Halloween has always been my favorite holiday. I am not sure why. Maybe because it is in October (my birth
month). Maybe because it involves
dressing up and pretending to be someone else.
Maybe because of the great potential for candy gathering. I don't care for the gruesome side of the
holiday that some like to revel in. I am
all about the fun and silly side. And the candy.
For a few years now, my family has hosted a Halloween party
for some of our friends and their children.
We keep it pretty relaxed and generally just let the kids play while the
adults visit, but as the kids have gotten older, we are starting to add some
games and semi-organized activities.
This blog is one of five that I will do this week, progressing through
our past parties.
In 2010, my SIL and I chose to dress as Candy 'Rappers. I have a no mask rule for my
costume. I want small children to still
know who I am. This year my DH and I chose to bring it out
of the closet and dust it off for an "adult" party that we were
invited to.
The original Candy 'Rappers had tshirts that said "Chillin' with my
Peeps" and had a graphic of the Peeps chicks.
Perfectly appropriate! We added
empty M&M packages to the front of caps and wore sunglasses. Bling was created by stapling Werther's
candies together to make gold necklaces.
We also wore Ring Pops, candy bracelets, and candy watches with our baggy shorts. Costumes were topped off with temporary
tattoos and the angry look. Okay, so she
was better at angry than I was.
This year, DH wore a simple black tshirt and black track
pants. His cap had a Fun Dip package
attached, and I found some cheap aviators for him to wear. I added to the gold necklaces this time by
attaching a plastic Jelly Belly container as a "medallion". I also switched to a track suit and added
large hoop earrings to my costume. I put my hair in pigtails and use some throw back ponytail holders that look like gumballs. My
cap had an empty Skittles package attached.
Lastly, we wore Ring Pops to really bling things up. I did find an intro song that was a clean
rap about candy by Chris August, but we ended up not using it. A friend at the party said we needed rapper
names, so he came up with "Fun Dippa" and "T-wizzle". Word.
The costume is comfortable and easy to assemble and
disassemble. The best part is that in the
event of an emergency, it is edible.
To carry this into a party theme, just add candy. Literally.
Candy Shots: We bought a set of Halloween colored shot
glasses from Oriental Trading and filled them with different flavored jelly
beans, candy corn, or M&Ms. This prevents the kids from grabbing a
handful from a bowl and helps any adults
who want to indulge but not binge.
Candy goblets: Instead of having several large bowls of
candy, we used goblets to hold some of the larger candy choices, like orange
slices or individually wrapped candies.
These also came from Oriental Trading.
I originally bought them for a Bible class activity but only needed a
few, so the extras were perfect in this
service.
Dessert recipes
are plentiful that use candy as ingredients or embellisments. Our choices were candy sushi ( 2010) and
salted caramel bars (2014). Pinterest
has hundreds, probably thousands, of recipes of this genre.
Candy Sushi
Be sure to balance out all of the sugary goodness with some
protein items and check with the parents for any food allergies and
sensitivities.
I am not a fan of over-doing the party theme. I prefer to have one or two items in
decorations, food items, and activities that are related, and then just
whatever else sounds good at the time.
Like I said, we try to keep it relaxed.
If you wanted to use this theme for a group of elementary
aged children, just add a round or two of Candy Land and some crafts using
candy corn as your media. Below are some pictures of decorations from a
Christmas candy-themed dinner that could easily be used for a Halloween party
as well.
This was only our second year, so we were still learning and
developing our game plan.
Next up: An Assortment of Seuss
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