Halloween Round Up

Ever since I was little, Halloween has been one of my favorite holidays because I viewed it as the wonderful day of the year when you get to dress up and get free candy. Over the years, however, I have come to love Halloween in large part because it marks the beginning of the holiday season. Halloween is the first of many festive celebrations with exciting traditions,delicious food, and spirited decor. So here is the first of many holiday round ups to come in the next few months.

Costumes

Baby Frida Costume DIY

Raggedy Anne Costume DIY for kids and adults

Too Big Alice in Wonderland Costume

Children’s Breakfast at Tiffany’s costume on Etsy

Decorations

 

Swarm of Batts Pupkin..since you don’t need to carve it, feel free to decorate this pumpkin in advance, or even do this to a sugar pumpkin so that you can bake tasty treats from the pumpkin after Halloween

Googly-eyed monster cups to make any drink more exciting

Tea light squashes for a more elegant take on the classic Jack-O-Lantern

Festive pumpkin cooler

Adorable free Halloween Bunting Printable

Pumpkin Cat…too cute not to include, but please do not try this at home!

Savories

Jack-O-Lantern Stuffed Bell Pepper

These Jack-O-Lantern tarts have a sweet filling, but with a spanikopita-style spinach filling they’d be absolutely divine!

Spiced Tofu Bruchetes….stick the skewers into a pumpkin for a festive update

Spiced Harvest Squash and Fennel

Mini Mummy Pizzas….so much cuter than the giant ones from the pizza parlor!

Candy Corn Crudite Platter with Pumpkin Dip for a healthy take the on the beloved candy

Baked Parmesan and Sage Truffle Fries

Curried Zucchini Roll Ups

Vegetarian Lasagna Bites

Innocent (or spooky) Owl Crackers

Sweets

Pumpkin Mouse Trifle (you don’t have to tall anyone that it’s healthy)

Candy Corn Butter Cookies

Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls with Caramel Frosting

Candy Corn Candy Apples

Jack-O-Lantern Pop Tarts

Monster Candy Apples

Pumpkin Meringue Pie

Momofuku Milk Bar Remix: Candy Corn Chocolate Chip Cornflake Cookies

In my family, what began as a simple pizza dinner with friends before trick-or-treating has evolved into a fanciful feast with creative, themed treats and appetizers. It’s a wonderful time to chat with friends and family in a more relaxed setting before the candy-crazed kids begin their neighborhood roam. What are your Halloween traditions?

Oscar Party Part 2: Setting the Stage

A few days ago I shared my Oscar Nominee-inspired menu, and now it’s time to take your Oscar party to the next level with games, decor, and other entertaining ideas.

Decor: We are keeping the decor super simple by covering the tables with star fabric and putting flowers in popcorn containers.You can also lay out a red carpet for guests to walk on as they arrive or layout fancy paper goods and champagne flutes.

Adorable Oscar flowers from Jack Fo blog

Games: Use any of these three games to keep people excited and mingling, instead of just falling into a tv-watcing stupor

1. As people start arriving, you can play an easy game of celebrity to get people mingling. Before the party write names of famous people on adhesive labels, then attach one to each guests’s back as he or she arrives. Then each guest has to ask other party guests yes or no questions in order to figure out the name on his or her own forehead.  The winner is the person who can figure out whose name is on their forehead by asking the fewest number of questions.

2. Before the awards ceremony starts, make sure that each person fills out an Oscar ballot. To make this game more fun, set up a candy bar in the Oscar-watching room and give each guest a bag that they can add one piece of candy to each time that his or her Oscar ballot prediction is correct. Award a prize after the Oscar ceremony to the person who has the greatest number of candies left in his or her bag. This variation makes the classic ballot game not just a test of prediction abilities, but of will-power to resist eating the candies too.

3. During the ceremony itself, play Oscar bingo, where people try to create rows, columns, or diagonals of 5 based on clichés listed on the bingo cards. Visit How About Orange for wonderful downloadable bingo cards and Oscar ballots.

Prizes: Give out creative Oscar-themed prizes for the winners of your Oscar-themed games. Plan on making 2-3 prizes for each game in case of a tie. Plus with these super practical gifts, if guests don’t win them all, you can save them to use yourself!

For celebrity give out STARbucks cards by attaching a Starbucks gift card to the winners.

For the winners of the Oscar ballot predictions, give out movie gift cards so that they can go see the rest of the Oscar-winning movies in theatres.

Give the winners of Oscar bingo iTunes gift cards so that can watch their favorite movies at home or on the go.

Party favors: Party favors are absolutely not necessary, but they can be a fun add on if you feel like going the extra mile. You could give out copies of your favorite movies, fake-oscars to match your guest’s personalities, cozy blankets for guests to snuggle up in during the awards ceremony, or a bucket of popcorn and candies for guests to have their own movie night at home. Check out the free printable party favor labels over at Paper and Pigtails

Great printable labels from Paper and Pigtails

Have a fabulous Oscar-watching night lovely readers! How are you spending your Sunday night?