LIFESTYLE

Remember how much fun Halloween was when you were a kid? Parties at school, fun costumes, trick-or-treating, swapping candy with friends and eating it until your stomach hurt… ah, that was the life. But then you became too old to trick-or-treat—and for adults, Halloween sometimes loses its luster (especially if you live in fear of getting egged). The world of grownup Halloween consists of helping kids with costumes instead of dressing up yourself, chaperoning their parties instead of attending your own, and doling out candy instead of collecting it—and as if all that weren’t enough, now you have to pay for everything!

If you ever secretly wish you could go back to the days of childhood Halloween celebrations, you’re not alone, which is why an adults-only Halloween party is a brilliant idea! Just for one evening, you and your friends can hide your prim-and-proper adult personas behind funky masks and crazy wigs, and once again enjoy the holiday as much as you did before you grew up. (But with added benefits; nowadays, you can spike the cider!) Keep in mind, this isn’t supposed to be an elegant and sophisticated soirée; it’s a fun and fanciful nod to the Halloween bashes you enjoyed as a child, with an “over-twelve” twist.

The date of the party should be taken into careful consideration. It doesn’t necessarily have to be on Halloween, because if any of your guests have children, they may not be able to make it. If it is on Halloween, make sure it’s late enough that your guests can still celebrate with their kids earlier in the evening. Send out invitations several weeks in advance, so everyone has time to adequately prepare their costumes. You can take the easy route and purchase themed invitations at any party store, or you can get creative and make your own. Cut out tombstone-shaped pieces of cardboard, for example, spray-paint them with granite-textured paint, and write the details on them with a Sharpie once they’re dry. Or buy each guest a small pumpkin, hollow it out and insert a piece of paper with the details, and hand-deliver. For a simple but fun invitation, design one on your computer with Halloween graphics, and tuck a pinch of orange-and-black confetti into the envelope. If you’ve got a couple of kids handy, let them help you with the invites; you’ll save time, and they’ll have a ball. Whatever method you choose, be sure to request an RSVP so that you don’t end up with either an overabundance or an underestimation of supplies and refreshments.

Ambiance is key at any get-together, but especially important at a Halloween party (and I bet you’ve never staged a house in quite this manner before!). Consider replacing your regular light bulbs with colored ones: green, red or black work best for this type of occasion. A few eerily flickering candles can enhance the mood, but be sure to put them in an out-of-the-way spot, particularly if you’re serving alcohol. To give your home the feel of a desolate, haunted abode, drape white sheets over your furniture. You can “board up” your windows with thin, lightweight pieces of balsa wood, available at craft stores; just cross them over one another and secure them with a non-damaging adhesive such as 3M Command. Liberally distribute fake cobwebs around the room. Dry ice in a shallow, low-sided pan makes a creepy fog; put it somewhere hidden, but make sure your room is well ventilated because it gives off carbon dioxide. (You can go to www.dryicedirectory.com and find a list of sellers in your area.) Dead flowers make appropriate centerpieces, and in the background, be sure to have the requisite “spooky sounds” CD playing at a respectable level—or at least some low-key violin, cello or organ music.

What’s a good Halloween get-together without some fun food? Even the most mundane of dishes can be transformed into spooky snacks! For example, let your guests nosh on “bat wings”—regular chicken wings glazed in barbecue sauce that you’ve added a few drops of red and blue food coloring to. Serve “guaca-moldy” with blue-corn tortilla chips. Make deviled eggs truly devilish by adding red food coloring to the yolks. (If you hadn’t noticed, adding food coloring to nearly anything can make it suitable for such a party.) Label everything so that everyone knows what he or she is eating. For those who may be squeamish, incorporate more traditional Halloween treats like toasted pumpkin seeds, miniature candy bars, popcorn balls or caramel apples. Serve everything atop Ouija boards, from a hollowed-out pumpkin or in plastic skulls. Bone-appetit!

Of course, with such freakish fare, we couldn’t have regular drinks. Even if you’re just serving punch, you can “scare up” plenty of extra touches to tie it into the theme. Serve it from a cauldron, for starters—you can buy a cheap plastic one just about anywhere this time of year—with a nontoxic glow stick dropped in the bottom to give it a radioactive smolder. Freeze a different-colored drink in a latex glove, then remove the glove and drop the frozen “hand” into the punchbowl. Freeze plastic bugs or peeled grapes into ice cubes. And if you’re serving alcohol, you can really have some fun. How about Bloody Marys garnished with olive “eyeballs?” Or black cherry or grape Jell-O shots with a ghoulish gummy-worm garnish? Check out http://drinkoftheweek.com/special/halloween.htm for a list of yummy Halloween-themed cocktails.

Although we adults are pretty good at entertaining ourselves (sometimes), you might want to have a couple of games on hand to add to the festivities. If not everyone at your party is acquainted with one another, you’ll need a great icebreaker, so here it is: Put out two baskets. Fill one with words such as “witch” and “vampire,” and the other with complementary words such as “broomstick” and “blood.” Have half the guests pick from the first basket, the other half pick from the second, and then each guest goes off in search of his or her “mate.”

For the next game, you’ll also need two containers, a couple of canisters of Play-Doh, several large sheets of paper and a black marker, and depending on your number of guests, forty to eighty small slips of paper. On half the slips, write the names of Halloween-related (or just plain scary) characters or stories: Frankenstein, Alfred Hitchcock, The Addams Family, The Headless Horseman, Hannibal Lecter, Psycho. On the remaining paper slips, write “Mold with clay,” “Hum the theme song,” “Act it out,” or “Draw” (even “Draw while blindfolded,” if you want a good laugh). Put the character/story papers in one container, and the instruction papers in the other. Have your guests come forward one at a time and draw a slip of paper from both buckets, then do what’s instructed on their papers—mold Frankenstein out of clay, act like Hannibal Lecter, etc.—and have the other guests guess what the person is doing. They can use sound effects if they’re acting something out, but no words. The result will be a roomful of laughter and the discovery of some hidden talents!

If you’ve got plenty of toilet paper, divide guests into teams, give them a couple of rolls, and have them wrap their very own mummy; the fastest team wins (second place goes to the best-looking mummy). Or have the customary costume contest. Unisex prizes can include gift cards to Starbucks, Blockbuster or Amazon.com, gift certificates to spas or restaurants, or even a night at a luxury hotel or B&B. If you’re looking to stay low-budget on the prizes, lottery tickets are always cheap, and you never know, they could be worth a lot more than what you paid!

Just because you’ve grown up doesn’t mean the Halloween fun should stop. You can still have a ghoulishly good time and bring the spirit of the howl-iday to even the stodgiest of friends and colleagues. With a little effort and some thoughtful details, your party will be one that your friends will still be talking about when they ask you to host one next year!