Halloween party: getting ready for the “scary” holiday

What Halloween competitions are there for adults? There is a lot of entertainment: “Chamber of Horror”, “Bloody Mary”, “Denunciation to Count Dracula”, “Pumpkin Explosion”, catching apples from a barrel with your mouth. Let's talk about each of them in more detail.

Decor

Setting up a real horror movie at home is not difficult. Embroider black and dirty gray fabric with skulls, bats, crows, spiders and cobwebs, witches on brooms. Now drape the furniture, windows and part of the walls - the background for the decorations is ready. Fill the space with the scariest horror movies you can think of:

• garlands of paper jaws, fingers, rats, nasty insects;

• ghosts made of corrugated paper or sheets with drawn distorted faces;

• glowing mushrooms (paint with luminescent paint) and thorny thickets (collect crooked branches, paint black and entangle with cobwebs);

• bloody axes, chainsaws, cutlasses and other murder weapons (made of polystyrene foam, foam rubber);

• a web of twisted bandages or frayed clothesline;

• if you dip bandages in tomato paste and hang them on the wall, and place a rusty metal basin underneath, you will get charming released intestines;

• Ping-pong balls can be used to make eyes for garlands or for filling jars like in a maniac's home. You can put all sorts of horrors in jars, like “severed” fingers and ears, “preserved” snakes or toads;

• Repainted gloves and tomato mouth will make severed hands. Don’t overdo it, too realistic decorations can seriously frighten sensitive ladies;

• from scrap materials, build several zombies, skeletons, fanged and clawed monsters;

• Hang photos of creepy castles, cemeteries or horror movie posters along the walls;

• scatter black and red balloons on the floor and hang them from the ceiling.

Sound effects will make the atmosphere unforgettably realistic! It's simple: hide players or phones with small speakers behind the decorations. Let the sounds of creaks, rustling, grinding and howling be quiet, audible only when approaching the “hiding place”.

Don't forget about the main decoration - everyone's favorite Jack. Huge and miniature pumpkins can be painted and hung literally anywhere. It’s easy to cut out the core from real pumpkins and make lanterns by placing candles in bowls inside. Candles can be hidden in bottles, jars or tall glasses. Pumpkin heads can be dressed up in hats or covered with cobwebs, complemented with a robe, or built into a real scarecrow.

It is advisable to dim the light: arrange table lamps and hang wall lamps or iron candlesticks. Decorate your lampshades with bats and spiders. Or replace the lampshades with homemade ones made from thick, decorated paper. If you are planning to celebrate Halloween in a club, you won’t have to think about anything with the light - the club lighting should be just enough for the desired atmosphere of twilight. At home, you can hang electric garlands of red, white or red color on the walls.

Come up with original invitations or use one of the ideas:

• a sheet of dough on a clothespin, a clothespin on a spring, a spring in a box. A classic of the genre - the box opens, the spring pops out;

• a postcard in the shape of a coffin or gravestone with a frightening inscription on the cover “You are doomed...” and a continuation inside “... to endless fun, a sea of ​​laughter and terribly positive emotions”;

• miniature pumpkin with an opening “skull”. The text is inside, on a rolled piece of paper.

Halloween is a great way to increase sales for your business.

Retailers begin selling Halloween items in late summer. A holiday of this size creates a huge demand for Halloween decorations, as well as costumes, candy and party supplies. In turn, catering establishments begin to take advantage of the holiday a week before and after Halloween, organizing concept parties, costume contests, launching special promotions and creating a unique holiday menu (accounting for promotions and menu items will be conveniently kept in the cafe automation system).

In 2021, Halloween falls on a Sunday, so it's worth planning events for the weekend leading up to the holiday to make the most of the annual rush.

Suits

The choice of images is truly huge! The scenario for a Halloween party includes bandaged mummies, Frankenstein's brainchild, ghosts in robes, zombies in gray-greenish clothes, and skeletons. Witch - a torn hem of a black dress, tousled hair with spiders entangled in it, a broom, a pointed hat. A special chic is a huge wart on the nose. Demoness - red short dress, high heels, headband with horns and arrow tail. Vampire - plastic fangs, bloody makeup, a stylish black dress or leather suit, metal jewelry.

