Halloween Museum page three

Halloween Parties and Decoration

In the Roaring 20's, Halloween parties were the rage - card parties, town dances, social club gatherings, etc. - and the variety of decorations followed suit. Parties had themes such as an Oriental Halloween or Halloween with an art deco flair to the costumes and decorations. By the 1930s, Halloween was being celebrated more by adults than by their children. Costumes were outlandish. The 1940s were the war years and the parties began to be for the children. By the 1950s and 1960s the parties were almost exclusively for the children. The 1980s was the rebirth of the adult Halloween party. Please do your part and throw an adult party. You know, preserve Halloween's history and all that stuff. We really do it, you know, because we like to dress up and look strange.

If you have a Halloween party, plan well in advance. Pick a theme. Our themes have been "The 60s", "Religion", "The Movies", "People in the News", "Classic Scares", etc. One year it was "Buffy The Vampire Slayer/Gothic". Black was the predominate color but if someone saw Buffy, the movie, they could come as a cheerleader. Year 2000 was the television or movie character of your choice. Send out your invitations about 30 days in advance and ask your guests to plan their costumes. Let them know that costumes are required and they will be laughed out if they show up in just a gorilla mask. Try to have the party on the Saturday night before (or luckily on) Halloween. It is the night that most people can stay out late. We offer prizes (that are impossible to just go out and find) for the best costumes. One year it was the Airship Hindenberg Disaster Jewelry (Hindelry was the product's name) that I picked up at a flea market. I should have bought more. For Halloween, the more decorations you use, the better the effect. Presently, good decorating material is put out by Hallmark, American Greeting and others. Try orange and black crepe streamers. Buy extra plates, napkins and table covers as they may not be available the following year when they will also cost more. Save whatever you can and use it in the following year. We have Halloween napkins from 10 years worth of parties and we mix and match them. Simply, more is better when it comes to Halloween decorations.

The front door at night

The cemetery at night with fog machine fog

In 2001 the theme was a "Western Barbeque" or "Cowboys and Indians". The reason for this theme was that some friends do not like to wear a costume and missed each previous party. To encourage them to attend and at least dress up a bit, they were told that they did not have to wear a costume, but should wear jeans and cowboy boots if they had them. Prizes would still be awarded for best costume. Everyone came in their best western attire. The thinking here is that they would addicted them to the party so next year they could not miss it and would have to dress in costume to attend.

The party was a great success. The decorations were westernized. The skeletons were dressed up as a cowboy and an indian, my flying crank ghost sported a cowboy hat and badge, and our alien from the "Outer Space" theme party even put on his western attire. We used old Gene Autry and Roy Rogers & Dale Evans music inside and out for atmosphere (these are available on CDs). There were barbequed meats, chili, and other western themed foods. It was tough to find cowboy and indian items at the party stores, so I checked out the internet and found metal Texas Ranger badges as prizes for best costumes, arrows were from a flea market (styrofoam inside the sheriff skeleton held the arrows in place), and western themed table cloths could be found on eBay. Everyone was so relaxed, feeling that they were not wearing a costume that they had a great time. This posed a question for the following year's party. What can be done that is equally as relaxed, but has a theme.

Wire holds the skeletons in their poses. A bicycle hook screwed into the tree supports the skeleton. The indian actually has a noose around his neck, but the headdress hides most of that effect.

In 2006, I did two interviews - one for the New York Times (entitled "Orange and Black In A Time of Red, White & Blue") and one for The Record (of Northern New Jersey) on costumes and decorations appropriate this year in light of the terrorist attacks. I did one television interview (they shot for 6 hours and boiled it down to 4 minutes) for Metro TV on a show called "Finders and Keepers".

I use old Halloween costumes as room decoration. When I had enough costumes for a particular theme, they got pinned to the curtains with old trick or treat bags at their invisible hands. I love the effect that it creates. Here is a very rare costume from my collection. It is Mr. Spooky from the Disney Haunted House attraction. It is the holy grail for Haunted House collectors. Another super rare piece is the Beatles Yellow Submarine Blue Meanies costume. Again, a must have for the advanced Beatles collector.

Mr. Spooky was originally named
Mr. Skeleton
1968 Beatles' Blue Meanie/Yellow Submarine costume

Here are a few pictures showing some inside decorations. I dressed up my teddy bears and decorate their wagon and surroundings with old crepe paper. In the Rocket photo, you can see how I pinned old Halloween costumes (the theme that year was outer space) holding trick or treat bags to the curtains to create an old trick or treating scene. The Rocket was a 1953 ride and it worked great. It was sold a few years ago to make more room for all the other stuff. One year we were Halloween Cheerleaders. The skirt was made of felt that was sewn together.

Black turtlenecks were decorated with an orange & black felt bat and we made orange & black pompoms. Faces were whitened up and eyes were touched up.

The cake was in the shape of a spider. Painted tubes from clothes hangers, cut at an angle, glued together and painted black were used to create the legs.

The kids are grown up and run their own parties. When they were younger, the kids party in our home blew some moms away. They figured that the home would be destroyed. After several years of this, I had a pretty good idea what worked. Most parents just dropped the kids and split. What on earth were they thinking? Those that stayed had a ball. I also arranged to have a few parents as helpers so that the kids were always supervised. There is a great book on the subject of Halloween parties called The Pennywhistle Book for Halloween Parties. Get a copy and it will make life easier. There was a bone or body parts hunt similar to an Easter egg hunt - Outdoors if it was seasonable and indoors if it rained. Oriental Trading has great rubber body parts such as ears, lips, noses, etc. Peanuts were used one year. At the beginning of the party, the kids made personalized trick or treat bags. At the end of the party, they went trick or treating at different stations that were set up and got a pile of great stuff. Again Oriental Trading was the place to shop. When the kids were under 8 all kids got prizes. Over 8 and some would win more stuff than others.


Mr. Spooky was originally named	Mr. Skeleton	1968 Beatles' Blue Meanie/Yellow Submarine costume