My Dad helped us carve our pumpkins and go trick-or-treating. My Mom cooked us dinner, helped us make our costumes (unless they involved spray painting) and made us pumpkin cookies. Then she cleaned us and the counter and the walls after we got icing everywhere.

I grew up when packs of children still roamed the street, trick-or-treating in the dark, and eating candy without going through security check points. When we were little, though, my Dad always took us trick or treating. He always dressed like a golfer and carried his putter. I think that if he had his way, he would still always dress like a golfer. He does keep a putter and some golf balls in the corner of his office, but I don’t think he gets to use them very often.

My Mom was a good sport and dressed up for my school Halloween parades. I remember one year I was particularly mad because my friend and backyard neighbor dressed up like the Statue of Liberty, just like me. My costume was better, though. My torch had flames, and I wasn’t green. Some years, my sister and I would dress as a tag-team. My favorite was Strawberry Shortcake, and she was my cat, Custard. I thoroughly enjoyed ordering her around.

When I got old enough to make my own costumes, I got more elaborate, not less. My favorite was the dinosaur. I volunteered at the Children’s Museum of Indianapolis, and we had these great people there helping kids make humongous masks. I made a dinosaur mask, and then made a tail out of an old pair of sweat pants. I was in seventh grade. Everybody else dressed up like princesses or Billy Joel or something.

My senior year in college, I dressed up as “Tigress Woods” and walked around campus all day in my old pair of golf shoes. I had tigger ears from Disney World, and I wore an orange shirt with tiger strips on it—over which I wore my Nike sleeveless golf shirt. I painted my face, wore a tail, and khakis and golf shoes. I carried around my 7 iron. I’m not sure if anyone really got it, but I had fun! I’ve always loved puns.

I can’t wait to have kids of my own one day so that we get to dress up and go trick-or-treating!

Isn’t there another way?

Traditionally decorated pumpkins - usually consisting of two round or triangular eyes, a nose and a mouth with just a few teeth - are a fun and familiar pick. But there’s more than one way to dress a naked pumpkin. Try something brand-new this year for a look that’ll make your house the best Halloween pick in the neighborhood!

For the Birds

You Will Need:

• One small or medium-size pumpkin
• Decorative black-feathered birds
• Decorative pumpkin tendrils
• Black spray paint
• Glue gun (with one stick glue) or instant-bond glue
• Cutting or digging tool
• Paint or glitter if desired

This idea is eerie, yet deceptively simple. You will need a small- to medium-size pumpkin (pie pumpkins work great!) A pumpkin with a slightly flattish bottom is ideal; the fruit should be able to stand upright without being propped up. Purchase decorative blackbirds, ravens or crows and decorative pumpkin tendrils (curled strips) from your local crafts store or flower shop. Buy a small can of black spray paint from any retail store.

Spray paint the tendrils black; allow to dry. Glue the crows to the outside of the pumpkin, arranging them so that a few are “pecking” at the pumpkin’s skin. Attach the tendrils to the stem of the pumpkin with glue. Decorate the rest of your pumpkin in paint or glitter with a catchy saying if desired.

Slithering Snakes

You Will Need:

• One medium or large pumpkin
• Novelty rubber or plastic snakes
• Carving tool
• Scooping tool
• Battery-powered pumpkin light

Turn your pumpkin over and carve a circle into its bottom, slightly smaller than the circumference; remove. (Alternatively, you can cut a top out of your pumpkin; however, cutting the bottom creates a seamless look and prevents the pumpkin top from falling in as it shrinks over time.)

Scoop out seeds and pulp and scrape carefully.

Turn the pumpkin right-side up and carve eyes, nose and a gaping mouth. Try for a frightened or disgusted expression on your pumpkin’s “face”. Place your light source securely in the pumpkin’s bottom. Because any added materials can pose a potential fire hazard, we recommend a battery-powered or electric plug-in light rather than a burnable wick candle.

Place the carved top over the cut bottom, then situate the novelty snakes so that they are slithering out of the eye sockets, nose and mouth. Sit back and enjoy the reactions!

Eerie Black-and-Orange Pumpkin

You Will Need:

• One pumpkin (any size)
• Carving tool
• Scooping tool
• Black spray paint
• Halloween stencil, if desired

Spray paint your pumpkin black; allow to dry completely. Carve the pumpkin, using tips shown above (see “Slithering Snakes”). Be careful not to nick the spray-painted skin; if you do, just cut a bit farther outward, or touch-up carefully with more paint or a black magic marker.

Your best look for this ghoulish gourd is a traditionally scary carving; try a frightened black cat, sinister tombstone or a witch flying past a crescent moon. Carve freehand, or use a Halloween stencil. When lit, the black will contrast spookily with the pumpkin’s orange insides.

Black Widow Web

You Will Need:

• One pumpkin (any size)
• Carving tool
• Scooping tool
• Black paint or black permanent magic marker
• Novelty toy spider
• Crafts glue

Because you won’t be carving or cutting into this pumpkin, it should last quite a while if kept outdoors in cool to cold weather. Draw or paint a spider’s web on the outside of the pumpkin; using the stem as your point of reference, paint lines out, down and back up again at intervals from the stem center. Now paint lines vertically at intervals, connecting the web.

Use your crafts glue to attach the spider to the web. You’ll be sure to startle (and delight!) any trick-or-treaters that come to your door.

This gelatin concoction is great for kids’ parties. It is fun and simple for kids to make. The result is a festive, colorful presentation and a combination of flavors and textures that is completely delectable. It looks gross, but isn’t that the point?

Ingredients

• 1 package orange flavored gelatin
• 1 small package of whipped topping
• 1 package of chocolate pudding
• 1 package of thin chocolate cookies
• 1 package of rectangle shaped vanilla or shortbread cookies
• 1 package of gummy worms
• Tubes of decorator frosting (the kind you write with)- optional
• 1 glass 13×9 in baking dish

Prepare gelatin according to package instructions (if you are impatient, use the quick set instructions). Pour into the bottom of the glass baking dish. Add some gummy worms and refrigerate until completely congealed.

While waiting for gelatin, crush the chocolate cookies between pieces of wax paper or rind them in the blender or food processor (this will be your dirt). Set aside.

Prepare the pudding according to the package directions and cool in the refrigerator.

Take the rectangle cookies and use the decorator frosting to write graveyard sayings on the top half of the cookie (the short sides being the top and bottom) such as “RIP” and “Here Lies Crazy Joe”. Decorate 12 cookies. Set on cookie sheets to allow the frosting to dry.

Once the gelatin is completely ready, remove from the refrigerator. Add a layer of shipped topping on top of the gelatin neatly scraping the excess of the sides of the pan to create a layer equal in thickness to the gelatin and as even as possible on top. Then add a layer of chocolate pudding the same way.

You should now have 3 layers that look even through the sides of the glass pan. On top of the pudding, sprinkle the crushed cookies to make a layer about 1/4 inch in thickness. Decorate by sticking the gravestones (the cookies you decorated) into the top so that the decorated part sticks out. Starting on the short end of the baking dish, make 4 rows of 3 gravestones, so that when you cut it, each person gets a gravestone on his piece. Sprinkle the top with the remaining gummy worms. If you wish, you may also add other gross candy (like eyeballs) that you find in a novelty or Halloween store.

Serve chilled by cutting into equal squares. Serves 12.

About 600 residents call Keene Valley home during the fall/winter months. The summer population is closer to 2,000, as the summer people descend on their “camps.” Everybody knows everybody. Anyone new is eyed with suspicion—more so if it is dark, cold, and rainy, and the new people are sitting at the end of their driveway.

Our wedding was scheduled for November 13, 2004 in Indianapolis, Indiana. I had moved over to Keene Valley from Middlebury, Vermont in July to cut the hour and a half commute from my apartment to my job to visit my fiancée. Though I was not yet married, by September I was already elbow-deep in housewifery. Mostly, that meant subjecting my patient husband to be to all of my family traditions, strange though they are—especially for someone whose family did not really have many traditions.

Halloween Family Traditions

We started with a marathon baking session. Pumpkin cookies! I opened bags of M&Ms and red hots and screwed decorating tips onto store-bought tubes of icing. “Decorate!” I commanded. And we decorated and decorated. The pumpkin cookie recipe makes about 50 cookies as big as your hand, and I was bound and determined to decorate each of them with flair and originality. Each of us took a large Tupperware to work the next day, and we still had about 30 left to eat.

The next family tradition of mine that I have never, ever heard anyone come remotely close to in strangeness is spaghetti in a pumpkin. We have had spaghetti in a pumpkin every single year since I can remember. My dad would always clean out a giant pumpkin, and help remove the extra racks from the oven while my mom cooked spaghetti to put inside the pumpkin along with spaghetti sauce. We never called it anything interesting like “pumpkin brains.” We just called it spaghetti in a pumpkin. We usually toasted the pumpkin seeds to eat.

I can’t really figure out why we created this monsterous mess, because once the spaghetti was cooked, we put it in the pumpkin, and put the pumpkin in the oven for about an hour, then took it out and ate it, and that was the end of that. Sometimes we had company over, sometimes we did not. I’ve seen many people take chips and dip in a cute little hollowed out sugar pie pumpkin to a Halloween party, but never spaghetti in a pumpkin.

Far be it for me to leave out this grand tradition, even though we had no counter space, and a very small oven. I handed the pumpkin, the knife and a giant spoon to my fiancée and said “Hollow this!” I made the spaghetti. The novelty of the enterprise was mostly in me taking pictures of him in each stage of pumpkindom. This was before blogs, or I probably would have posted them. Our lives were not yet that complicated, so we still had time to do such things.

Awaiting the Trick or Treaters - At the End of a Cold, Dark Driveway!

After spaghetti in a pumpkin, we had to carve our own pumpkins. I think we made one say Happy Halloween. I can’t remember the other. We lived above a barn-like garage at the end of a 1/4 mile gravel driveway with no lights. So, in order to have trick-or-treaters, we had to pile our jack-o-lanterns and folding chairs into the wheelbarrow and wheel them to the end of the driveway. There, in the cold drizzle of a mountain Halloween, we sat with our bowl of candy.

It gets dark early in the mountains in October, and soon it was pitch black. Roving packs of children wandered the circle of streets that make up the town. Each time someone came near us, we would shine our flashlights from our chin up to our faces to look ghoulish. More often than not, the parent would ask if we needed help. We would then say, “No, we just live at the end of the driveway—in Lew and Bridget’s place” and they would start chatting with us. So much for being scary!

I think we were more frightened of walking back up our driveway in the dark after our flashlights gave out. And that was our memorable first Halloween together.

Steven sipped his coffee, his kitchen forgotten as he stared out of the picture window. It was best to start long days early, but to forget to stop and see the world was a sin he would no longer commit. Had not Julia accused him of such? The coffee was bitter without sugar. Only the kitchen clock broke the morning silence.

With a sigh he checked his watch. It was time to start; he threw back the last of the bitter aromatic liquid. The garbage bag waiting by the kitchen door brought another sigh. It was the little things you miss, he realized. Not the arguing, the yelling; not the long conversations, but the constant sense of another in the house. The lingering scent in the washroom, flowers on the table, the gentle touch of her hand as she passed him in the hall. The smell of bread, the sound of her breathing at night, her scent on the pillows…

Opening the door he swung the bag up and walked into his yard. It took his mind a moment to register the dark thing that appeared in front of him as a gun. Yes, a gun, he told himself. He turned to the man holding it, mouth opening but no words came out.

“Inside, now.” The Man with the Gun hissed.

Steven stepped back, the bag falling from his hand. He tried to speak but no sounds came from his open mouth; behind the Man with the Gun, two more shapes appeared huddled together. As Steven backed through the open door, they followed him into the house

“Back up Doc! Back!” The Gun rose higher, the barrel a black hole.

“Ento, ent, bugs, bugs,” Steven tried to see around the gun’s muzzle, it consumed his world. An event horizon with it’s black hole, his death its centre.

“What?” The voice behind the gun was louder as Steven fell into a dinning room chair.

“Bugs! I work on bugs, I’m an entomologist. I work with bugs!” How here? This was a private community! This didn’t happen in Manitoba. Gated! Everything was locked down, secure! What could the Man with the Gun want? Drugs! “I don’t have any drugs!”

The other two shapes had huddled through the door and now the smaller one had flowed into the chair opposite him; while the other’s dirty hands closed the door. Steven jumped at the sound of the first bolt being driven home. He’d never noticed the sound of the other locks being so loud, so final. As the dirty hands touched the last bolt, he tore his eyes away from the black metal, grimy fingers slid the shiny steel home. The room was silent but for distant ticking and clicking. He could read the entire logo of the security company next to the locks.

He saw the shape opposite him now. Not something formless, but a person, a young person.

“She’s hurt!” The Man with the Gun shoved Steven toward her.

A girl, Steven blinked, sliding to his knees. The girl pulled back a grimy sweatshirt. Dirty rags encrusted with dark stains encircled her forearm.

“I have a first aid kit,” Steven looked up at the Man with the Gun. “Under the sink. I’ll need it.”

The Man with the Gun motioned the one who’d locked the door. Steven looked back at the girl. Under the filth and soiled hoody she was what fourteen, fifteen?

“Where?”

Steven looked over at the crouching boy by the sink. The doors were open showing boxes of cleaners, a container of pot scrubbers, a box of garbage bags and attached to the door the white and red first aide kit. The boy looked blankly at all the boxes.

“Where?” the boy repeated. He started pounding the flooring, “Where! Where! Where!”

“David! Shut up!” the Man with the Gun snarled, the gun bouncing about Steven’s head as he watched the hand tighten its grip.

“Please! It’s the white box on the door.” Steven started to stand up but the Man with the Gun pushed him hard.

“He’s not stupid!”

Steven went down hard, cracking his head on the table. He looked into dark eyes, cold dark eyes.

“No, no,” Steven breathed as the gun locked onto him, dead centre on his chest. “No, he’s not stupid.”

“Here,” David put the box on the table. He seemed to loose interest as he strolled to the buffet and looked through the glass doors.

“Get up and help her, now,” the Man with the Gun’s voice was very low, his mouth tight.

Steven got up and moved closer to the girl. He should have done something, he thought, he should have done something when the Man with the Gun was distracted. He motioned to the girl.

“You need to take that off. The bandages.” The girl looked down at her arm. Steven noticed how shiny her eyes were. Touching her hot skin, he started chewing his lip. Undoing the rags released the order of rot. He realized that much of the black on her hand wasn’t dirt. Peeling back the last of the rags he looked away. Steven covered his mouth and tried not to gag.

“It’s infected. Badly, she needs to go to a hospital.”

“Very funny, you’re a comedian. My medical insurance has expired.” The Man with the Gun leaned close. “I know who you are, Doctor Steven Eberius.”

Steven heart took his ability to speak away. “I don’t understand. I don’t know you, I can’t help her.”

“University of Manitoba. I was in your graduating class of 2008, don’t remember? I must have changed some over the years.” The Man with the Gun took a step back. “But you haven’t changed a bit. That gene therapy’s pretty expensive. How you managing that?”

The Man with the Gun crossed his arms and tapped the gun against his face. “Haven’t seen that pretty wife of yours around, have we David, Emily? No, not a trace. Not even at Services.”

Steven looked from the Man with the Gun to Emily; there was a resemblance there. His sister? His daughter?

“So here’s the joke doc, tell if you’ve heard this one before, Emily was-”

A scream turned them all toward the hall. David let out a second cry as he ran into the kitchen and hugged the Man with the Gun.

“Butterflies! Butterflies!” he pointed toward the living room.

“Shh, David, shhh. The doctor is going to show us,” the Man with the Gun hugged the boy. He motioned Steven to get up and lead the way.

Steven tried to think, to remember. Class of 08’ seemed a lifetime ago. Was a lifetime ago. Had the Man with the Gun been watching him? His house? Where was the security hired to keep him safe?

They stepped into a short hall; to the right was once the family room, now his office. The vaulted ceilings had the height for the cages holding the delicate insects and the vegetation they needed within. Each cage had insects at different life stages.

“Monarchs,” whispered the Man with the Gun. “Monarchs!”

Wonder appeared on his face making the years drop away, still, Steven couldn’t place him. As the Man with the Gun stepped closer, David hugged him again and tried to hold him back.

“David, these are real butterflies, real ones! They can’t hurt you like the ones outside.” He looked down at the boy. “Its okay. Do you remember when you were little and we’d go to the park with Emily and Mom?”

The boy looked up at his father, eyes tearing. “Mom’s gone. The butterflies got her. Will Emily die?”

The Man with the Gun hugged the boy tight. “You’re right, we need to tend to your sister.”

He turned back to Steven. “You save Emily, or you die.”

Steven felt his heart speed up again. “She needs a hospital, the infection is spreading.”

“She was bit by a Pog at around midnight. So if you don’t want to take a walk in Assiniboine Park…” the Man with the Gun waited, letting understanding sink in.

“No,” Steven shuddered. Definitely not the park… “I have some stuff in my desk, anti-venom. It also has a powerful anti-viral and antibiotic dose…it might work.”

“Let’s hope so,” the Man with the Gun’s smile was as hard as his eyes. “Get it.”

Steven opened his desk drawer and was pushed aside. The Man with the Gun looked inside then took out the white and red emergency kit. He stepped back and opened it, quickly reading the instructions.

As he read, Steven leaned onto his computer table and squeezed the buzzer sitting by the mouse pad.

“Okay, give it to her.” The Man with the Gun said, tossing the pack to Steven.

They went back into the kitchen. Steven gulped. The girl was now slumped on the table. The Man with the Gun stood next to her.

“Emily,” he whispered into her hair. “The doctor’s going to give you something. He’s going to help you.”

Emily opened her eyes and smiled faintly. She was quite pretty, Steven realized as he opened the syringe package and taking her clean arm gave her the injection. Her eyes looked at the packaging.

“It says I’ll need probiotics, what’s that?” Emily asked.

“Don’t worry about it right now, Emily,” the Man with the Gun said.

“Look! Pretty!”

Steven turned to see David pulling a picture from behind the buffet and hutch. The enlargement showed Steven receiving his Lifetime Achievement Award for his Stars and Stripes Butterfly. An inset showed a close-up of the butterfly and across the bottom the embossed words, ‘with love, for my Butterfly Man from your loving wife, Julia.’

Steven felt his chest tighten at the picture…Julia. David had pulled off the bow that had caught his attention, letting the picture drop.

“You bastard!” The Man with the Gun stepped around the table. He picked up the picture, staring at it, his eyes wide, “You! You killed my wife! You killed my brother! You started this…do you realize you’ve killed millions?”

He flung the picture aside, “What gave you the right!”

The Man with the Gun stepped forward, then jerked. He screamed, dropping the weapon, and seemed to be dancing. The door behind Steven burst open and security personnel overran them. The Man with the Gun was grabbed and dragged along with David and Emily out of the house.

“Are you okay, sir?” One of the guards said as he helped Steven up.

“Yes, thank you, I’m fine,” Steven took a deep breath. “What, what will happen now?”

“We’re checking them for contamination, sir,” the security officer said as Steven followed them out. Lying on his lawn, the man seemed small now, but still not familiar. The girl, Emily, cried out as they handcuffed her wrists. The boy, David, was still kicking and fighting, but a zap took most of the fight out of him.

Behind them the dead maples stood branchless; the crews had already started taking the old trees down. The recycling truck’s chipper shredder ate the branches as fast as they could be fed into it. The workers darted glances at the security guards.

Near him a voice was talking. Steven blinked away the sight of the dead trees and looked at the security guards.

“The boy’s neurally challenged. It’s developmental plus he’s infected,” the man shrugged.

“No! No!” The man who had held Steven hostage screamed until they zapped him. He moaned as the guard next to his son hit the boy with a club across the back of the head.

“You there, we have recycling here,” the Captain called to the tree trimming crew. Four of them walked over and took the boy’s body. Steven looked away, but he heard the chipper shredder’s engine work hard for a moment.

“Don’t worry, Doctor Eberius, we’ll send a clean up crew to make sure your home is disinfected. Do you wish to sponsor any of them, sir?”

Steven turned to the security guard, momentarily confused, “Sponsor?”

“They were seized on your property. They’re not registered persons. Do you want to keep either one? Otherwise we sell them to the lab. Spilt the commission, of course.”

“Right, I’m sorry, I…” Steven focused on Emily a moment. “Yes, the girl. Send me her clean up costs and I’ll keep her.”

“Yes, Doctor. Blessings of fortune on you and happy birthday.”

Steven realized they were waiting for something…right the response. What was it? Right, “Thank you and a blessing of security to you and yours.”

* * *

Steven entered his home, under his arm another award, this time for corporate earnings. The luncheon had been not just to celebrate his birthday, but his long record of biogenetic innovation. He placed the plaque on the kitchen table and allowed himself a sip of his twenty-year-old Canadian Club Whiskey.

The house’s quiet was a welcome relief from the noise and questions of those attending the banquet, too many asking about the incident. The quiet was nice.

Quiet, very quiet. Steven turned; the kitchen clock had stopped. Checking his watch, he headed to his workspace.

Emily sat in the middle of the room. Around her butterflies danced, some landing for a moment on her arms or knees only to flutter off.

“Emily, what are you doing out here?” Steven stepped forward.

Emily turned toward the sound of his voice. Her once dark eyes were milky now and sightless. Her arms and legs had developed red welts from the injections and bites. Steven didn’t doubt that the neurotoxin inhibitors were playing havoc with her immune system. But he was under contract; after all, how many people tried reproduction without the proper permits? Without paying the patent fees?

Steven looked at the Monarch Butterflies. They were his. Without patent protection where would he be?

“Well, lets get you off to bed,” Steven muttered. Perhaps he’d have to take on an assistant, but where would he find someone qualified? Someone who wouldn’t try to steal his work?

Emily didn’t resist him as he pulled her to her feet. She surprised him by reaching up and touching his face.

‘Mmm,’ she said softly. Steven leaned forward.

“I’m sorry, what was that?”

Emily opened her mouth. Steven pulled back but not fast enough. The red, white and blue butterfly launched itself. He struggled to bring up his arms, but she was surprisingly strong. The butterfly’s bite burned his cheek, then his neck.

He kicked out, freeing himself even as the pain flowed from the bites. He tried to scream as he pulled himself to the desk. His right hand spasmed but he managed to open the drawer — it was empty.

He flipped onto his side as he lost control of his body. Emily had crawled to the window. Steven watched her, trying to focus on what she had in her hand. He saw the white and red box drop to the floor as she reached for the clasp.

“No,” he gasped. The open window seemed to draw them. They flew from the room into the darkening sky. Their black and orange wings vanished into the coming night.

“No,” Steven gasped, “No, they’re mine.”

The spasms ended with his heart.

About the Author

T. Masters-Heinrichs has been writing cross genre and regular genre fiction for years. Co-authored the 10 story anthology, ‘Don’t Worry, It’s Just the Wind’ with Eric McKinnon ,which is out this October. First novel, “Blood Is Black In Moonlight” is expected out by or before December 2008. Doesn’t swim too well for someone whose lived their entire life by the shore …

Favourite authors include Neal Stevenson “Snowcrash”, Jim Butcher “Dresden Files”, and the creators and writers of the ‘Firefly’ series, Joss Whedon and ‘Babylon 5’ series, J. Michael Straczynki.

Dressed to Kill

One way to get your guests involved in (and excited about!) your party is to invite them to dress as their favorite horror movie characters. Guests can dress as individual monsters, horror film good guys (such as one of the two priests in The Exorcist or Arnold Schwarzenegger‘s character in Predator), or even entire scenes. Encourage your invitees to get their creative juices flowing. The results are sure to thrill, chill…and possibly even make you chuckle.

Be sure to buy or make trophies for “Scariest Costume,” “Most Original Costume Idea” and any other category you’d like to see at your party. (Give your guests a heads-up that there will be awards by having the information printed on their invitations.) In addition to a small trophy, you can hand out movie theater tickets, horror DVD or other goodies as awards.

Home Theater

Decorate the party area to imitate an old-fashioned movie or stage theater. Age some movie posters (easy and often very cheap to find; try online auctions or poster companies) by crinkling and then unfolding them, then arrange them on the walls of the party area. For an added movie theater-like effect, have spotlights across or near your movie posters. These are simple to make; simply cover flashlights with cardboard tubes painted black (leaving the lighted ends exposed). Place colored bulbs in the flashlights and set them up so that the lights cross one another.

A great place to set up your spotlights is near your haunt’s entrance, so that your guests are “in the spotlight” as they enter. Or have them point upward to illuminate your movie posters. Hang artificial spider webs in the corners of your posters and between them for additional spookiness.

Mood Music

Music immediately sets the mood when guests are arriving, so be sure to choose tunes that are all about movies, monsters and magic spells. Look for background music or musical artists that fit in with your party theme. “Werewolves of London “(Warren Zevon), “Spooky” (The Zombies), “Ghost Busters (Ray Parker, Jr.),“ “Weird Science (Oingo Boingo),” “Witchy Woman“ (The Eagles), “The Time Warp” (from the Rocky Horror Picture Show) and the immediately recognizable themes from Halloween and The Exorcist are all great choices.

Another idea is to have favorite horror movies running in your DVD player as a background mood-setter; keep the sound somewhat down, as movie voices and action tend to be more distracting than music.

Freaky Foods

For monster-and movie-related snacks, try a few creative ideas:

• Wrap croissant dough strips crosswise over mini cocktail franks for “mummies in a blanket” (The Mummy, 1932, 1959 and 1999).
• Lady “fingers” with “fingernails” made of slivered almonds are both tasty and creepy; use any cookie dough rolled and elongated to look like a finger (The Silence of the Lambs, 1991).
• And of course, you’ll want some “blood punch”, made with any red-colored juice, at the center of your table; buy a novelty hospital blood bag online or at a Halloween store and have the “catheter” leading to the bowl (Dracula, 1931 and 1958 and Bram Stoker’s Dracula, 1992).

You can also continue the movie theme with orange colored movie popcorn–add three drops of yellow food coloring and one drop of red food coloring to some oil or butter and toss well, then place in movie theater-style bags.

Your horror movie theme decorations, treats and background sounds are limited only by your own creativity. Watch a few horror favorites in advance of your party for more ideas, or ask a few friends. They’ll be thrilled to get in on the action - and to receive the credit for their own ideas at your very special Halloween bash.

Not only is this cake simple and fun to make but you will find yourself using this very easy chocolate dump cake for all of your recipes. It is almost as simple as a mix, yet it turns out a moist, rich chocolate cake that will have everyone asking for more!

Ingredients

For the Halloween cake

• 1 cup of boiling water
• 1 stick of softened butter (cut into pieces)
• 1/2 cup of cocoa
• 2 cups of sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 pinch of salt
• 1 1/2 teaspoons of baking soda dissolved in 1/2 cup of milk
• 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract

For marshmallow frosting

• 2 egg whites (reserve shells)
• 1/4 teaspoon of salt
• 1 teaspoon of vanilla
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 3/4 cup of light corn syrup

Utensils

• Pastry brush
• 1 13×9x2 inch baking pan
• Large mixer bowl
• Electric mixer
• Rubber scraper
• Toothpicks
• Wire cooling rack
• 16×12 inch serving tray or breadboard covered with aluminum foil
• Ruler
• Wax paper
• 2 sugar cubes
• 1 teaspoon lemon extract
• Sharp knife
• Spatula
• 1 string of black licorice

Preheat oven to 325 degrees

Prepare baking pan

Rip off a piece of wax paper a few inches greater than the size of the pan. Use a knife or half of your kitchen shears to trace around the bottom of the pan. Cut the wax paper along the traced out line.

Grease the sides and bottom of the pan with shortening. Lay the wax paper on the bottom of the pan.
Grease the wax paper. Sprinkle some cocoa (not what you have measured for the recipe) in the pan and shake the pan until the cocoa covers the bottom and the sides (you may also use flour, but the cocoa is better for chocolate cakes).

Into a mixing bowl, dump boiling water, butter pieces, cocoa, sugar, flour, eggs, salt, baking soda and milk mixture, and vanilla. Beat with electric mixer for 3 minutes. Pour into greased baking pan. Bake for 30-35 minutes or until a knife comes clean and cake pulls away from the sides of the pan.

Allow cake to cool for 5 minutes in the pan and then completely on the wire rack before frosting.

To make the marshmallow frosting

Beat egg whites and salt with electric mixer until soft peaks form. Add sugar, about 1 teaspoon at a time beating until smooth and glossy. Continue beating and add corn syrup a little at a time, beating after each addition until the frosting peaks. Fold in vanilla. This recipe makes enough to cover a large cake.

Assembly

After the cake is cool, measure across one short edge and mark the center with a wooden toothpick. Measure 4 inches down each long edge and mark with picks.

Cut the cake between the center wooden picks in a curve to make a rounded top for the ghost’s head. Slide the cut corners down the sides to about the center of the cake. Turn the corners so the cut sides are up, to make arms that look as if they are reaching out to you. Attach the arms to the sides of the cake using some of the frosting (or royal icing if you have it handy). Frost the cake with the spatula. Use the round end of the spatula to make peaks in the frosting to give the ghost a spookier look.

Place the 2 egg shell halves you reserved round sides down on the cake for the eyes. Place one sugar cube in each shell half. Make a mouth out of licorice string.

Just before serving, pour ½ teaspoon of lemon extract over each sugar cube. Light the eyes.

Remember to turn off the lights- it will be spooky!

However, if you are having a party, or having the neighbors and their kids over for dinner before or after trick-or-treating, it is a pretty spectacular sight! I have never met anyone else who makes this delightful dish for Halloween. It is a true original.

We never called it anything except for spaghetti in a pumpkin; however, Halloween is so fun and dramatic, that I think it deserves another name. If you etch a face into the side of the pumpkin, this dish can definitely be called “Pumpkin Brains.” That is much grosser and Halloween-ish!

Ingredients

• 1 Large pumpkin (small enough to fit in your oven)
• 1 lb of spaghetti
• 1 jar of spaghetti sauce

Instructions

Hollow out the pumpkin. Cut a large opening in the top—larger than you usually would cut for jack-o-lanterns. Save the seeds to roast. Use a knife to etch a face into the side of the pumpkin, but do not cut all of the way through, as the spaghetti will fall out!

Cook the spaghetti, drain and stir in the sauce. Pour the spaghetti mixture into the pumpkin, and cook the pumpkin on a cookie sheet with sides in the oven for about 45 minutes at 350 degrees. (The pumpkin will get a little bit juicy as it cooks.) Serve with garlic bread carved into the shape of hands!

