Halloween parties are always fun events to attend.  With everyone dressed up in various costumes and make up, it can be a wild ride even for the most timid among us.  But beyond all the trick-or-treating, costumes, and decorations lies an important aspect of your event… the food and who will provide it.

Choosing to hire a caterer can be an intimidating process for those who are not familiar with the process.  It is always best to do as much research as possible before signing any contracts.  In fact, the more caterers you interview, the more informed you naturally will become.

There are two main advantages to hiring a caterer:

Saves Time

If you know you have your hands full, and are confident you do not have the time to prepare all the food yourself, then a catering company can help.   They will give you various options for what kind of foods you want to be served.  All you have to do is select what you want and they take care of the rest.  This greatly reduces anxiety and stress as the pressure is off of you and placed instead on the company you are hiring.

Quality of food

Assuming, the caterer has a positive reputation, you can rest assured at the quality of the food which will be delivered.  For example, many of their featured foods they have made many times before.  If you order a red velvet cake, odds are it will not be delivered burnt.   These are professionals who know how to get a job done.

However there is one main disadvantage… financial cost.

For those who rarely entertain and rejoice at the idea of handing the responsibility to a company, this may not be a road block, but for those who often do their own entertaining, it can be hard to give the job to someone else.   It is easy to save money by providing the food yourself – if you have the right know how and tools.   For example, some people who entertain frequently will buy many of their foods such as meat, in bulk.  They then cut the meat into smaller portions and freeze.  When party time comes, they pull out only what they need.

They also have specific equipment which makes entertaining easier by investing in heavy duty appliances such as home food slicers, or meat grinders.   A food slicer can be used to slice slabs of meat (and other foods) into deli thin slices perfect for sub sandwiches or for deli roll ups.  A kitchen meat grinder can be used to grind large amounts of solid meat chunks for making meatloaf, meatballs or fresh hamburgers.  By purchasing in bulk and with a decent amount of preplanning, those who fit this level of party enthusiast will undoubtedly save themselves the cost of hiring another company to do what they can very well do themselves.

Therefore, it really depends on where you feel comfortable, and what your priorities are.

If you choose to work with a caterer, here are some questions you can ask yourself which will help in the planning process.

1. What style of food presentation do you want to have?

Do you want to prepare an entire event with appetizers, a main dish and then dessert?  Or do you prefer to offer a number of various smaller entrees and finger food?  Perhaps your setting would be better with a nice variety of  desserts.

2. What is the size of your party?

For smaller crowds, a full meal may be a nice choice if you plan on hosting the event yourself.  But for larger crowds where guests will be mingling around showing off their costumes, a more relaxed buffet style meal might be appropriate.  A caterer may have different methods for charging for their services.  They may charge per plate, or per food item – make sure to ask.

3. Do they provide their own servers?  And is this required?

Some caterers will be happy to simply prepare and deliver the food, rather than hassling with finding servers.  On the other hand, if the party is a large formal event, the option to hire some servers may be the more logical decision.

4. Does the caterer offer special food items specific for your event, in this case Halloween?

If they do not, they may be excited at the opportunity to try something new and creative.  This also gives them the ability to add this “new” menu item to their list of experiences.  If they do agree to create a new menu item, make sure to arrange a tasting so you can taste a sampling prior to the party – at least a few weeks so if any alterations are to be made, they have the time to do so. If they do not make special customizations, request that you have permission to provide some of your own theme specific foods such as cookies, cupcakes, etc…

5. Do they provide chairs?

This is important because it may not cost much to have the caterer bring an extra 10 or 20 folding chairs for your guests.  It is always a good idea to have ample seating at your party.  If concerned you will have too many empty chairs, then simply store some of the chairs in a spare room, and pull them out when needed.

6. Who does clean up?

In other words, will the caterer be in charge of taking out the trash, cleaning up dirty plates, vacuuming etc, or are you expected to do this yourself?  There may be extra charges for this too, so make sure to ask.

By taking into account these various considerations, you will be closer to making a decision if hiring a caterer for your Halloween party is appropriate – and if so – determining how involved the caterer will be.   Never be afraid to discuss your questions, concerns or thoughts with your caterer.  If they are unwilling to work together, take the time to take a step back and shop around.  It could be the difference between a stressful event and a stress-free event!

This article was contributed by simpleitaliancooking.com, a website devoted to Italian food recipes and kitchenware reviews.

