Halloween Party Guide: Freebies & Fun

The party guide helps plan a themed Halloween event with ideas, tips in the food departments, creative crafts, and clever conversation chats, menus, recipes, cookies, cakes and food labels. Free printable games, puzzles, place name cards and coloring pages.

Halloween Party Store

Halloween Event Music

Halloween is a fun-filled holiday, one that is celebrated in grand style by young and old alike; and it just wouldn�t be a Halloween party without a great selection of spooky songs, that still manage to be a whole lot of fun!

�Spook out� party guests�in a good way�with a Halloween playlist that is scary good:

Monster Mash by Bobby �Boris� Pickett and the Cryptkickers
Thriller by Michael Jackson
Purple People Eater by Sheb Wooley
People Are Strange by The Doors
Tubular Bells by Mike Oldfield
Werewolves of London by Warren Zevon
Get Down Goblin by Jan Terri
The Addams Family Theme by Vic Mizzy
Nightmare on My Street�DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince
Addams Groove by MC Hammer
Enter Sandman by Metallica
Night Boat by Duran Duran
And of course, no Halloween celebration is complete without some dark and mysterious party supplies. These could include pumpkin centerpieces made from plastic, rubber and paper mache; tulle banners and paper link chains in seasonal hues of orange and black; rubber spiders and foil bats hanging from the ceiling; stuffed black cats and Frankenstein or mummy mannequins placed throughout the party area; and an inflatable haunted mansion that would really set the scene�preparing guests for a fun-filled evening of thrills and chills. Select a cake that can be part of the theme decoration initially, until it�s time to serve the cake to the guests. At a gathering where there will be small children, consider hiring a babysitter to keep them occupied in another part of the house. Inspire everyone to be creative by setting up arts and crafts workstations with amazing activities from coloring and drawing to finger painting to be taken home.

Homemade Halloween Party Supplies

Preparing homemade Halloween party supplies and handmade party goods such as black banners, orange pumpkin flags and skeleton masks can take some time, but most people will find the outcome worth the effort. Other homemade party supplies and handmade party goods such as handmade Halloween banners, black and orange streamers and homemade Halloween centerpieces make a party better. Homemade centerpieces are a nice addition to a Halloween table and can be designed according to a scary haunting Halloween theme or a traditional Halloween theme.

Most often homemade party goods and handmade party supplies compare in size and color to other popular Halloween items. For instance, handmade Halloween masks, costumes and capes are very popular, along with banners, glow sticks and costume jewelry. In addition to the Halloween party streamers and scary signs, handmade Halloween party supplies such as homemade Halloween glow sticks, handmade door curtains and Halloween flags are a great addition to any Halloween party.

Most hosts will find that making handmade party goods and homemade Halloween party supplies such as banners, flags and door curtain are a lot of fun. From making traditional Halloween ghosts to creating scary Halloween pumpkins, the options are endless and careful research will show a true comparison between the homemade party supplies and handmade party goods are very close.

Cakes for Halloween

Here is one use of pumpkins for doing a Halloween theme cake in the month of October. Start by thinking about what the month means and in particular what comes out at the end of the month, during Halloween. Here is one idea, a chocolate cake with black spider webs, so here what needs to be picked up with the party supplies. Starting with flour, baking powder, salt baking soda, then white sugar, shortening and evaporated milk, don�t forget eggs. Finally pick up 2 one ounce squares of unsweetened chocolate and vanilla extract. To bake start by preheating the oven to 350 degrees and grease two nine inch round cake pans. Take the flour, baking powder, salt, baking soda and sugar to sift into a large mixing bowl. Next add the shortening and evaporated milk. Set on medium speed using an electric mixer and mix for 2 minutes. Now add the eggs and beat for two more minutes. The batter will need to be spread evenly into the prepared pans. Take one melted chocolate square and drizzle on top. The cakes will need to bake for 30 to 40 minutes and then be allowed to cool, about 10 minutes.