Save the pumpkin seeds from the pumpkin. Clean them as well as you can. Then toss in olive oil and salt and spread on a cooking sheet. Roast at 400 degrees for ten minutes or so until brown. They will be VERY HOT when they come out of the oven, so you will want to wait a bit before eating. You can serve these as “Pumpkin Teeth!”

Halloween is a time of magic, making a sorcerer’s costume the perfect pick. But there’s more than one way to wave a wand. Famous wizards have their own distinctive looks, giving you plenty of options. Try a classic or contemporary enchanter outfit and express your personality behind your beard this Halloween.

The Basics of the Wizard’s Costume

The standard “wizard” look is well known and easy to identify. Wizards in classic fiction - including books, movies and oral tradition - nearly always sport a long, white beard, a robe (often with stars or other decorations) and some sort of cap, typically of the pointy persuasion. We’ll get into modifications in a moment, but for now, let’s concentrate on the basics of the typical wizard costume. From there, you can go in the direction you want to create the perfect wizard costume for you.

The best wizard costumes start with a beard. Technically, a beard isn’t absolutely necessary, but if you don’t mind the feel of it around your face, this addition is one of the gold standards for the sorcerer look. Costume beards come in either glue-on, tie or elastic versions. Glued artificial hair is the most realistic, but it’s time-consuming, so be sure you have the patience before committing to this costume embellishment.

You will want to test the glue on an inconspicuous part of your body (for example, the inner arm) 48 hours before applying the adhesive to your facial skin; if you have any reaction at all, including redness, itchiness or pain, buy an elastic banded beard instead. Important: Never use any type of glue except one that states specifically that it is for use on skin and is hypoallergenic.

Hats are another standard feature of the wizard legend. Pointed sorcerer hats can be found at any costume shop around Halloween time, and are often inexpensive to buy. However, if you prefer, you can make your own. Measure your head for the hat’s size, then staple two pieces of flexible cardboard or oak tag together and roll into a cone shape the same number of inches as your head measurement; staple closed. Cut a hole the size of the cone’s opening into another piece of cardboard and cut circularly around it. Tape the cone and cap brim together firmly. Now coat the entire outside of the hat with a strong glue and cover the hat with a satiny material. Cut off excess material and glue flat, making the seam as invisible as possible.

The cloak or tunic will probably be the most expensive part of your costume, but it needn’t break your bank. Consider buying a plain tunic in a light color (for example, the basis of an angel or monk costume) and dyeing it a deep and mysterious color. Purple and midnight blue are two favorites for wizard costumes. If your tunic has a base color (such as beige, light blue, red or yellow), be sure that it will combine with your dye to create the end result you want. Try dying a brilliant gold over pale yellow or covering tan completely with deepest royal purple. Black dye works over any base color. Consult an online color chart if you’re not sure what dye color to purchase.

Which Wizard are You?

Now it’s time to pick your wizard (or to use some combination of these to create your very own look). A few of Hollywood and literature’s favorite wizards include:

• The Classic Wizard. He (or she!) stands with a crystal ball in one hand and a short wand in the other, ready to make merry or mischief at a moment’s notice. Try a sky-blue, rope-belted cloak decorated with glue-on stars, a gold colored hat and a silver wand. For your scrying ball, look for something plastic; it’s easier to carry, and safer, than glass.
• Merlin. Arthur’s confidante and the sage of ancient Britain, Merlin lives in our hearts as the wisest magician of them all. As Merlin, you’ll be regal in a long white cloak and a garland of oak leaves or mistletoe; also carry a staff (decorate a cheap dowel from the hardware store and attach a “crystal” or stone to the top with glue or a thin strip of leather).
• Gandalf. The children’s - and adults’ - classic Lord of the Rings trilogy is full of characters we all love, and Gandalf tops many a devotee’s list. Gandalf wears a gray tunic and sometimes a cloak; both are tied with strips of fabric. His hat is often depicted comically tilted downward at the tip, showing that this book and movie magician is ever the rebel. Like Merlin, Gandalf carries a staff, usually at least his own height. For safety’s sake, you can go a bit shorter if you prefer. For Gandalf, the hanging gray beard is an absolute essential–yes, even if you‘re a woman.
• Harry Potter. Harry Potter burst onto the book scene in 1997 and stole our hearts immediately. Luckily for Rowling fans, his character is easy to recreate. Harry wears a long black robe, a white collared shirt, a striped tie and round “owl” glasses. This fabled character is so well known that not only children but grown men - and women as well - can be seen on Halloween dressed as the student sorcerer!

Other less traditional but definitively magical enchanters include Star Wars’ Obi Wan Kenobi, who mentored both Anakin Skywalker and his son Luke; the corrupt Saruman of Lord of the Rings; and Count Duku, also of Star Wars fame. All can be fun choices depending upon your personality type. One thing’s for sure: with a few simple costume pieces and a modification or two, this year you’ll have a costume that’s sure to enchant others on Halloween.

Ok groovy gang, you’re going to love this! It is our dream as Halloweeners to increase storage no matter how we decorate or celebrate our holiday, and my storage got a boost on my latest trip to Michaels. I spotted an unfinished House CD Holder for just $5.99!

