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- Photo: Paul-W / Flickr
So you’re throwing a Halloween party this year and you want it to be the most fun Halloween party in years? Fortunately the formula for a good Halloween party – great music + cool costumes + great food + fantastic games = awesome party – is the same as the formula for any party. The problem is few people actually get each element right. Fear not, Frankenstein’s Monster, we’re going to help you reclaim your rightful spot in Michael Jackson’s Thriller video with these tips on throwing an awesome Halloween party.
The music
If you’re thinking Halloween music, and you’re not thinking Rob Zombie, there is a serious problem. Rob Zombie’s Dragula belongs in every single Halloween music playlist. Right next to that, Michael Jackson’s Thriller should slide in snugly, and accompanying MJ should be a number of carefully selected cuts from the Rocky Horror Picture Show Soundtrack. And, because your party will have a special kind of awesome, sneak in REM’s ‘It’s the end of the world as we know it’. Your friends will love you forever.
From a music perspective, the trick is to have thematic Halloween music for the first few hours, and then settle into what you and your friends usually listen to later in the night. Remember, you want folks to get into the theme, but you also want them to have a good time.
The costumes
Here, as the host of the Halloween Party, you have very little control over what costumes your guests come in, but what you do have control over is how much costume they should wear as a minimum. Be strict in your invitation, making it crystal clear that no costume or lazy costume (think ghost with a sheet) = no entry. Those who are left out will be upset with you, but your guests will be right chuffed with your efforts to have everybody stick to a theme.
Ghoulish food
Some people use Halloween as a time to go crazy with ghoulish recipes, while other slum it with boxes of pizza, or some other lazy alternative. While a great Halloween Party has good Halloween food recipes, guests are usually satisfied with pizza that tastes great. A trick we often use is to grab a Swiss army knife, and carve iconic faces into the lids of our pizza boxes. We’re talking Casper, the Scream mask, Jason, Freddie, basically anything that is easy and easily recognisable. It keeps with the theme, while keeping your horrible cooking skills safely locked away.
Games
Your Halloween party has zero meaning until you pull out those party games. And the particularly awesome thing is that Halloween games need to be nothing more than regular board games. What makes them fun and interesting, is watching Frankenstein versus the Hulk in an intense game of ‘wordsmithship’ in Scrabble (I just came up with a perfectly justifiable Scrabble word for you, by the way). The juxtaposition is so hilarious in itself that you don’t even need ghoulish themes and the like.
Throwing the best Halloween party takes careful planning and getting the elements just right. Fortunately, the mood and theme of the night does the rest of the work for you.
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