Halloween Parties

Halloween stems from the ancient history of the area that is now known to be Ireland, the UK and the northern part of France. Nearly 2000 years back, the Samhain Celtic festival was held to celebrate the coming of the New Year, which was for them declared to be November 1st. This celebration stood to represent the end of harvesting and the start of the dark and cold winters. Also during this historically hard time, it was known that those without proper preparation or others suffering from illness may not last through the harsh conditions of the winter and so the association of death accompanied the meaning of the festivities.

Likewise, it was thought that on the evening of October 31st, ghosts would prophesize to the Celt�s priests known as Druids, and give insight to the next year�s events regarding crops and weather. This vital information was of utmost importance to the survival of the Samhain as they depended on the land and weather for survival. Building sacrificial bond fires, the people of this time often wore animal skins and heads as costumes to tell the future of others and so is derived the essence behind our Halloween customs.

The idea of sacrificing animals for fortune-telling prophesy from ghosts is a highly non-Christian practice. Around the time of the 800�s Pope Boniface IV declared November 1st to be All Saint�s Day, a day of honoring Saints. It is believed that his intent was to replace the Celt�s Festival with a more Christian-friendly practice without removing a long tradition of the Samhain culture. Later, November 2nd would also be declared a holiday to celebrate the lives of those that had passed, named All Soul�s Day. The name of Halloween comes from the combination of these new Christian holidays as the term alholowmesse means All Saint�s Day and collectively Hallowmas was meant to refer to the eve of All Saint�s Day, All Saint�s Day and All Soul�s Day. Create a Halloween graveyard with easy instructions with this Tombstone making how-to video. And if you're birthday or batmitzvah will take place near Halloween, turn it into a costume party for fun!

Seasonal Parties

4th of July Parties
Flag Day Parties
Independence Day Parties

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Halloween History, Facts and Educational Resources

Add an educational twist to any birthday party, holiday celebration, or theme party. Share the history of the Halloween theme to the guests. Play some free printable educational party games. Shhh don't tell the kids that they are learning!

Halloween History & Facts

Although there are a few different theories about the history of Halloween, it is typically linked to a Celtic festival called Samhain. A name derived from the Old Irish, it means �summer�s end.� Its festival celebrates the beginning of the darker half of the year, and the end of the lighter half, and some regard it as the Celtic New Year.

Others believe its roots came from the feast of Pomona in Rome. Pomona was the goddess of the seeds and fruit. Still others believe it came out of the festival of the dead, called Parentalia.

Ancient Celtic belief tells that when our world and the �otherworld� became thin, this allowed both good and evil spirits to pass through to our world. Family spirits were welcomed home, but evil spirits were sent away. It is believed that this is where the wearing of the costumes and masks came in. If one disguised himself as a harmful spirit, no harm would come to him.

Samhain was also time to harvest, stock up on food for the winter, and slaughter the livestock. At times they burned two bonfires, and people passed between them believing to be cleansed.

The history of the name Halloween is derived from the expression �All Hallows Even,� (even being short for evening, and eventually the �v� was left out and the words were shortened to Halloween. Today, Halloween is a very popular time for costume parties, trick-or-treating, ghost tours, haunted events, and horror films, and it is enjoyed by all ages. With a little imagination and white poster board, crayons, coloring pencils, tape, staples and printed photo images that can be cut, kids can create their own paper hats. As you plan a menu for a celebration remember, there may be vegetarians and vegans on the guest list so plan accordingly. With a little imagination and white poster board, crayons, coloring pencils, tape, staples and printed photo images that can be cut, kids can create their own paper hats. The history of Halloween has different interpretations by each person, so use your own judgement. Share these facts with friends at a celebration.

Educational Halloween Resources

The Party Supplies Hut has more free elementary educational teacher resources for Halloween to use in the classroom for active learning to create lesson plans with trivia questions, games and fun activities.

History of Halloween
More Halloween holiday educational teachers classroom resources: