does anyone have experience with organising Halloween parties in Switzerland? Any tips for places to buy decorations from apart from having them shipped from the UK / Germany?
Thanks
Hey everyone,
Pumpkins and lanterns/candles are available everywhere.
halloween decorations are pretty simple- as said- pumpkins, candles are all over. i'm sure you can buy some hay somewhere if you want that. we make all our own decorations, like gravestones and ghosts and things. it's a ton of fun to make them ourselves anyway and most we save for the next year...
White ghosts and black witches hats are easily made with some construction paper and scissors. Even some black cats and brooms if you're drawing skills are sufficient.
Add these to the pumpkins and lanterns and you are set.
Toss in some of white spray fluff or fake cobwebs and you're truly done.
Painted styro foam make easy tombstones.
Stuff some old clothes to make a dummy---add jackolantern head.
White tape on the floor for body chalk outlines also make a nice touch.
Freeze water in a latex glove=ice for the punch bowl
Download MP3 of halloween sounds (tons out there)
google easy halloween decorations.....they oftenly turn out much better than premades.
this is the halloween punch (with a few tweeks) we made last year- have other ideas for this year, but it was gone quick so it seems we'll have alot of spirits for this years party!
it's yummy, great for parties
For spice syrup
2 cinnamon sticks
5 whole cloves
3 tablespoons finely chopped peeled fresh ginger
1/3 cup water
1/3 cup sugar
A chilled 25.4-ounce bottle sparkling cider (about 3 1/4 cups)
A chilled 1-quart bottle cranberry juice cocktail
A chilled 1-liter bottle club soda or seltzer water
1 cup dark rum if desired
For serving:
Ice blocks in any shape
preparation
Make spice syrup:
In a small saucepan bring syrup ingredients to a boil, stirring until sugar is dissolved, and simmer, covered, 5 minutes. Cool syrup. Syrup may be made 1 week ahead and chilled, covered.
In a punch bowl combine remaining ingredients and strain syrup through a fine sieve into punch. Stir punch and add ice blocks. Makes about 13 cups.
i've got a ton of recipes and ideas for what we've done the last few years- love halloween parties. feel free to pm me and let me know what you need!
You can also find a gazillion sites with ideas of halloween decoration; it just depends what is really your goal, a kids party or a gory, scary grown-up party?? if the second, can I come too? just kidding
In some area, there is even some mild trick-or-treating. Unfortunately there are many scarecrows who refuse it because "it is a foreign habit, it is against our culture, it is pushing consumption of useless goods, superstition is not approved in our religion", and actually are mean to kids ringing the bell.
Ooo thanks for the post, I may have to throw a Halloween party in my office! ....sigh...have to admit, talk of Halloween is making me homesick
I'm already downloading "moster mash"
Halloween is def my favourite day of they year. And def the biggest party night back home. I taunted Langstrasse last year with my costume. Haven't started to think of what I will be this year.
I am pretty sure that you will be able to find some free patterns on the internet and then just get material around, making your own decorations is a lot cheaper (and fun) than buying them.
Except I had a skull back home that was just the coolest thing (read real skull)...
A few years ago I was inspired to carve some bell peppers and the result was most pleasing: no messy smelly pulp, they let just the right amount of light through their skin for an eerie glow (with a tea light), and they come in a great array of colours and shapes. You can easily do a dozen in the time it takes to carve one pumpkin.
Regarding Hallowe'en food, last year I made some incredibly yummy edible eyeballs using the recipe from this fantabulous website . I think I did too good a job, however, as they looked so bloodshot and ocular-fluidy that people were afraid to eat them. (I have since decided that one shouldn't attempt to make such food look too realistic, otherwise it stops being comical and ends up being a bit off-putting.)
Although this brain paté looks great!
Spookily yours,
H.
sista you just upped the game! gotta get me a real skull...luckily, we just got a new little kitten and she's all black- so that adds some halloween cred
Growing up our family pet was a black cat----when I was younger it was just cool to have around halloween for the trick-or-treaters. When I got older its was more fun to spray a white line down the back. The "house skunk" sent many kids running in tears.
Stretch out some cotton wool around the house for the cobwebs effect. Or you can try getting some orange balloons and draw what you would on pumpkins. Cheap and effective!
Martha Stewart has some really great and chic ideas:
Can't blame the poor pumpkin. It was fed Heineken after all.
Cheap decoration - maybe
Emergency outfit - Definitely !!!
I went to a Holloween party with a mate, and I had already asked him if it was a dress up party (hoping to ask a hopelessy stupid question), but he said "NO".
So on our way there we find out it IS dress up, so we detoured into a shop and bought a 12 pack of Toilet paper.
We turned up dressed as Egyptian Mummies.
You definitely have to be 'Cigar Guy' from the Tiger Woods pic from the Ryder Cup. Don't know how many people here will get it, but it will be hysterical laughs for the ones who do!
-edit: was that actually you?
Tch. It's Halloween in Europe.
By all means dress up as the Cigar Guy, but make it scary, e.g. with an axe through his head.
Not me, but put a cheesy stache on me and huge cigar in my mouth and it is remarkably close.