Gang, I got ya covered with this dual-purpose haunted house display case that turns into a Halloween Music/Soundtrack/Roomscape holder after Halloween. I plan on using my CD holder all year since I constantly listen to Midnight Syndicate. Oh, and this is another way I can display Halloween collectables or miniatures during October.

Can you see your own items in this display? I can feel it . . . shocked and excited, aren’t you? I know I was, and I happy to say that this project is an inexpensive, simple project that anyone can do. Here we go!

Supply list:

• House-shaped CD Holder (I got mine from Michaels)
• Black poster board for your shingles
• Acrylic Paint (I used black, gray and white)
• Several different sized paint brushes
• Scissors
• Black Ultra Fine Sharpie Marker
• Sandpaper (100 grit)
• Quick dry craft glue
• Dry, soft rag
• Furnishings for the inside

Getting Started

Sand the whole house inside and out. Take a dry, soft rag and wipe off all the surfaces, being careful not to get sawdust on your roofing supplies or paint.

The poster board will be your shingles, so matching the color (mine is black), paint a fourth of an inch stripe around the edges of the roof, around the chimney and the eaves of the roof. Paint it the same color of your shingles so that the unpainted part of the roof won’t show under your shingles later.

Paint the chimney your desired color now as well, because then it doesn’t matter if you accidently drop paint on the roof, because the shingles will cover everything. (I learned this the hard way, oops!) I painted my chimney white and made random rock shapes in dark gray paint. Take the fine point Sharpie and draw cobwebs and dangling spiders onto the painted chimney. The Sharpie makes it easier to draw small items.

Making Poster Board Shingles

The vertical width of my roof measures 6 5/8 inches. Cut 22 strips of poster board that measure 6 5/8″ x 1″. Mark one strip of poster board 6 5/8″ - the length of the roof - and cut the rest of the strips. Bag up the scraps in case you need them later and turn the strips over.

Mark the strips with small “v’s” and cut a small notch out, being careful to not cut them apart. You can make many different shapes of shingles, but this is the easiest, especially if you don’t want to spend a lot of time measuring each notch or trying to do half circles freehand. I used eleven strips of shingles on each side of the roof, but you can make yours larger and use fewer shingles if you want. I think the small shingles look better.

Now take your fast-drying craft glue and put a thin strip on the side of the poster board strip where you marked the notches, so you’ll have the unblemished side showing on the roof. Start gluing the stripes of shingles on the bottom of the roof and let the shingles hang over the roof just a tad.

Now go up toward the top of the roof, but be careful as you go. It’s important to keep the rows of shingles evenly spaced and in a straight line, or it’ll look goofy when you reach the top. I often have someone else come in and look at the roof and ask the person if it’s straight just to be sure the rows are even.

Now cut a thin strip to fold over the apex of the house so the edges of the shingle strips won’t show. Only make it wide enough to fold over a bit on each side and be careful with the glue! Just a dab will do so you won’t have it run onto the shingles and be visible. You need to hold the ridge row strip in place until it dries but that should only take a few seconds because there is very little glue.

House Painter Wanted

Grab a larger paint or sponge brush and start painting both floors inside the house. I suggest that you paint it a lighter color so your furnishings will stand out more. Give both floors two coats and let them dry completely between coats. Take your time when you paint the windows and check the outside often to make sure you don’t have any drips.

Now it’s time to paint the rest of the outside of the house with your base coat. First, carefully paint the window sills on the outside of the house. I decided to use black on the trim so it’d match the roof, and dark gray for the base coat because it’ll better show the details I plan on adding later.

Let all this dry before moving on. It’s way too easy to stick your hand in wet or tacky paint because you really can’t be sure all of it is completely dry.

Details Details and Oh More Oh More Ah . . . Details

I like to add details all over the house because I think they take this project from a typical homespun craft to a real project. Eeeewwwww! I hate happy cutesy little crafty stuff!

I painted rocks on the chimney because it adds to the haunted effect and is easier to paint then straight-edged bricks. I had my daughter (who’s a super artist!) do more spiders and cobwebs on the house. You can do anything you like. You can add shutters with one hanging crooked or missing; you can put mini crows on the chimney or paint a ghostly shadow show on the side of the house looking around the front.

I got a lot of inspiration from Ed Emberly’s Orange Book of Halloween. These are unusual, cartoonish-looking creatures that are fun to draw and will serve my purpose without a lot of pain-staking painting. Be sure to look closely at all the photos of the details I painted on my house for inspiration with your own project. I painted a haunted tree, cracks by the windows, bricks showing through the stucco, and added a few bats.

Furnishing the Inside

This really gets fun! Gather up all the little odds and ends and collectables you have to put in the house. I used one of the hutches I’d made earlier and then added all kinds of little stuff I had. I decided to make it two floors of a Halloween Flea Market because that way I didn’t have to worry about scale and I could use all the little things I had.

Don’t get me wrong! There are many fine miniature shops out there with one-inch-equals-one-foot scale furniture and even smaller Halloween items. You can make a stunning scale room box out of this CD storage box if you want. Or you could add pieces every year, too.

This is a fun, easy project that you can do in several days without putting a lot cash out, and it actually adds to your storage the rest of the year. You don’t find that too often!