Get into the spirit of Halloween with some easy-to-make decorations, games, food and costumes, writes SYLVIA THOMPSON
PUMPKIN-SHAPED orange lights, wispy witches and spooky ghosts will adorn houses in towns, villages and cities across Ireland in the coming week. Halloween has become a big celebration, with many families getting into the spirit of things with spider’s webs strewn across doorways and vampires hanging from ceilings.
Children love it – it’s a chance to celebrate the darkness and evil and test out how scared they can be in the knowledge that mummy and daddy are close by in case it all gets too much.
Schools usually accommodate the children’s enthusiasm by encouraging them to make Halloween decorations and sometimes hosting dress-up parties.
This year, the mid-term break means the kids will be at home for the week, so there’s plenty of time to make your own decorations, masks and costumes. And, plenty of time, too, to be a bit more creative with party games. So, let’s have a look at what you can do.
Halloween decorations
Although originally an American tradition, we have taken to pumpkins at Halloween with gusto. The key to having a nice orange glow is to cut out big chunks for eyes, nose and mouth and use a tea light rather than a candle inside.
Cut-out strings of coloured paper bats, spiders and ghosts are perfect for hanging about the house.
And, if you’re keen to try something a bit different in your garden this year, how about stuffing two white sheets with dried leaves and laying them on the lawn with scary masks for their faces. These grassy ghosts can even be given large stones as headstones if you really want to scare the neighbours.
Costumes and masks
Okay, so the shops are full of fancy Halloween outfits but wouldn’t it be much more fun to make your own?
The simplest and most effective DIY costume is of course a ghost, which is a white sheet with holes cut out for your eyes, nose and mouth.
A witch or wizard costume can also be put together with layers of black and purple clothing. Ask family members or go to a charity shop in search of old black velvet dresses and capes, taffeta skirts and black velvet suits and black boots. Making your hat might be a bit trickier: get a rectangular piece of black paper and make a conical shape with it. Add a strip around the bottom to reinforce it.
Now, a witch wouldn’t be a witch without a broomstick. So, go hunting for a smooth branch of a tree or get a pole (from an old brush or mop, for example). The best leaves for the end of the broom stick are the long spine-like leaves from a palm tree. Anyone who has a cordyline tree will be glad to give you some as they are always falling off. Get a good bunch and tape them to the end of the pole or stick. And hey presto! You’ve a ready-made broom that will last for years.
Homemade masks can be made from cardboard. Cereal boxes are not ideal so get some tougher cardboard in an art supply shop. You can also buy plain white moulded masks in most art and hobby or school art supply shops. These are fantastic for drawing or painting on or sticking on feathers, leaves and sequins. Staple just the right amount of elasticated string on the back so it won’t fall off.
Halloween party games
Bobbing for apples in a basin or biting bits out of apples hanging by a string from tree branches are the traditional children’s games that celebrated the abundance of apples at this time of the year too. Remember though it only works if your hands are tied behind your back.
A variation on the theme is to pile up a mound of flour on a plate and hide a couple of coins inside. Each person must then take turns cutting away a small piece of the flour mound. When players uncover a coin, they must stick their faces into the flour and pull it out with their mouth. Raw flour tastes horrible so it’s best to use your teeth rather than your tongue as much as possible. It makes for a nice ghostly face afterwards.
Smashing the piñata – a Mexican papier mâché figure filled with sweets – has become a popular Halloween game. The children hit the figure until it breaks open and the scramble for sweets once it breaks is a lot of fun as long as young children don’t get trampled in on the process.
The Chamber of Horrors is another option for a children’s Halloween party. Find a square cardboard box that you can completely seal up. Fill it with a variety of items that when touched without seeing will send shivers down your spine. These can include a peeled tomato or kiwi (someone’s heart or eyeball?), a rubber glove filled with water and secured with an elastic band (a dead man’s handshake?), cooked spaghetti (intestines?), plastic spiders, etc. Once you have about 10, put them into the box with some paper shavings. Get everyone to tell their favourite ghost story and dare others to put their hands into the chamber of horrors to reveal the dark secrets within.
Brookstick racing – you can call it Quidditch – involves using your homemade broomsticks, described earlier, and is a fantastic outdoor game. It involves creating an obstacle course that combines Halloween forfeits (touching something slimey, pulling a sheet over your head and making ghost noises or drinking a glass of blood-red Ribena as quickly as possible) with physical challenges (jumping backwards, running to the tree and back, balancing on one leg for 10 seconds). Extra points can be won by cackling as loudly as possible.
Finally, there’s a game called Tickly Monster which is a bit like Hide and Seek in the dark so you’ve got to make the house completely dark first. Then hand out cards to everyone. The one who gets the ace of Spades is the Tickly Monster (this is kept a secret). Everyone then moves silently about the house while the Tickly Monster tries to catch them. Once caught, they join him/her in the hunt for the rest of the players until there is only one left who must surprise all the Tickly Monsters by jumping out at them. The tickling when caught is of course optional!
Fearful food
Pumpkin soup is delicious and easy to make. It’s also an ideal way of using up the pulp from the pumpkin straight after you’ve carved it up, but it’s not very scary.
The traditional barmbrack with a ring hidden inside still resonates with children today. But, if you’re looking for something a bit spookier, make orange jelly with plastic spiders hiding inside or dip white marshmallows in white chocolate and see who’s afraid of ghosts then.
What are we celebrating anyway?
Hallowe’en or All Hallows (holy ones) Eve is the evening before All Saints Day, a Christian festival celebrated on November 1st.
Its origins however lie in the Celtic festival of Samhain and other ancient cultures which believed that the souls of the dead and supernatural beings such as ghosts and witches visited the earth at this time.
People lit bonfires and dressed up in spooky costumes to drive away the evil spirits.
The trick or treat tradition comes from the belief that the spirits would use their powers against people who failed to honour them.
Some Halloween games were sourced from I'm Bored . . . Again – over 100 seasonally inspired games for hours more fun with your children, by Suzy Barratt and Polly Beard (Bloomsbury Press)
