What's That You Say... You Want Me to Plan a Party???

For my family, Halloween is purely a social holiday.  My kids LOVE dress up - year round.  But on Halloween, getting to dress up full tilt, and go out with other kids who are all dressed up is a huge deal.  Both of my kids, especially my 10 year old son, are very influenced by their surroundings.  They appreciate the comfort of a cozy home with familiar decorations and good smells.  Having them take part in the decorating makes the holiday even more special and also becomes a time to make great family memories.

What makes better memories that having your friends over on Halloween?  We all love a good party.  However, if we step back and really think about it, parties are a lot of work.  We are not The Real Housewives with party planners and home decorators at our disposal.  Nor are we Martha Stewart with her warehouses of amazing decorations and party supplies. This means that really doing a party right takes some serious planning, effort and creativity to pull it off in a way that feels special.

One great way to build your party decor stash is to wait until the post Halloween sales and stock up on all the 75% off deals.  After a few years of that, you can have quite a bit to work with.  The second great way is to put your Creative Mama hat on and make some of your own decor.  Creating things as a family  makes them even more special and again, builds those wonderful family memories.

Last fall (after hacking down a large bush in my backyard), I had a lot of branches at my disposal.  Rather than sending them off to the landfill I thought they would make great, spooky, decorations - with a little prep work.  I stripped all the branches of their leaves and wonky twigs, and hosed them down, then left them to dry in the sun for a few days.  Now here is my disclaimer - don't hack down anything you really like.  This particular bush had to go and was not sacrificed merely for the sake of Halloween decor.

I chose to use the branches as is - but they would have also looked great spray painted black.  I had enough branches to use in several places in the house.  My first idea was to make a Photo Booth Backdrop so that, prior to Trick-Or-Treating, all the kids (and OK, all the grown ups too) could take some fun photos.

I chose a place in my house with enough room for several people to stand together.  I used a large mirror that is leaning against a wall to support the branches but you could use a fireplace mantle, large terracotta pots or even galvanized buckets/French flower market buckets filled with rocks or sand for support.  I arranged the branches so that they were evenly spaced and overlapped slightly - you can mess with them until you get a good arrangement  I strung orange twinkle lights throughout the branches so that at night it looks a little spooky.  Next, I used a package of cobweb cotton to cover them - the trick with that stuff is to make sure it is very stretched and thinned out so it looks authentic.  The Happy Halloween banner is from Target but you can make your own with card stock or even burlap (remember you have your Creative hat on so you can do whatever you like). The finishing touch was to add bats - some are black and though they are hard to see in the photo, some are glow in the dark - hanging from the cobwebs.  I didn't want the mirror to reflect the photographer so I draped it in mummy cloth.

This display became a focal point at the party and everyone, literally EVERYONE, stopped by to take pictures of their kids and themselves.  The gorgeous kids in the photo above are mine ;-)

The next place I used the branches was to make what I aptly named the Trick-Or-Treat Tree.  Now, I know how most people (moms) feel about party treat bags.  Usually they are full of junk that ends up under the car seats or couch or falls apart immediately.  On the other side, as the person throwing the party, the stuff in the bags isn't cheap and you know where it ends up so it seems like a total waste.  But my kids think treat bags are the end all, be all of a party and an essential component that cannot be skipped.  So rather than doing big bags full of crappola, I chose to use tiny drawstring bags with just a couple items (vampire teeth, sticky hands and poppers) that were very inexpensive in bulk from Oriental Trading Co.  I figured if we were going to do the treat bags we should do something different and fun with them that the kids would enjoy.  The tree started out as just a display by the door because I had a copper umbrella stand there and thought the branches would work perfectly to give a spooky forest feel to the entry way.  Again I strung the branches with twinkle lights, cob webs and bats.  Then decided that it would be really fun to hang the treat bags as well as a convenient place for kids to grab one on the way out of the party.  Here is the final product:

I did use the branches in a few other places through out the house but in more of a "Fall" display than Halloween.  My goal was also to save them to use on the front porch at Christmas time but that never panned out.  Maybe this year?