Ever wonder how they made the costumes for Darth Vader and the Storm Troopers in Star Wars? Basically they did it the same way car bodies are made… in a mold with fiberglass, or a similar resin. In fact, so many things are made with plastics and resins today that it’s not likely you have any device that doesn’t have a molded part on it. I have seen some really complicated, and convincing, costumes made entirely from molded fiberglass, including whole suits of armor!

With the basic knowledge of how to do this, you can make almost anything you’d like. Below I will describe how to make a simple body part, but these concepts can be extended to almost any level to make extravagant costumes, monsters or even sets (think of the Jet in the opening scene of Mission Impossible II. That was made as a fiberglass model a bit larger than a minivan).

For this project I have decided to make a body part, a hand. Not just any hand, but a mummy hand. I also chose materials that you can buy locally:

• plaster of Paris which you can buy at any hardware store
• cheese cloth which you can get anywhere cloth is sold, or where canning supplies are sold (Walmart carries it in their fabric section)
• fiberglass resin and fiberglass cloth or spun fiberglass, which you can get at an auto supply store
• plastic cups and spoons, and cheap (a.k.a. disposable) “chip” brushes

The Mold

I wanted my body part to look like a mummy’s hand, so I needed to make a mold that would give it mottled skin. I could have taken modeling clay and sculpted the part that I wanted, which is how most parts start, but I decided to use my own hand and arm, since I’m not so good at sculpting.

I mixed up some plaster of Paris as per instructions, and dipped strips of cheese cloth in it. I then coated my arm with Vaseline petroleum jelly so the plaster wouldn’t stick, and then layered the plaster infused cheese cloth onto my arm.

I pushed the cheese cloth into the spaces between my fingers, but made sure I had no convolutions (where the mold folds under itself – when you try to take the finished product out, you will have to break the mold in order to get it out – bad if you want to make another, identical part). I let the cheese cloth hang over the end of my fingers to make sure I covered the tips of my fingers.

I used a canned vegetable can to rest my hand on so it would have the right bend to it. I made sure I had a tall cup of coffee, good music on, and then I waited the requisite time of about 45 minutes for the plaster to harden, trying not to move my hand or arm during that time.

After hardening, I carefully pulled the “cast” off (Ouch! Not enough Vaseline, too many arm hairs), pushing and pulling at my skin to get it to break away from the mold.

Casting the Fiberglass hand

I coated the inside of the mold with Vaseline to keep the resin from sticking to the mold. Unfortunately, one of the problems with plaster is that it is porous, and it takes a lot of Vaseline. I did have some trouble getting the resin hand out of the mold, ultimately breaking the mold. There are commercial anti-stick materials that work really well, which I’ll tell you more about later.

I wanted the skin to have a mottled look to it, so I made up a small amount (about two ounces – see below on how to do this) of resin and coated the inside of the mold, not getting rid of any air bubbles (that helps create the mottled look) and let that harden before making the main cast.

Next I cut a piece of fiberglass mat material to fit inside the mold. I also pulled some individual fibers out to fit into where the fingers are.

I then mixed up about 8 ounces of the resin with the hardener as instructed on the can of resin, and stirred it. Then I poured the resin into the mold.

…and spread it out with a chip brush.

I let this harden for about 2 hours, and then began pulling the mold from the “hand”:

This, it turns out, was not so easy. The Vaseline had been absorbed into the plaster, and the resin was stuck in many places on the mold. I ultimately destroyed the mold getting the hand out. That’s ok; I can always make another one. Great way to sit and pity the folks with broken arms set in casts…

Painting Your Body Part

I trimmed this with a jig saw and with “nippers” to cut away the excess, and then painted the hand using acrylic paints (modeling paints would have been better, but this is what I had on hand). I painted it with yellow ochre:

After drying, the molting looks like a mummy’s hand:

I added some red and black paint to make a “wound”:

…and did the same for the fingers:

…and, viola, a mummy’s hand!

Going Further With Your Newly Acquired Casting Skills

This ain’t nothin’, folks. The sky’s the limit, literally. There are airplane kits you can buy to build a whole airplane out of fiberglass! But that’s a different article. Let’s stick to costumes, sets, body parts, weapons… and the list goes on.

I said above that there are better materials out there. You betcha… there is a company that specializes in moldings and castings called Smooth-on, and you can visit their web site at http://www.smooth-on.com/

They have every material imaginable for making molds for casting, anti-stick material, casting resins, silicon rubber (like for a mask), etc. They have training videos you can watch, and videos that introduce each of their materials. Even Martha Stewart has a video on this web site!

There are also hundreds of “How To” videos on YouTube that will lead you step by step in molding and casting. When you become the resident expert, then make your own video and post it on YouTube…

Ok, now, get started on that seven foot monster, and Happy Haunting!

Each year I think I’ll add new items to my yard display, but every year the same thing happens: I‘m broke and have no time! Let’s face it, the two most important things we all need if we want to add something really great to our Halloween display is time and money. Both always seems to slip though my fingers like grains of sand in an evil inspired hour-glass.

But no matter how short on time and money you are, you’ll have most of the things to make a few fast scarecrows. The only thing you need to have is a few old clothes, garden stakes, and an hour or so and you’ve got instant decorations for little or no money!

Supply list:

• Tall poles or PVC pipes
• Trick-or-treat Buckets
• Yarn, wigs and/or old hats
• Wire
• Duct tape
• Plastic shopping bags or garbage bags
• Newspapers and/or Leaves
• Cutters
• Clothes
• Old gloves
• Shoes

Step One–Scarecrows (SC)

Before we dive in, I want show you the three scarecrows I made once and talk about making a twist to the basic SC. How about making them in poses so that they do something rather than just standing there? Look at the photo of my family of scarecrows as if you’ve caught them in the act of adoring their daughter. I’ll describe how I made these so you can get ideas of how to branch out and pose your own SCs.

Step Two–Construction

Mommy Scarecrow

I drove one long bean pole into the ground for the standing mom. I held up the housecoat to the pole and measured where the neck needed to be and then measured a wooden garden stake to make her shoulders. I then wired the garden stake and then wound a strip of duct tape around the wire for stability. I grabbed a hand full of the plastic bags and stuffed another bag fairly full of newspaper (also try leaves) and taped it to the neck and chest for her body. Then I slipped her housecoat on and let it drag on the ground since I didn’t have any shoes for her.

Daddy Scarecrow

Now it was time to make the dad SC, and this is going to be fun since I wanted to make him sitting down. I stuffed an old pair of sweat pants with newspaper inside garbage bags and filled the pants until they looked like legs. Between the picnic table top and seat, I drove into the ground a shorter bean pole until it was the right height for his head and shoulders. I attached the cross piece the same for him as I did for the mom. Now I ran some wire through part of the waistband of the pants and attached it to the stake so the legs wouldn’t fall off in high wind. I slipped on the sweatshirt without stuffing him and started the child SC.

Child Scarecrow

The child SC I assembled differently. I drove two short garden stakes though a pair of old shoes, dropped her pants on over the stakes and stuffed her pants before I wired on the stake for her shoulders. I lightly stuffed her sweatshirt with more plastic bags, and then I was ready to attach all their heads.

Scarecrow Heads

As you can see, their heads are two sizes of old trick-or-treat buckets that I cut x’s in the bottom of so they’d fit on the poles. The treat buckets are perfect for this purpose because they’re weather resistant, have ready made faces, and we all have scads of them lying around the house. I finished off the heads with some yarn hair and old hats. I then safety pinned the gloves to the sleeves, and I was finished.

I can’t tell you how many people stopped by and talked about how much they loved my scarecrows. Some families stopped and as asked if they could have their picture taken with them. Others had the kids do some silly poses by them.

To this day, my family of scarecrows are the hit of the neighborhood, and now they have lots of other scarecrows to play with in my neighbors’ yards. So gather your family, a pile of old duds, a few garden stakes, and makes memories as well as decorations this Halloween season without spending a dime!

Your child is dressed up all adorable, proudly ready to go out trick or treating! The Halloween costume is fantastic, scary and cute at the same time. However, something’s not quite right … something ruins the whole ensemble. Perhaps it’s the ugly plastic bag being used to hold the mountains of candy?

Never fear, you won’t have to worry about that, because you’re reading this article and will now make your own gorgeous masterpiece of a trick or treat bag! Or, at least, something better than a grocery bag or pillow case.

Materials

• At least ½ yard of Halloween themed fabric or pre-made canvas bag
• Sewing machine and thread
• Fabric glue/needles
• Interfacing (optional)
• Decorations to match the fabric
• Buttons, sequins, foam shapes and beads
• An iron

Sewing Your Trick or Treat Bag

The Bag

Cut a rectangle of fabric that measures 16.5” x 25”. Fold the 25” side of the fabric in half so that the wrong side is showing. Stitch the bottom first and then the side. Turn the bag right side out and press the seams with an iron. At the opening turn down ¼” and press. Then turn it down again 1-1/2 inches. Press and stitch.

