyes from paper
Terrarium
You can create a very good artificial terrarium from toy beetles and frogs. If you don't have a cloche in your cupboard, you can place the scary creatures in regular jars, adding moss and branches.
As an aquarium, you can use flasks with wooden stands, or ordinary jars
Decorated vase
You can use fallen leaves, driftwood, and dried flowers in decoration. To enhance the effect, you can put them in a jar, creating an imitation of a spider web from gauze or tulle.
A quick and interesting idea for table decoration
How to make a Jack-O-Lantern pumpkin mascot.
Halloween Pumpkin Choose only fresh pumpkins (this will make them more durable). The skin should not be very hard. Then wash it and carefully cut off the “lid” or “bottom” with a sharp knife. It is recommended to cut the “lid” at an angle, otherwise it will not be possible to use it for its intended purpose - closing, since it will fall into the orange guts of the future lighthouse. Through ingredients and sauce. Leave to cool. Serve in the Witches' Christmas Platter.
Mini Jack and Pizza Lantern.
Ingredients:
- Cut small round buns in half
- Pesto or marinara sauce
- Shredded cheddar cheese
- Olives
- Brush the bun halves with sauce and sprinkle with grated cheese.
- Cut the olives into pieces and use them to make Jack's face (like a Halloween pumpkin).
Place the mini-pizza on a baking sheet and place in the oven (microwave). Wait for the cheese to melt and remove it. Leave to cool.
Giant's Teeth Cookies.
Ingredients:
- 3/4 cup butter
- 1 tablespoon sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 tablespoon baking soda
- 1 1/2 cups flour
- Red and yellow food coloring
Wax paper
1. Melt the butter and place it in a medium sized cup.
2. Add eggs, sugar, vanilla and salt. Whisk.
3. Add flour and baking soda.
4. Divide the dough into 3 balls. Set one ball aside, add yellow food coloring to another and add a mixture of red and yellow to the third to get a nice orange color.
5. Knead the dough well, then wrap it in foil and refrigerate for 2 or 3 hours.
6. Remove the dough from the refrigerator and form each ball into a long “sausage”. Lightly dust each one with flour. Place wax paper under them and arrange the “sausages” so that it is uncolored at the top, orange in the middle and yellow at the bottom.
7. Cover the dough with a second sheet of wax paper and knead lightly by hand. Using a rolling pin, force the strips to stick together under pressure to form pieces about three centimeters thick.
8. Cut out triangular “teeth” from the dough and bake them on a lightly greased and floured baking sheet for 4-5 minutes.
Candy haunted house.
Ingredients:
- One empty milk carton (Tetra Pack type)
- Glaze for gluing decorations (recipe below)
- Large rectangular crackers
- Multi-colored and different lollipops: red, black, green, etc.
- Chocolate flakes, licorice sticks, colored sugar, etc. - For decoration.
For the glaze
- 1/2 pound fine granulated sugar
- 3 tablespoons butter/margarine
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
- 1 1/2 to 2 tablespoons milk
Food coloring to add orange color to frosting (if needed)
Mix all ingredients. The mass should spread easily, but not loosen. You can add more sugar to make it sticky or mix it with milk. If you have a pastry syringe, pour the frosting into it (use a tip with a small hole). Instead of a syringe, you can take a regular plastic bag with a corner cut off.
So, let's start building a house of candy canes.
Open the package and turn it inside out. Then tape them back together with a stapler or tape. Place the package on a sheet of wax paper on a piece of stiff cardboard.
Glue the crackers to the walls and roof of the “dacha” so that the cardboard is covered. Break or chop them if necessary.
Leave in the house for 10 minutes until it sticks together and hardens well. Then decorate the roof: pour glaze and glue an orange candy tile on top.
Decorate the “backyard” and the “house” in the same way. Along with candy, use chocolate bars in various shapes, cookie crumbs, toffees, straws, jelly beans, and whatever else you like. Small square candies can be made into “windows”, and chocolate bars can be used as doors and shutters. So be creative!
To give your house a spooky look, cut out ghost figures from paper and place them in the “backyard” (you can use toy figures if you have one). Make a dried tree from a licorice stick (cut it lengthwise). You can also make a “lawn” by sprinkling the “yard” with green sugar.
