LET'S HAVE A TRADITONAL HALLOWEEN PARTY

A traditional Halloween Party brings out the kid in all of us. Getting dressed up in a costume and pretending we are someone else, hiding behind a mask, so you can turn into anyone you like, is what it is all about.

The traditional Halloween bash is a celebration of the beginning of the holiday's season for some of us. You follow up with Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year, Valentines Day, St. Patrick's Day, Easter and so on. This is the first real holiday since the summer ended and to me it seems the starting point.

Every Halloween party must begin with the arrival of masked and costumed guests. It is the most fun when their true identity is not announced or decided at the start of the party. It is quite amusing to hear the barely muffled tones of everyone else trying to decide who is who. When you join in, you soon realize how few details you pay attention to daily in regards to other people. Try estimating size, color of hair from that tiny tuft that escaped the mask, or by those bright blue eyes, or remembering if Janice has shoes like those. The guessing is the fun part. Usually, tradition calls for a parade of sorts around the room to show off your costume, followed by a judging. Kids prizes should be cute and something they love, adult prizes are much better when ridiculous. Often matching the stupid prize to the costume in some way.

Decorations should follow the scheme of orange and black, sometimes brown and yellow are appropriate. Pumpkins, gourds, corn shocks, dried Indian corn, colored leaves are natural compliments to your theme. Now add the traditional black cats and bats, witches and other scary folk. If this party is for adults you can take the scary part to great heights, but for young children only, keep more fun than fear in your theme. For a scarier party check the article on creating a haunted house. Streamers, balloons, and paper products in your theme colors add the final touches.

The Halloween parties of yesteryear meant scary stories, bobbing for apples, trying to determine how much candy corn was in that jar, and of course the activity centered around the costumes. Sometimes old-fashioned games of pin the tail on the donkey (or nose on the jack o' lantern) and musical chairs were played. Now, the favorite activities include making jack o' lanterns by carving or painting, face painting, and lots of games where the action is limited do to elaborate costumes. Other times the feature of the party may be a murder mystery, but that is today's updated tradition. Question and answer games where you try to make as many words as possible from the letters in Halloween, or you are asked to unscramble words like black cat and witch and goblin are still popular. If costumes allow, try any relay race or games of skill that can be tailored around your theme. Another fun activity is to put out the lights, seat people in a circle on the floor and someone start a scary story they made up. They stop after a few sentences and the person next to them in the circle continues. You keep going around the circle until the story ends or the guests run out of something to say. This makes for some very creative stories and is a lot of fun.

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