It is not difficult to make an original bat costume - a black tight outfit, slightly modernized. You need to cut out two triangles from the fabric with sharp jagged edges (like bat wings) and sew them on one side to the sleeve, and the other to the leg. He raised his hands and his wings opened (it’s better to make them wide, it’s more comfortable).

If you have a lot of time for preparation, you can create costumes for movie villains, maniacs and positive, but still terrible, characters. Take ideas from cult films that are probably familiar to all guests - Hellraiser, Ring, Scream, Jack the Ripper, Edward Scissorhands, Exorcising the Devil, etc. If you have very little time, ask your friends to come in T-shirts with creepy designs and prepare accessories - bracelets and necklaces made of spiders, bones and eyes, headbands with horns or ears of predators, false fangs.

How to celebrate?

Over thousands of years, the traditions and customs of the Halloween holiday have changed several times, so the modern way of celebrating the night has little to do with the origins of the holiday. In addition, different countries have developed their own traditions.

If in the USA it is mainly a family holiday, then in Russia and Ukraine Halloween is celebrated mainly by young people, not at home, but in clubs. In entertainment centers, as a rule, they prepare thematic programs, and young people, dressed in costumes appropriate for the holiday, have fun with friends.

Moreover, in many cases, our people change the traditions of the holiday in their own way. For example, when choosing costumes, they are not limited to Western representatives of evil spirits, but choose characters from Slavic mythology. At parties you can meet not only “imported” vampires, but also “domestic” ghouls (despite their similar way of eating, they are not distinguished by elegance and beauty). In addition, at a party you can easily meet Baba Yaga, Mavka, Kikimora or Lesavka.

Of course, you have to come up with and make an outfit for a costume ball yourself, because in costume stores you won’t find evil spirits from Slavic mythology. But when have such minor difficulties stopped creative people?

Serving and menu

Any of the attributes listed above are suitable for table decoration - spiders and mice on napkins, a tablecloth with a dark pattern, themed stickers on glasses and plates. Place several pumpkins filled with sweets or fruit. You can serve soup right in the pumpkins, with something scary floating in it. Arrange vases with thorns or dried flowers. Candles in skulls, brooms made of toothpicks, decorations made of black lacy fabric.

Food is at your discretion - either a feast for hungry monsters or a buffet for elegant witches and vampires. Decorate some menu items with scary stories - spiders, fingers, eyes. A couple of salads in the shape of severed hands, poisonous green mushrooms (sauce with herbs), bloody pieces of meat (tomato juice), ham or squid in tangled strips (a plate of “worms”).

Do not throw away the pumpkin “guts” left after scraping. Cut the pumpkin without seeds into slices or in the shape of bones, faces, or spiders. Place on baking paper and sprinkle generously with sugar. Bake for 20 minutes – healthy, tasty and on point!

It’s easier with desserts - poisonous-colored cakes (icing), marmalade in the shape of beetles and worms, cookies of any shape reminiscent of Halloween. The party drinks are green with "Poison" written on them and red with "Blood" written on them. If you're celebrating a birthday, order a terrible cake - one made from fake spider webs, slime, shaped like a body part, a skeleton, etc.

Halloween Treasure Hunt

If you want to add an adventurous touch to your party, then a scavenger hunt is the best solution. Once you have themed items scattered around the house, divide your guests into teams and give them a list of items they will need to find. The team that finishes first can be treated to something “terribly tasty”!

Photo: Pinterest

Entertainment

Hang a poster at the entrance with bites drawn in a pattern of the Olympic rings and the words “Annual Vampire Games.” Or organize a competition of evil spirits, timed to coincide with the next witches' Sabbath. Compete in teams or every man for himself:

• quickly wrap mannequins or one of the guests with toilet paper to make a mummy;

• scream in the dark in every possible way. The guest must guess which friend is screaming. This fun is more suitable for Halloween in a club (you can scare or anger your neighbors);

• dismembered into 6 parts (two legs, two arms, head, torso). You will need two human silhouettes cut out of paper. The difficulty is that two people need to hold the scissors;

• put boiled pasta, dried banana, limp beets and various objects that are unpleasant to the touch into the bag. Let friends put their hand into a bag filled with fears and, without peeking, guess the contents;

• Assemble a skeleton from paper bones at speed.