Halloween is a fun holiday that is celebrated on October 31, the eve of All Saints' Day. It is believed that Halloween is the only day of the year when the spirits of the dead return. online, but it’s better to come up with your own), choose a theme, choose costumes, decorate the room in the style in which you want to celebrate Halloween (if you want to become a vampire on this night , attributes must be raised by the vampire). Prepare snacks, drinks, set the table, choose suitable music, find fun competitions and games, and you can arrange fortune telling.
Halloween can also be celebrated outdoors, preferably in the mountains, in costumes of witches and vampires, witches and fairies by the light of fire or torch, and also have a disco under the night sky.
Top tips for decorating your interior for Halloween
- Choose which holiday scenario is closer to you: a party with friends, a family holiday with children or a romantic evening in an unusual setting. This is what the decor will dictate, from horror-movie-worthy furnishings to fun Halloween-inspired accessories or a few stylish accents in the hallway, table setting, or entryway.
- The easiest, cheapest and most effective way to create a scary atmosphere is to decorate your house with cobwebs
Home decor for Halloween doesn't have to be scary. This funny composition can be made from two corrugated pipes and old buckets
- If the first frost killed your flowers, collect the dead stems and use them to create arrangements.
- Decorate your entryway console or holiday table with a Jack-O-Lantern. Try making it with your children and make a treat from the contents of the pumpkin.
What to treat?
Not a single holiday in our country is complete without a traditional feast, so thinking through the menu is one of the stages of preparing for the holiday. As a rule, the most ordinary dishes are served on the table, you just need to decorate them so that they look creepy. For example, any salad or pizza can be decorated with cute spiders made from olives. And sausages can easily be turned into hideous mummies by wrapping them in thin strips of puff pastry or yeast dough. You can make pumpkins from tangerines, and bake cookies in the shape of skulls.
In the USA and some European countries, children go to neighboring houses begging for sweets. And if the owners are stingy with treats, then uninvited guests may do some nasty things to them, for example, covering the windows with soot. In our country, this custom has not really taken root, since it is unlikely that adequate adults will let kids wander around at night in search of candy.
Ghosts in banks
LED strips or garlands of different shades are good to use for making creepy-funny jars. Draw some faces on the front of the jar, place an LED garland or strip there and close the container with a lid. These glowing Jacks and ghosts can be placed throughout the house.
White plastic canisters or barrels are also suitable for such an undertaking. Draw creepy faces on their outside, and place LEDs inside. Candles will no longer work in this case.
How to celebrate Halloween at grandma's house?
Organizing a celebration at your parents' house can be even easier than at home. How to celebrate Halloween at grandma's house depends on where exactly the relative lives. The ideal option is if it turns out to be a large house somewhere outside the city. A grandmother in the village may have a lot of ripe pumpkins, which will make excellent lamps. They can decorate the entire yard and porch of the house, which will help set the necessary mood for the evening.
When celebrating a party outside the city, you can be sure that none of your friends will be bored. Especially if the house is located near the forest.
Fun with friends
Halloween games at your holiday party won't let your guests get bored. Entertainment can be the most unpredictable. For example, an apple competition is popular on Halloween, but only guests without makeup will be able to participate. The game is to put apples in a bowl of water so that the fruit remains floating on the surface. After this, the guests are tied with their hands behind their backs and asked to take the apple out of the bowl with their mouth.
There are a number of competitions available, so you don't have to worry about how to celebrate Halloween at home. Some of them can be taken from wedding scripts and modified to suit the theme of the evening.
Bats under the ceiling
Mice with wings are the most popular Halloween attribute. What are they made from? But the simpler and more profitable it is, the more your time and budget will be saved. For example, a good solution is to make mice from toilet paper rolls. Paint the material black and bend the cardboard at both ends to give the sleeve a rectangular shape. The sharp corners will serve as ears and paws for mice. Glue cardboard wings to the back and hang the finished product from the ceiling or chandelier.
Trick-or-treat, or going for sweets
Collecting candy is one of the best parts of Halloween. To do this, adults celebrating this holiday prepare treats in advance for those children who may come to see them. By the way, lights in the windows or in the yard are a symbol that the sweets in this house have not yet run out. Once the treats are gone, the lights should be turned off.
If you are planning how to celebrate Halloween at home with your children and want to participate in a charity program, order in advance a special box for collecting funds for the world's needy children from UNICEF. If children look into the house with a box with such a mark, in addition to sweets, they should donate small money.