Safety pin placed in the center (Click for larger image)

inside out handle

placement matching and X seam

The handles

Cut fabric for the handles that measures 3” x 19”. You will need to cut two of these. Fold the fabric in half with the wrong side showing. Put a safety pin in the very center of one end with the head towards the other end. This will make turning it right side out much easier. Take a ¼” seam allowance and stitch the strip of fabric. Turn it inside out by pushing the safety pin through the tube; press under ¼” on each end.

Pin the handles to the bag before stitching to make sure that you like the placement. Use the sewing machine to sew them on with a large ‘X’. This will attach them securely so that no trick or treat candy gets lost.

Now you can turn the bag over to the kids to have fun with. With fabric glue, beads, sequins, plastic confetti, and anything else you can think of, your kids will make and have their own personalized trick or treat bag!

]]> http://halloweenalliance.com/howto/how-to-make-your-own-trick-or-treat-bags.htm/feed 0 http://halloweenalliance.com/party/halloween-game-idea-ghost-hunting.htm http://halloweenalliance.com/party/halloween-game-idea-ghost-hunting.htm#comments Fri, 23 Oct 2009 03:49:52 +0000 Jesse Curtis http://halloweenalliance.com/?p=1186

At a kid’s Halloween party once, I participated in a cool game that would make a great addition to any party, kids or adults. It’s goofy enough to get in some good laughs, and kids will go wild with fun! I call it Ghost Hunting, and it involves you, a ghost, and some stomping. It’s just you and your ghostly ally…. against the WORLD!! For best results, have at least five players. The more the merrier!

Here is what you need:

• String
• Black Marker
• Glow sticks that can wrap around you like a bracelet or a necklace.
• Glow-in-the-dark balloons/white balloons and a black light.

First, grab a balloon and blow him up. Next, draw the creepiest ghoul face you can muster. The scarier the face, the more likely your opponents will wet themselves, and therefore give you more time for stomping! Also, don’t forget to name him. Something not too out of the ordinary… Dexter, William, Casper or Gretchen.

If by any chance your little friend should fall due to the enemy during combat, you are obligated to call out your ghosts name and ask why. I shall demonstrate for you… “POP!! No, Dexterrrrrrrrr! Whyyyyyyyyy???!!!!”

Next, tie your scary teammate to your ankle. Don’t have too much string between the two of you, or he will be near impossible to defend. However, you don’t want him right on your heal either, unless you like bleeding heals

Finally, throw on some glow sticks to avoid crashing into each other, and hit the lights! If using a black light to make the white balloons glow, turn that one on now. If you start feeling something touching you but don’t see any glow sticks nearby, stay calm, you are merely being groped by an actual ghost. So be sure you all decide on a safe word before you hit the lights… Tee Hee!!

Rules:

• No grabbing or holding any opponents.
• No non-ghost allies.
• No covering your ghost.
• Once your ghost has passed on to the next world, you must sit out. Do not attempt to stomp anymore ghosts.
• The partner of the last ghost standing wins!

Variations:

• Have multiple ghosts attached per game. Three on the same ankle for example.
• Team ups. Four vs. four for example. (Two Ghosts and Two Humans.)
• No glow sticks. (This is a more dangerous version, and therefore more awesome!)

Good William hunting!!

Are you tired of seeing the same old scary faces on every Jack O’ Lantern you see? Are you obsessed with carving and looking for a way to bring your passion from “craft” to “work of art”? Or do you just have a few hours on your hands to try something totally different? Forget the triangle eyes and pointy, crooked teeth – a Jack O’ Lantern can be so much more than a face, and is not always black and white!

Beginning carvers only see two options when it comes to carving a pumpkin. We can see the orange of the pumpkin’s skin, or we can see a candle through holes in the skin. But we really do have more options than that. If we peel away the pumpkin’s skin, but do not cut all the way through the flesh, we are given the option of a yellowish white – the exposed flesh of the pumpkin. And if we’re really determined, we can scrape away only part of the orange, leaving a lighter orange which can be used for shadowing.

With these new options we can start to create some really unique Jack O’ Lanterns. So if you’ve got the time and the inclination, pull up a pumpkin and make a statement!

Pick and Prepare Your Pumpkin

Think about what kind of design you want to do, and how intricate it is. Use your best judgment to select the pumpkin size that’s best for you. Then try to find the smoothest pumpkin possible. Most pumpkins have ridges running from top to bottom, and that’s okay. But try to find one with the least amount of scratches and scars. At the very least, find one with one perfect side to carve on, even if the rest is a bit damaged. If you want a pumpkin without those vertical ridges, go for a bigger one, as they tend to smooth out as they fatten up. Once you’ve found your perfect pumpkin, it’s time to prepare it for carving.

Even if you only plan to carve on the surface of your pumpkin, you should prepare it the same way you would a normal Jack O’ Lantern, as this will help you protect it from rotting. Using a pumpkin knife from a carving kit, cut a circular hole around the stem and pop the top off. Scoop out all the seeds and save for roasting (yummy!). Scrape the insides to get rid of as much pumpkin goo as possible (bugs and bacteria love this stuff).

Pick and Prepare Your Picture

You can put pretty much anything on your pumpkin. One of my favorite things to carve is iconic images from classic horror movies. This time I chose a picture of Lon Chaney from the lost silent film, London After Midnight. A famous image, I think it would look perfect on my pumpkin.

When choosing your image, pick something that’s easily recognizable. If it’s a photo with a background, it’s probably best to omit it, and just focus on the characters or main figures so you don’t distract they eye with unnecessary detail. It’s best to find a picture with a lot of contrast – extreme darks and extreme lights working together well. If your design is in color, you will have to change it to gray scale. All photo editing programs can do this. Once your pic is in black and white, it’s wise to turn up the contrast. This will make the blacks blacker and the whites whiter. It will help simplify the image so you don’t have too much detail to worry about.

Print the Page and Puncture Your Pumpkin

Print your image out on a piece of paper. You may have to play with your settings to get it to the right size to fit your pumpkin. Once you have it printed, position it over the best side of your pumpkin and decide exactly where you want it to go. Next, use a few pins, needles, or thumb tacks to stick the photo in place.

With another pin (I suggest push pins, as they are easiest to hold) trace every line of your photo by stabbing into the pumpkin. Any line you want to make note of should be perforated this way. This may take a while but you’ll see the outcome is worth it. Take a break once in a while to munch some pumpkin seeds or candy corn. Keep your paper as still as possible to avoid warping your image.

When you’ve perforated the entire image, and while the lines are still fresh in your mind, remove the paper and connect the dots by slicing with a craft knife or box cutters. Keep the slices as straight as possible. They do not have to be too deep, but you do need to be able to use them as trustworthy guides.

Pick Your Pumpkin Pigments

You’re almost ready to carve, but first you need to decide what parts of the pumpkin represent white, black and gray. Once you decide, stick with it unless you absolutely have to change. You might run into this problem when you get to two shapes next to each other that are similar in color, but need to be separate. This is why it is wise to carve from the outside, toward the center. This will help you coordinate and will leave more possibilities to switch if you later find you need to.

I decided that for my picture, the black of his hat, hair and coat would be represented by the solid orange of the pumpkin skin. That means that the black lines of his face should also be solid orange. I chose never to carve all the way through my pumpkin, but instead to use the white meat of the pumpkin for the color of his skin and the whites of his eyes and teeth. I also knew that for subtler shadows (gray) I could gently scrape only the very top of the orange skin away and leave a light orange.

You may choose to do it the way I did, or you may have a better idea for your project. You may find a neat way to incorporate the black of cutting all the way into the pumpkin flesh to the other side. Do whatever you think is best for your design.

Pare and Peel Your Pumpkin’s Pelt

It is finally time to carve your pumpkin! After all this preparation you must be dying to get started, right? But first – Safety Tips!

• Children should not do this without adult supervision.
• Cut away from yourself, not toward. If you need the blade at a different angle, just rotate the pumpkin!
• Always just BE CAREFUL!

Whew, now that that’s out of the way…

I started from the outside and worked inward. The first thing I did was make a little halo around the outside of my image in white. I did this by stripping away the orange flesh all the way around to distinguish the black hat, hair and coat from the rest of the pumpkin. It also just looks cool.

Then I moved in for the details. And you thought the perforating thing was hard work! This will probably actually feel more like whittling than carving. Have fun!

The main tip I can give you about doing the details is to slice down at an angle toward the part you are cutting out. If there is a piece of skin you need to keep, always push the blade away from it, or you weaken it underneath and risk loosing it. That’s how I lost the right side of Lon Chaey’s lower lip.

The hardest part of my design was probably the teeth because they were so close together, it was hard to take pieces out without damaging the others.

As I went, I found places where I wanted to leave a shadow. So before cutting all the skin away, I lightly scraped only the top off in these places. The main places I did this were along the length of his nose and on his jaw near his mouth. I thought this would give more depth and realism to his face, even though I did not follow the shadows in the picture exactly.

For a finishing touch, you can scoop out most of the flesh on the inside to make the wall very thin. Then put a candle inside and you’ll get a nice glow through the flesh. Just leave the top open so oxygen can get in.

When you are all done, sit back and admire your work. Looks pretty awesome, doesn’t it? If it’s not perfect, don’t worry – neither is mine. Nothing can ever be perfect. But you did something that’s totally you, and it’s sure to turn a few heads.

To help your pumpkin last longer, cover the inside and outside with vegetable oil or Vaseline (warning: flammable) and consider keeping it in the fridge until the big day.

Congratulations! You are an advanced pumpkin carver!

Constructing Halloween Mobiles are a fun way to spend an afternoon. There are so many different ways to be creative and make fun mobiles for the season. Let’s get started!

Halloween clip art images are an easy way to get a lot of pictures for coloring. Cookie cutters are also great for making cute shapes out of construction paper. The shapes can be colored and decorated anyway you want. Also, you could make a mobile with just one shape, like bats, or use all the different seasonal icons you can imagine.

Materials

• Cookie cutters or clip art
• Crayons, permanent markers, colored pencils
• Glue
• Fishing line or thread
• Small diameter dowels
• Construction paper

Optional Items

• Needle
• Hot glue gun
• Glitter, sparkling beads, feathers, etc.

Building Your Halloween Mobile

Any craft or home improvement store will have 3/8″ dowels available for purchase. I was able to find a package of small dowels cut to 12″ in length for about $1. Very handy. We first painted our dowels black.

Trace the cookie cutter shapes onto paper. Cut them out and have fun decorating. If you use clipart you may want to print a mirror image as well so the pictures are double sided.

Enjoy the decorating/coloring and talking with the kids about Halloween and what they are most excited about. Take your time during this step, because the hanging step could be difficult with little helpers.

When you are ready to assemble the mobile, cut the fishing line or thread to anywhere between 6″ and 10″ lengths. This will allow for a nice length once a knot is tied and glued, etc.

Use a 12″ dowel for the top. Cut another dowel into 6″ lengths and hang them from the ends of the top dowel. You can stop there or hang another 12” dowel from the center of the top so that it hangs below the 6” dowels, and so on. It just depends on how large you want the mobile to be and how many different shapes you want to add.(Don’t make it too heavy! Mine broke when I got too ambitious!)

We painted the dowels black and used fishing line to hang the Halloween shapes. We also bought some 1″ wooden letters to spell out “trick or treat”. They were not very expensive but you could do the same thing with scrapbook paper by gluing two pieces together so you have the back and front decorated, or use a two-sided piece.

The complete Halloween Mobile

Have fun! I’d love to hear of others who tried this project. Please comment below.

Every year there’s controversy over a certain Halloween costume, and this year it’s the “Illegal Alien.” The costume features an extra-terrestrial dressed in prison garb holding a green card (which is a legal document allowing you to work in this country, ha ha). If the pun is lost on some people, the words “Illegal Alien” are boldly stenciled across the front.

Depending on your point of view, it’s either a hilarious pun, a political statement, or an extremely insensitive costume to a group of people. According to Angelica Salas, director of the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles, the costume is “distasteful, mean-spirited and ignorant of social stigmas and current debate on immigration reform.” The organization successfully pressured retailers such as Target, Ebay and Amazon to pull the costume off its shelves. Another states the costume “perpetuates this idea we have about undocumented immigrants as alien foreigners, strangers, scary.”

Should Offensive Costumes be Banned?

Should this particular costume have been pulled from shelves? Did it cross a fine line? Or is it yet another over-sensitive political correctness issue that has been stifling free speech for the last two decades?

Is this costume distasteful? Definitely! However, and so as to leave nobody guessing, I believe it should not have been pulled, and here’s why: Halloween is supposed to be offensive. It’s the one night where people parody and make fun of frightening monsters, authority figures, celebrities, political and cultural issues (as this one is), and, frankly, anything else people are scared of, angry at or downright tired of.