Organize competitions for the sexiest dance with a broom, the best costume, the scariest grimace or the creepiest story. Hold a quiz on your knowledge of the topic: show your friends still images or photos from horror films - guests must guess the name of the film. You can make up abracadabra (zombie - bozim) from the names of monsters and invite teams to quickly guess the encrypted horror.

The following three games will require space:

• path of fear. Ask guests for any items (wallets, phones, handbags, etc.). Lay out from start to finish. The guest must walk along the path blindfolded, without stepping on the valuables. The joke is that after blindfolding, you need to quickly remove everything from the contestant’s path, replacing it with eggs, boxes, toys, etc.;

• broom racing. Place balls, large soft toys and other non-hazardous obstacles from start to finish. The witches must take brooms, hold them between their legs and “fly” to the designated point;

• turn-off potion. Come up with a simple recipe for a miracle brew, prepare all the ingredients and a few more incorrect ones. Give the teams two identical books. Circle the letters in them so that, writing them out one by one, you get a recipe. Guests must write out the recipe, run to the alchemy table and “brew” the potion.

Give away beakers with the “blood” of a dragon, toy spiders or mice for competitions. At the end, you can have an auction using the winnings as currency. Prepare gifts for guests - “terrible” photo albums, CDs or movie tickets, scarecrow souvenirs from a joke store. If today is truly Halloween, you can end the party by walking around town, handing out or asking passers-by for candy.

"Denunciation to Count Dracula"

This is a unique variation of the well-known game “Broken Phone”. How to hold the “Denunciation to Count Dracula” contest for Halloween? You don't need any additional attributes to play, you just need to turn off or dim the lights. Here's how to play the game:

1. Participants sit in one row.
2. The last guest quietly, so that others do not hear, speaks into the neighbor’s ear any denunciation phrase about Count Dracula.
3. Participants take turns passing information to each other.
4. The first player loudly announces the denunciation he received through his comrades.
5. When the phrase spoken by the last participant does not match the one spoken by the first player, team members find out who made the mistake and when. This guest is eliminated from the game.
6. The competition lasts until there are three winners left. They are awarded memorable prizes.

Witch table

It’s quite easy to turn an ordinary table into a witch’s table by putting striped stockings and worn black pointed-toed shoes on its legs, traditional for Western folklore. Of course, a witch in Russian folk culture does not wear this. Rather, bast shoes and torn onucha (a white strip of fabric for wrapping the leg with a tourniquet) are suitable for her.

history of the holiday

The history of Halloween began during the time of the ancient Celts in what is now Scotland and Ireland more than two thousand years ago. On the night of November 1, the Celts celebrated the holiday of Samhain, symbolizing the end of summer and the onset of winter. This day was associated not only with the harvest, but also with something dark, otherworldly and supernatural. It was believed that the line between reality and the world of spirits was thinning.

Beginning in the 8th century, Samhain was gradually replaced by All Saints' Day, established by Pope Gregory III. But, despite the active struggle of the Catholic Church against pagan rituals, Celtic celebration customs still remain popular. Many modern traditions of how to celebrate Halloween were borrowed from the ancient people. These include lamps made from pumpkins, which among the Celts helped the dead find their way into their world.

The tradition of begging for sweets formed around the 16th century. Adults and children wearing cloth masks walked from one door to another, demanding sweets and playing petty pranks. But the custom of dressing up in specially tailored, sometimes very scary costumes and carrying a jack-o’-lantern is associated with the spread of the holiday throughout the United States and dates back to the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Door-Frankenstein

Decorate the entrance or interior door in an original way in the style of the famous creation of Victor Frankenstein. You don't need a lot of details. The strand of hair will be a black cloth hanging from the top of the door, cut in uneven zigzags. The eyes are circles of white and black paper, and instead of the mouth there is a strip of black paper or fabric and one or two white squares for teeth. Be sure to add the symbolic black scar on the side.

