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Halloween ideas- published by the
1980's Vortex I know halloween has been under fire from many different people and organisations, all the typical comments are; "Too commercial", or "It encourages trouble". Some states in America have even banned it. Still halloween is my favourite time of year, it really is the most fascinating holiday. There are no particular rules as to how it can be celebrated, so everyone does their own thing showing their own style of individuality. Whatever people say, we should keep halloween, not just because it encourages children to have fun and be creative, but also for the adults who are interesting enough to still enjoy it! So, even though it's not particularly 80's relevant I decided to write about some fun ideas for Halloween 2001. Decorations can make or break a halloween theme, but they do have to be relevant to the type of occasion. So no really manky looking zombies and corpses for the children's party, and defiantly don't use those children's classic TV witch figurines for the adults halloween party! Food can be made to look creepy in a dozen different ways, this is the easiest part of Halloween for me, making food look nasty has never been a challenge when i'm cooking! But it is wise to use a little moderation in the gross out department, I have been known to over do it with the tomb stone cup cakes and curdled blood tarts with roaches, it would appear they were to realistic and no one else would eat any! Surprisingly children appear more likely to eat the really grim looking stuff rather than the adults who would have happily settled for a boring old spider web sponge cake any day. Decorating ideas: Fake tomb stones - These can be made easily with some thick Styrofoam or card, grey paint and sand. Cut the Styrofoam or card in to the desired tomb stone shape, then paint it with the grey paint mixed with sand to give it a cheap stone effect. These look great with some creepy inscriptions and a few plastic skeleton limbs clawing out the lawn near them. Smoking jack-o-lanterns - Have you ever made a realy creepy lantern? Well it could have looked creeper if you had put a couple of long burning incense sticks in it. They create this evil looking smoke that oozes out their eyes, plus it smells good! Balloon ghosts - A few helium filled balloons covered with a white sheet look just like fictional ghosts swaying up the garden in the wind. Balloons - They can also be drawn on with a OHP pen, there is nothing quite like giving away scull and cross bones / RIP / coffin / zombie pattern balloons to the trick or treaters. Colliflower - Painted gray these look just like brains, these best as dinner table centre pieces, or even candle holders for the dinner table if you cut a hole in them. Just make sure to put a dribble of red where the candles are held! I also like to name them with labels, eg. "Great aunt Mildred - May she Rest in Pieces" Or "Barry Grinly - A door to door sales man" Halloween food ideas: Fake plastic spiders - They look great positioned on the edge of the plates Jelly worms - They can be baked in to chocolate cakes to simulate mud for grave cakes, or sprinkled on icing just to look gross. But for that realy sick effect you can chop them up so they look like maggots! Multi coloured drinks - If you pour them in jugs you can re-label them with names like; Green - Zombie brain drippings (Looks best with a few jelly worms swimming in it) Red - Curdled blood (For best effect place a few squashed raspberrys in it) Or dye some black and call it Diseased grave mud! You get the picture, just use your imagination. Thick red sauce - This can look quite like blood, it has the best effect with only a few tasteful splatters on the cup cakes Ideas for an 80's themed Halloween: You could have the best 80's style halloween sleepover party, just stock up on some 80's style junk food (check out the food section on the main menu for sugestions) And a visit to the video shop for 80's horror movies (The movie section will help you think of a few) 80's style fancy dress, i've seen this done several ways. You could ask everyone to wear the strangest 80's stuff at the back of their closset, or to dress up like famous people from the 80's. Thanks for reading - The 1980's Vortex, wishing you a truly creepy All Hallows eve 2001 |
