Five Alternative Themes for Parties at Halloween

Traditional Halloween parties seem to all go the same way. There’s bobbing for apples, drinking cider, jack-o-lanterns adorning every table and lots and lots of orange and black. Been there, done that. Try something different this year for your Halloween celebration and have an alternative Halloween party your guests will be talking about for years to come!

Celebrity Party
Whether it’s Lady Gaga or Michael Jordan, everyone has a favorite celebrity they would love to be if even just for a day. Help your guest’s dreams come true by having a celebrity-themed Halloween party! Roll out the red carpet for your guests as they arrive, and be sure to take lots of pictures in true paparazzi style. Have elegant hours devours prepared, popular music and be sure to give away Hollywood awards for the best celebrity look-alikes. This theme can be done with adults and/or children and is especially good for the party host who wants to steer clear of anything scary for their Halloween party.

Vampire Party
There’s no doubt that vampires have reached insane levels of popularity over the past couple of years, and Halloween is the perfect time to throw a vampire party- no humans allowed! Make sure your guests grab their white vampire fangs and prepare for a night of fun with fellow vampires. Set the mood with organ music or have your favorite vampire movie playing. Send your guests home with candies covered in Halloween favor wrappers they won’t find anywhere else! Depending on how much you get into the vampire and blood theme, this party is still probably best for adults only.

Halloween Hoedown
Not everyone is into the spook and gore of Halloween, so why not throw a non-threatening Halloween Hoedown? Greet your cowboy-hat and boot-wearing guests at a barn entrance  and direct them to the fun inside. Play your favorite country music and leave plenty of room for line dancing. Guests old and young will get a kick out of glass boot mugs they can take home to remember the party throughout the year. This non-threatening Halloween theme will leave your guests feeling light-hearted instead of spooked out.

Decade Party
Hulahoop back to the 50’s. Flashback to the 80’s. Take your Halloween guests to a decade they haven’t visited in years. The key to this party is your groovy music CD.  Play favorite songs from your chosen decade and watch your guests reminisce about old times. Have friends and family bring pictures of themselves from past decades and put them into a box as they arrive. Display the pictures and see if your guests can pick each other out from the wall of photos. Your peace sign danglers fit any retro party and leave your guests feeling like they’ve gone back in time.

Wild about Halloween
Unleash your inner animal at a safari-themed Halloween party. Guests of all ages can dress as their favorite animal, or make things really interesting by telling people what animal they have to dress up as! Decorate your venue with animal print party balloons and literally make everything – from the invitations to the giraffe print cups – in the animal print of choice. Play a game of animal charades and watch your guests fall over in laughter as they watch each other imitate wild animals.

Let your October imagination run wild with unique, Halloween theme parties!

Not So Scary Halloween Celebration Ideas

People of all ages love Halloween! While gruesome, scary décor and party themes are fun for older kids and adults, young children (and some fearful grown-ups) are often genuinely creeped out by frightening decorations. If this is you, take heart (but not literally), here are a number of not so scary Halloween celebration ideas:

Halloween Party Decorations-Outdoor and Indoor
Amazing outdoor and indoor Halloween decorations are readily available, even if you are catering to the lighter side of Halloween.

Outdoor
Start by placing a giant 3D lighted Jack O’Lantern on your front porch, or near your front door. Then hang a lighted spider web on your door or on your house. Dress up your steel garage door with the fun stix Halloween magnetic decorations, and stick the happy jack window wall graphic in your front window for added dimension to your outdoor decor. Stay outdoors or move to indoor decorating with personalized Halloween banners. Several suggestions for cute banners are: the personalized Halloween family banner, the candy corn personalized banner, trick or treaters banner, or the pumpkin personalized banner.

Indoor
Hang fun, colorful decorations from the ceiling at different heights. The fall fluffy hanging decorations are a great choice, especially in combination with the gruesome group hanging decorations. Then attach a mixture of decorations on your walls. In your entryway, the happy Halloween wall graphic with your family name on it is a welcoming sign to guests that this is a friendly Halloween celebration. Continue filling the walls with Halloween cheer as you put up the gruesome group glitter cutouts and the ghost felt cutout assortment. In the main party area, the stack o’Jack-O-Lanterns is a crazy and silly addition to the non-scary atmosphere.

Balloons
Halloween balloons are a friendly way to incorporate a light-hearted tone to your party setting. Group a bunch of black and orange polka dot latex balloons with some of these adorable mylar balloon choices: the black cat, the kooky bat, the giant witch hat, the haunted (or not so haunted) house, and the happy ghost. Don’t forget to have a helium tank at the ready to fill all of your balloons!

Halloween Party Activities
Capture the costumed guests by taking lots of photos! Provide exciting Halloween photo props and photo stand ins for the guests to indulge in a variety of poses.
Photo Props: Frankenstein, Scarecrow, or Witch
Photo Stand-Ins: Scarecrow, Mummy, Juggling Skeleton Child, or Pirate Photo Setting

Set up popular Halloween activities like the classic bobbing for apples, the pumpkin toss game, the inflatable pumpkin ball toss game, and the inflatable spider ring toss game.

Three adorable Halloween craft ideas are: assemble the Foamies candy corn bucket, put together the make a scarecrow craft kit, or paint the large paintable pumpkin.

Remember, when you want to please the crowd, you can’t go wrong with a Halloween pinata full of candy and other fun filler items!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!

Plan a Halloween Themed Fundraiser

Do you have an October fundraising event? Work a Halloween theme and Halloween party decorations into your fall fundraiser this year. Bring something fresh to annual fairs and festivals with newer products such as personalized bottle labels, or try one of the more unusual fundraising ideas below.

Say Boo with Your Booth
For an indoor Halloween themed carnival fundraiser, check out the Radiant Halloween balloon arch from Halloween props. The arch helps you create a happy, festive entrance that is rated “E” for “Everyone.” As always with our Radiant arches, you have balloon color choices. If the fundraiser really must be geared more generally to fall, select candy corn or autumn leaf colors instead of orange and black.

For festival and tailgate fundraising, set up a fuss-free outdoor canopy. Be sure to weight the corners adequately to stand up to errant autumn breezes.

Hang a custom Halloween banner across the top of the canopy and sell bottles of blood-red soda with personalized Halloween bottle labels and matching Halloween candy bars.

Plot a Scavenger Scheme
A road rally is a scavenger hunt on wheels, and it is becoming a popular fundraising event. It’s a cute idea as a fundraiser for a transportation-related cause, such as a school bus trip or Meals on Wheels, and highly amenable to a Halloween theme party. Donations are collected as registration fees.

Just for fun, pick a theme with a mascot or conveyance that gets around: witches and brooms, vampires and bats, headless horsemen and jack-o-lanterns. Plant thematic Halloween party favors and props – especially wearables — on the scavenger list; and keep up the theme on snack tables for the gathering afterward.

Plan a Murder
This type of Halloween fundraiser can come formal or informal, costumed or not, but one thing is clear: Halloween adds an extra shiver to a murder mystery party.

Select a murder mystery kit from the many available online, and then come to Shindigz.com for the setting decorations. Whether your murder is committed in a 1920s Chicago speakeasy or at a fancy masked ball, you’ll find beautiful themed decorations and plenty of assistance.

Complete the look by outfitting the players in accessories and Create-A Costume pieces from Halloween Costumes.

Thrill the World
If you can plan a Halloween fundraiser for Halloween weekend 2011, consider a tie-in to Thrill the World, a global celebration of zombie unity and of Michael Jackson’s video, “Thriller,” expressed through dance. Visit Thrilltheworld.com for more information on the dance and to officially register your event.

Participating organizations are encouraged to use their events to support charities. Raise funds via “Thriller” dance workshops, costume contest entree fees, or a donations-at-the-door monster bash decorated with Halloween party supplies such as our smashing cemetery and zombie silhouettes and new Beware Zombie tableware.

10 Ideas for Halloween Event Supplies

Plan An Amazing Haunted Halloween Event
Whether you’re in charge of this year’s community haunted house or you’re planning a spooky sock hop, we’ve compiled a list of ten unique ideas for Halloween event supplies:

• Put the finishing touches to howlin’ good Halloween hootenanny plans.
  Enhance the spookiness of your Halloween decorations with a fog machine.

• Pick a peck of Pick Your Poison beverage napkins for the bar.
• Add cemetery personalized candy bars to your Halloween favors list.
• Create-a placemat with past Halloween photos or children’s art to complement orange, black, or themed event tableware.
• Select a couple more traditional tombstones to round out a haunted graveyard scene.
• Can you possibly have too many cobwebs in your Halloween event supply arsenal? We think not – especially at this price! Stretch them ominously over picture and doorway corners, chandeliers and table skirts.
• Organize a neighborhood Halloween parade. Deck out truck beds, cars, and pull-behinds with parade supplies themed with these Halloween event supplies.
• Ask actors to dress in Halloween costumes at your haunted house or carnival party event.
• Hire a square dance caller to teach your guests a few moves at your Halloween cowboy party. Set up a section of party games in the corner for kids.
• Borrow an ice cream truck. Decorate it with Halloween banners. Wear a headscarf with braids and carefully roll thru your festival handing out bulk candy and freeze dried, astronaut ice cream.

Enjoy this year’s Halloween festivities and do tell us your favorite Halloween ideas!