A SPOOKTACULAR Birthday Party
By Tati Hafez
As Halloween becomes an integral part of the calendar year, children anxiously await the occasion. The month’s festive atmosphere and ghostly spirit sets the tone for the perfect Halloween themed birthday party for your child. Cairo East Magazine has rounded up some inspiring tips from The Little Party Co. crew to provide you with some party planning inspiration on the theme of the month. It is time to put on your spookiest party planning hat and get started!
Invites – First impressions are everything. So set the tone with a spooky invite! Ask your guests to come in their finest Halloween costumes. Many games and competitions can be spun-off from that! It’s ok to specify a time duration on the party invites to avoid late-comers and late-leavers!
Decoration – Halloween is all about pumpkins, skeletons, ghosts, spider webs, flying bats and witches. Start collecting these must-haves as soon as you spot them in the market. For color go for the most popular duets of orange and black; orange and purple; black and white or all black. Start your party right at your front door with some welcoming Halloween decorations out front.
Games and Activities – Activity stations are always a good option to balance the amount of children playing around. A few suggestions are, (1) Creepy Craft: Children can decorate their own trick or treat canvas bag to take it trick-or-treating or they can make their own Halloween masks. (2) Musical statues Zombie-Style: Dance along spooky tunes and get everybody in the Halloween spirit. (3) Mummy Wrap Races: Arrange children into two-person teams and have one wrap the other mummy-style in toilet paper. The mummy then has to walk to the other end of the room without ripping the paper. You’d be surprised at how much fun the kids have! (4) Gross Out: Creep out the children by blindfolding them and having them plunge their hands into a bowl of grossness texture and get them to guess the object inside; “witches’ intestines” can be made out of cold spaghetti doused with olive oil; “zombie guts” from the seeds and flesh of a pumpkin; eyeballs from peeled grapes. Don’t forget to have prizes for all children. Finally, if children are older but not into craft or traditional games, set up a spooky garden witch fest and screening a scary movie.
Photo booth – They have become very trendy and customized. It is definitely worth setting up a photo-booth with Halloween props so that kids can keep the memories of a celebration where every guest went the extra mile with their costumes.
Party Food – It is always playful to plan the food accordingly and a lot of Halloween food can be the same old stuff you would serve at any gathering, pizza, hot dog, spaghetti bolognese can be labelled after ghoulish names. Name your menu Gruesome Grub. Ask your kids for ideas. They often have the best suggestions, and it will make them feel involved in the planning as well. As for drinks, make the most out of colors with drinks like hibiscus (karkade) to make a blood-orange cocktail and of course hot chocolate with mini marshmallow is always a big hit.
Dessert Table – You cannot go wrong with a traditional orange and black pumpkin-themed dessert table. Dress up your table, the highlight of any party is the cake, and dessert tables are getting more elaborate. Check with your favorite baker for cupcakes, cake pops, push pops and themed cookies. Set a side table for a candy bar with jars of Halloween candy and marshmallow and some gourmet popcorn.
Goodie bags – Besides the traditional candy, add some themed gifts to your party favour like glow sticks, spider rings, face paint sets or fill in vinyl gloves with sweet goodies and finalise it with a spider ring.
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