Why else do you see over-sexed nuns, stereotypical rednecks, Bernie Madoff complete with a hammer to whack him with, revealing native American costumes (wow, racist and sexy!), and Obama masks (Obama-care – there’s a scary one!). The list is endless. A couple years ago, the big offensive costume was a guy dressed as a Catholic priest with an altar boy hanging by his … you get the picture. How about Harry Potter costumes promoting witchcraft? How about “evil witches” offending Wiccans?

As of this writing, there’s still a few places that sell this costume, such as here. (Disclaimer: I’ll make a commission on the sale – if you don’t agree with that, click here instead and search for it.)

The point is, poking fun at sacred institutions and cultural values is a healthy part of any civilization. It’s not just free speech – if nobody can poke fun at anything, the line isn’t too far away from a police state. It’s not insensitivity and racism, it’s a cultural safety value – one even the Romans had. More on that later.

Why Do We Celebrate Halloween, Anyway?

Most people will tell you the origins of Halloween comes from the Celtic Samhain, when the line between the living and the dead was weakened. Grotesque costumes were worn to scare away spirits who had come back to possess living bodies.

Medieval Christianity tried to erase pagan traditions by turning them into Christian holidays – hence, the creation of a competing “All Hallows Day” on November 1st – “All Hallows Eve” the night before, or Hallowe’en. (Christmas, too, is originally a pagan holiday.) Irish immigrants (there’s that “i” word again!) fleeing the 1840′s potato famine took this holiday with them to New England (which already had late October traditions, including pranks such as toppling outhouses.)

As our country’s population has shifted from rural to urban settings, Halloween traditions have shifted from the harvest and bobbing for apples to door-to-door trick or treating (which actually has its modern origins in the 1930′s).

Today, there’s another shift occurring. As parents are (alas) too scared to have their kids go door to door asking strangers for candy, the holiday is looking to becoming more of an adult celebration. And with an adult audience comes a more political view of Halloween – thus, instead of the cute princesses, goblins and witches, we now have more easily offensive “sexy” costumes, political masks, stereotypes and, of course, the “illegal alien.” Is this a bad thing? Does it show the moral decline of our civilization?

The Moral Code and the Right to Be Safe

Everybody wants to be safe. It means you can grow up without being hurt or uncomfortable, both mentally and physically. However, we’re ingrained NOT to expect being safe all the time. We’re still programmed to watch out for lions stalking us outside our caves. But there are no more lions.

The result? We have to subconsciously make up our own fears. Parents believe all neighbors are mass-murderers, so trick or treating is out. Children are no longer allowed to play alone. Terrorists and child abductors are lurking around every corner. Gated communities and massive alarm systems are the norm.

Those of us living a safe, suburban middle-class life want to be scared, if only temporarily. (I certainly do not want an actual lion prowling my front lawn!) Deep inside, most of us wish for our lives to be epic, to be famous or be able to have an evil enemy to do battle with. Why else are Hollywood movies so popular?

Even deeper inside, we sometimes want to lash out at the moral constraints that being safe entails. If everybody is safe, nobody can be uncomfortable, and this means nobody can be offended and hurt. We all have to tread carefully to avoid insulting someone. Can we all restrain ourselves indefinitely? Heck, no! The pressure to be good, inoffensive and docile all the time will build up and eventually burst. We’re all human – none of us is perfect.

Fortunately, there are pressure release valves – violent video games, horror movies, the popularity of the t.v. show House (who offends everybody), the aggression of sports and … I’m finally making my point … the wearing of outrageous costumes.

What Does Halloween Represent Today?

Halloween today looks to be more of a cultural pressure release valve, a day to let off steam (similar to the ancient Roman a href=”http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saturnalia” target=”_blank”>Saturnalia, where social order was reversed and slaves could insult their masters.). After being angry, frightened and weary after 364 days of watching our language, tiptoeing so as to not offend anybody, and fighting over polarizing issues like immigration and health care reform, not to mention worrying about our paycheck and keeping ourselves and our families safe from real and imagined terrors, we have one day to mock, poke fun of and laugh at all these serious issues and things in our lives.

That is why I justify offensive costumes. Every costume will insult somebody. I’ve been insulted more than once, or shook my head at the bad taste or pathetic attire long on the tooth (another pimp and ho? Please!)

