How to Have a Happy Halloween

Take pictures of your Halloween Celebrations.  I took pictures for my children to be able to remember what Halloween was like for them.  Sometimes that helped later on as I could look at what we did to create a costume.  When we helped create a haunted house, we took pictures of what it looked like.  If we ever create a haunted house again or just want to decorate a room for Halloween, we now have something to look at to get ideas of what we can do.  Writing down the reactions of people to what you did will also help when you want to create something new.

Writing down your memories of Halloween can be interesting to your children and grandchildren and may be therapeutic to you.  Do you remember getting apples and cookies and homemade popcorn balls and candy when you went trick or treating?  Do you remember spook alleys or haunted houses and how they made you feel?  Do you remember a costume you created? 

Halloween is a fun time and does create many wonderful memories.  Make sure you preserve those memories with pictures and stories.

Halloween can be a fun time of year, but it also can become expensive. Putting up decorations, handing out candy, throwing a party, and buying costumes can all add up. Halloween doesn't have to be expensive to be fun.

Decorating can be fun, but you don't have to buy a lot of decorations. Making your own decorations is a lot of fun. Carving a jack-o-lantern is a basic Halloween decoration. You can try growing your own pumpkins which takes planning ahead and starting in the spring. One year I left a carved pumpkin in the backyard. By spring the pumpkin was pretty much deteriorated. I dug it into the soil thinking it would add more organic material to the soil. I planted a few other things and started to water. I was surprised when pumpkin vines began to grow. The vines did very well, and I got about half a dozen pumpkins to make jack-o-lanterns and pumpkin pie from.

Search online for public domain pumpkin carving patterns or create your own remembering everything will need to stay connected to the outside of the pattern. For faster decorating of your pumpkin and to save your pumpkin to use for pumpkin pie consider painting on a face or scene. Another idea is to use stickers to decorate the pumpkin with. Another is to use hot glue to attach candies or cookies to make a face.

When you do cut the pumpkin, save the seeds. Pumpkin seeds are very nutritious and can be dried and eaten raw or toasted in an oven. Look for recipes online.

You can make a paper jack-o-lantern with orange construction paper or card stock and yellow tissue paper. Cut out the face of the jack-o-lantern, then glue small pieces of the tissue paper on the back side over the cut outs. Light will shine through the tissue paper making the jack-o-lantern's features glow.

Watch for Halloween decorations at yard sales and second hand stores. Check for marked down items right after Halloween and save for next year.

Create a ghost treat. Cover a round sucker with a white tissue. Tie with white yarn or string right below the candy part of the sucker. Leave the rest of the tissue flowing around the sucker's stick. Draw eyes and a nose on the top round part and you have a ghost.

At a party provide round sugar cookies, orange frosting and assorted candies. Allow guests to frost a cookie and make their own jack-o-lantern faces with the assorted candies. A dab of green frosting or a piece of green candy can make the stem.

Another party food could be mini pizzas. One year we made mini pizzas from English Muffins. Each child took half an English muffin. They put on a layer of pizza sauce and sprinkled it with shredded cheese. Then they created a face with pepperoni slices, sliced olives, mushrooms, onions, tomatoes, or peppers.

Instead of purchasing costumes, they can be created from clothes and items you have on hand. Look at the clothing you have and consider how it might be used to create a costume. One year one of my daughters wanted to be a queen. I had a red velvet wrap around skirt. It worked great as a cape for her. We made a crown from cardboard and aluminum foil. She had a glitter filled baton which worked for her scepter. Another daughter wanted to be a cheerleader. My old high school sweater worn over a short sleeved sweater and a skirt with ankle socks and gym shoes completed her look. Then we made pom poms from newspaper by rolling up a section of newspaper and taping around one end for a handle. Then we cut long strips into the paper cutting just up to the handle. Imagination is the key to creating a costume from what you have already.

Search the internet for ideas. There is so much available, you are sure to find something just right for your celebration.