By the way, Frankenstein is far from the only character that can be used to decorate a door. Mummy, monsters, villains, witches... - any of your favorite holiday heroes can have the honor of being symbolically imprinted on your door.

Garland of bats

There is no need to specially catch and dry these harmless animals. Mouse figures cut out of colored cardboard are quite suitable. For greater expressiveness, attach button eyes to the figures. In the company of a garland of black mice, a garland of white paper ghosts will look harmonious.

Raffle "Room of Horror"

The owner of the house (apartment) where Halloween is celebrated tells guests that there is something very creepy in his bathroom. So scary that when you see it you start screaming in horror. After this, the owner asks if there is a daredevil willing to take a look.

The owner goes to the bathroom with the volunteer. There is a candle burning there. The organizer of the prank gives the brave man a task - to blow out a candle with a shout. When he manages to put out the flames, the owner of the house asks not to tell the others what happened in the bathroom. And if you are not sure that the guest will not spill the beans, then he invites him to sit in another room until he calls.

Those remaining in the room do not know what happened in the bathroom, but they heard a friend scream. Returning to everyone, the presenter asks: “Are there any more brave souls?” And go back to the bathroom with a new “victim”, where everything is repeated. After this, those who want to tickle their nerves are invited again.

As a result, the guests in the room are perplexed - everyone who goes to the bathroom starts screaming there. Tension and fear increase with each person leaving.

Connect charity

Raising funds for charitable and social activities is also a good and working marketing idea for a restaurant. You don't have to sacrifice some of your profits, let your customers contribute. Offer them to buy a signature pumpkin, a witch's hat, a cat figurine or even a broom, in general, all the available souvenirs that can be seen in your establishment. And transfer part or all of the money from the purchase to a charitable foundation. It is better to launch such promotions a few weeks before the holiday for a longer advertising effect. Plus, don’t forget about sponsorship of various chef competitions and participation in the ratings of charitable institutions.

Alternatively, you could host a free concert or theater performance at your Halloween party.

Sinister Web

According to legends, evil spirits like to settle in abandoned places where humans rarely set foot. Therefore, dust and cobwebs cannot be avoided in such corners. Use this symbolic attribute in your interior decor. For it you will need balls of white, thin, woolen threads. Thin gauze will also work. You can wrap an artificial web around any part of the room, wrap it around a chandelier, chairs or part of a window.

Halloween party in a gastronomic pop-up

A pop-up cafe is a temporary “relocation” of an establishment to non-standard sites. For example: an old factory, a factory, a beach and even an office. Today, pop-up cafes are no longer a rarity; their popularity is growing, both in Europe and here. Such a platform allows you to increase sales and create unique media content to promote your establishment on Instagram.

It is very difficult to completely refurbish your permanent theme party venue for the holiday, so changing the location will help you save time and will not interrupt the work of the main establishment. You can rent part of the hall on the site, where other establishments will also be presented, or you can find an interesting place for banquets and outdoor picnics.

For example, an abandoned warehouse or an old log house with a fireplace will perfectly emphasize the atmosphere of a terrible holiday for outdoor events.

Cocoons with spiders

Cocoons with small spiders hanging from a chandelier or ceiling look funny and beautiful. They are made from thick white threads, which are soaked in PVA glue and wrapped around a small balloon. The next morning, when the glue on the thread is completely dry, the ball base is pierced and removed. Small spiders are attached to different sides of the cocoons - purchased or made independently from cardboard.

Floating Ghosts

Don't like witches, skeletons and pumpkin faces? Then try letting a flock of cheerful ghosts into your house. Make them from gauze. The easiest way is to take a white balloon, inflate it a little, throw gauze or tulle over it, wrap it at the base of the ball with white thread and hang it from the top.

If you want airy and weightless ghosts, use the ball only for the base. The principle here is the same as when making cocoons - gauze needs to be dipped in PVA glue, cover its ball on a plastic bottle with wires in both directions and let the composition dry. Then all that remains is to get rid of the base and add an eye to the ghost using buttons, fabric or cardboard.