However, I don’t believe people wear them to actually be insulting and mean-spirited. It’s an outlet to mock our beliefs and institutions and to laugh at our fears, if just for one night. It allows us to be someone or something we are not, to act as we normally wouldn’t, with the collective knowledge that we don’t mean anybody real harm. For one night, we can prove to ourselves that we are not so crushed under the moral and serious weight of living day to day and paycheck to paycheck that we can’t sometimes throw up our hands and laugh at it all.

The next morning we’re back to our real and imagined fears, helping others out, trying not to upset anybody, and debating serious political and cultural issues. We’ve let off some steam, the tightness around our shoulders are a bit more relaxed, and the offensive and insensitive costumes go back in the closet for another year.

What do you think? Is Halloween a way to let off some steam without harming anybody, or an excuse to insult and offend others?

Sidewalk chalk takes on a whole new look this time of year. Making chalk rubbings on black construction paper gives it a ghostly appearance and can make for some spooky monster shapes! Check out how to create your own as part of your Halloween decor!

Materials Needed

• Sidewalk or other chalk, or crayons
• Construction paper-especially black
• Aerosol hair spray
• Shapes to rub
• Leaves and/or Halloween cut outs
• Textured papers or cloth

This is a simple project that even a 2-year-old can get into and enjoy!

1. Lay your choice of shape on the counter or other hard surface. You can do one shape at a time or lay several out at once. However, we found that leaves get lost in each other if they all get put down together.

2. Lay the construction paper over the shape(s).

3. With the chalk on its long side, begin rubbing. Depending on how distinct each shape is you may have to rub harder or softer.

4. When you are satisfied with your rubbing hold the hair spray at a distance and spray it to hold the chalk in place. If you get it too close, the picture will disappear; but I’m happy to report that, eerily, your picture will return once it dries.

5. If you chose to use crayons you’ll need to be more careful in holding the paper in place because they do not move as smoothly as the chalk does.

Each of these pumpkins was rubbed separately with a single shape. After each pumpkin appeared we moved the pumpkin shape underneath to a different spot:

For the monsters we used grape leaves and then added the eyes after removing the leaf from under the paper. The purple monster is made with a whole leaf, the blue “bat’ was made after I tore the leaf a bit. Some of the shapes we used came from tracing cookie cutters on paper and then cutting out the shape.

You can also find shape inspiration by using Google Images to find clip art of Halloween themes or anything else you can imagine!

These tree-looking rubbings were made with a weed grass that still carried lots of seeds. The seeds gave quite a nice effect. Using different colored chalks and letting them blend together is a nice way to create a deeper visual. We used several different colors of paper, but the most stunning effects were achieved with the black construction paper.

Chalk Rubbings at Your Halloween Party

These chalk rubbings can become a fun game at a party, too! Get a roll of butcher paper (which you can buy in black) and cover your table with it or hang it along the wall. Offer a prize to whoever colors the best leaf or shape or whoever finds the biggest leaf/shape. You can also offer a “booby” prize. At least that’s what we called it when I was a kid: a prize for whoever is furthest from the mark. The idea, of course, is to have a lot of fun!

Heck, another neat idea is to take butcher paper to a graveyard and make rubbings of old gravestones to decorate your house with.

Let your imagination take you through the year with chalk rubbings!

It’s easy to make fog just by dropping dry ice in warm water. The problem is that dry ice is so cold, it actually starts to freeze the water around it, which squelches the fog effect pretty quickly. So how do you keep the water warm for hours? A slow cooker, of course!

First, fill your cooker about halfway with water and turn it on high.

Next, break up your dry ice into manageable chunks. You can get this stuff at your local grocery store – just ask the checker to have someone get it for you. You will need gloves – never ever touch dry ice with your bare hands. It is so cold, it will burn you. Now pick up your hammer to take out your frustrations on the dry ice.

When you have some manageable chunks, carefully drop them in and watch the fog bubble up. Because your home made fog machine works so well, it will gobble up dry ice fairly quickly, so be ready with more chunks.

What you do with your fog machine is up to you. I suggest putting it in a cauldron or a pumpkin with holes in it for the fog to flow out. This is low-floating fog, so if you want fog to flow out the top of a pumpkin, don’t put any holes in the bottom or it will all go that way. Small, single-serving slow cookers can fit in most pumpkins and can be purchased for less than $15 at many retailers.

Please remember not to touch the dry ice, and please crack a window if you run it inside. The dry ice produces a lot of carbon dioxide, which can push out the oxygen in a room and give you a headache. And the best reminder of all is to have fun!