Catherine Xu
Whether it’s caramel apples, trick-or-treating, or scary movie marathons, there’s endless ways to have fun in October. I love to host, but I know how daunting it can be to put an event together, especially on a college student’s budget. This guide will give you step-by-step instructions on how to build the perfect party for you and your friends.
Atmosphere:
Set the theme: a vampire masquerade ball, glow-in-the-dark rave, a spooky movie night, or anything you dream up will define the mood for your event. Celebrate your theme with decorations and a curated playlist. I find that a uniform color palette across your decor can really help to bring an atmosphere together.
The best part of Halloween decorations is how easy it is to get creative! Some decorations I have been able to DIY for cheap include themed streamers, painted pumpkins (more on this later!), fake cobwebs with yarn, and construction paper bats that you can hang from the ceiling.
If you need some theme-specific items, hit up your local dollar store. For example, you could buy glow-in-the-dark decorations and bracelets to execute the glow-in-the-dark rave.
Most importantly, don’t hesitate to institute a dress code. Requiring costumes is a fun way to see your friends’ creativity shine and foster a true Halloween environment. If you need a last-minute one, check out our guide here.
Lastly, decorate some invites and send them out soon!
Food:
As far as food goes, so many snacks can be spook-ified with a little touch of witchy magic. Some simple snack ideas include:
Poltergeist strawberries
Ingredients:
Strawberries
White chocolate
Dark or milk chocolate
Instructions:
Wash and dry your strawberries.
Melt the white chocolate.
Individually dip the strawberries into a bowl of melted white chocolate and place them on a sheet pan lined with parchment paper. Let sit for a couple minutes.
Melt your dark or milk chocolate.
Using the melted dark or milk chocolate, draw ghost faces onto each strawberry using a toothpick.
Serve on a plate and enjoy with your ghoulfriends.
Gravestone Oreo cups with worms
Ingredients:
Oreos
Gummy worms
Lemon juice
Instructions:
Split your Oreos.
Scrape half the icing into a small mixing bowl and set it aside. Put the other half into a large mixing bowl.
Put three-fourths of the cookies inside a plastic bag.
Smash the cookies inside the bag to break them into smaller pieces.
Empty the bag into the larger mixing bowl and mix together with the icing.
Fill cupcake wrappers evenly with the mixture.
Mix the icing in the smaller bowl to create a frosting-like paste, adding in lemon juice for texture.
Break the remaining cookies into halves and set those aside. These halves will be your “gravestones.”
Using a toothpick and the icing, decorate your Oreo half-circles with gravestone-themed lettering.
Place one gravestone per cupcake wrapper.
Cut your gummy worms in half. Place them cut-side down and bury them a little in your Oreo “dirt.”
Don’t eat this in a cemetery, or else you’ll unearth some friends who’ll want more than a bite.
Jack-o’-lantern quesadillas
Ingredients:
Tortillas
Cheese of your choice
Quesadilla toppings of your choice
Sour cream
Pico de gallo
Instructions:
Take two tortillas out of the bag. Use a knife to carve out a jack-o’-lantern face on one tortilla and set the other to the side.
Place your stove on medium heat and drizzle some oil into a pan.
Place the non-carved tortilla flat on the pan and spread your various toppings on top of the tortilla.
Place the carved tortilla on top of the cheese and toppings. Flip the entire quesadilla once the bottom has browned.
Repeat until you have as many quesadillas as you want.
Serve with sour cream and pico de gallo.
This quesadilla is sure to carve out a smile from your guests!
Activities:
Halloween activities are as bountiful as a cornfield on the Harvest Moon. Whether you prefer arts and crafts or you love the goriest horror, here are some recommendations to spruce up your night.
One staple event for any Halloween party is pumpkin carving or painting. Buy enough pumpkins for your guests — Trader Joe’s has mini pumpkins for 99 cents and normal size ones for $9 — and set out some paint, paintbrushes, and cutting tools.
Everyone can decorate their pumpkins however they wish, painting or carving the spookiest jack-o’-lantern faces. You can even turn this into a competition! Hold a formal presentation session for a bit of fun and then take a vote. Some fun superlatives could be: Most Creative, Most Scary, or Most Chopped. You can keep these as decorations even after your party’s over!
Other spooky activities I love are Ouija boards for a little thrill and pulling out the classic board game Clue for some murder mystery action.
Choosing which Halloween movie to play in the background is also an integral aspect of planning the perfect night. Some family-friendly options include “The Nightmare Before Christmas,” “Hotel Transylvania,” or “Ghostbusters.”
If you’re ready to brave some potential nightmares, here are some of my favorite horror movies: “The Exorcist,” “Weapons,” and “Scream.”
And for the people who want something in between, here are some murder mysteries. Summon your inner Sherlock Holmes with “Death on the Nile,” “Knives Out,” or “The Girl on the Train.”
Halloween is only a few days away, but you don’t need any longer than that to carry out your perfect night. So, don’t let your midterms haunt you, and take a break for some spooky Halloween festivities this week, tailored just for you.