Putting guests in the right mood for a little harmless horror need not cost a fortune, as Natalie Bowen finds out after scouring the web for cheap yet effective ideas.
Ghostly light
Candles are the most effective way of giving your party venue an eerie glow, but hollowing out enough pumpkins to fill the place with Jack O’ Lanterns would be hard work.
A cheaper, faster option is to wrap an assortment of glass jars and bottles in toilet paper and draw faces on the front with a felt tip marker pen.
Drop a tea light inside each and scatter them around. They look particularly atmospheric if placed in small groups of different sizes and expressions, but make sure the paper is not covering the top of the jars so it cannot catch fire.
Fruity choice
With Halloween characterised by sweets and rich food, these banana ghosts are a cute yet healthy option. Simply peel the fruit, chop in half, then create ‘faces’ by pushing a big raisin into the banana’s flesh for a mouth, with two smaller ones above to represent eyes.
Peeled banana quickly goes brown so either dip the cut ends in lemon juice to stave this process off, or make them at the last minute so they get eaten quickly.
Fantastic accompaniments to these are ‘pumpkin’ satsumas or clementines.
Again, peel the fruit, taking care to maintain the spherical shape, and then stick a small piece of celery into the central hole of each one to imitate a stalk. Easy.
Owl be back
It would not be a party without cake, and these sweet owl cupcakes can be decorated in minutes.
Using either shop-bought or home-made chocolate buns and icing, you will also need Oreo cookies and orange and brown Smarties or M&M sweets.
Twist the cookies apart and press both halves into the chocolate icing on top of the cupcake for the ‘eyes’.
Place a brown sweet flat in the middle of each to form a pupil, then add a vertical orange sweet for the beak.
For the ‘ears’, shape tufts of chocolate icing into two triangles at the top of the cake between the eyes. Voilà!
Hands off the punch
Whether hosting a bash for children, grown-ups or both, give your guests a shock by placing a frozen hand in the punch bowl.
This could not be simpler: fill a glove with drinkable water – a medical glove or plastic one such as those supplied with hair dye kits would be perfect; tie the ends with an elastic band and freeze overnight.
Just before the party starts, peel or tear off the glove and use it to chill the drink.
Treats with bite
A slightly more expensive idea is to create ‘vampire’ doughnuts by buying many sets of fake pointy teeth and putting them inside the hole. The eyes are just chocolate chips or sweets pressed into the dough.
Keen bakers could make the doughnuts themselves, but people will be so impressed that nobody should criticise shop-bought ones.
Nailing your costume
Dressing up is part of the fun, but for an extra touch – or a concession for those who do not want to make a big effort – why not paint your nails with a devilish design?
This skull motif is reminiscent of Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas and is quite simple as it only uses black and white polish – although you will need a thin paintbrush and a steady hand!
Puking pumpkin
Finger food and buffet is the easiest way to cater for Halloween party guests, but this unusual serving idea will certainly cause comment.
It works for any kind of dip, whether salsa, guacamole or bigilla, but the key element is how you carve the pumpkin.
The screwed-up eyes really bring the concept out, so draw the design on to the vegetable in pencil first, to get it right first time.
Mummy pizza
For a savoury snack that children will love, create ‘mummy’ pizza: cut all the crusts off slices of toasted bread, spread with a pizza base sauce, layer strips of mozzarella cheese in a criss-cross pattern on top, then add two black olive halves for eyes.
Put each pizza under a grill for a couple of minutes until the cheese is slightly melted, and serve!
• Visit http://halloweeninspirationideas.com and www.facebook.com/alldiythingys for these and other great Halloween party ideas.