Post
by jadewik » Thu Sep 19, 2013 1:19 am
You've certainly come to the right place to ask for ideas!
I'm not sure what kinds of resources you have in Brazil-- I don't know if you guys have black painter's tarp there, but using that to cover a wall or something and then letting kids paint it with glow-in-the-dark paint would be fun-- things like hand prints, paint spatter, writing like "Beware" or "Enter At Your Own Risk" or "KEEP OUT"... typical Halloween or spooky phrases. Shoot, if someone is artistic enough-- and it looks like there are some artsy people there based on some of those images at the blog link-- you might get someone to paint a raven or some skulls, pumpkins and black cats. Make the tarp like a Halloween mural you can pull out every year?
I saw something in a magazine this weekend-- Martha's Halloween magazine, I think-- where she took some white paper sacks and cut pumpkin faces in them to make pumpkin luminaries.
You can make some really good spider webs out of yarn. Start with 8-10 crossing strands, then start a spiral of thread that weaves in and out of the cross-strands.
An artsy alternative to the yarn spider webs would be to take a piece of black construction paper, some white thread, and a needle... and kinda "embroider" Halloween designs into the paper. I've done this with geometric line designs and they can look really cool.
Hmmm... let's see what else....
You gotta read spooky stories... and I love the idea of writing spooky stories and/or poems.
We do a lot of jack-o-lanterns here... Hollowed out pumpkins that are carved with designs. You can use any fruit or veggie with a hard outer shell. I believe jack-o-lanterns originated as turnips... but watermelons also work well.
I don't know if you want to do any Dia de los Muertos cross-over... That's a Mexico tradition that's becoming more popular in the US. It's the day after Halloween... and they do a lot of face painting and paper mache cut-outs... lots of spider web and skull designs.
You'll also want to tell about Halloween. It's kinda a harvest festival that got mixed with old-world traditions about All Souls Day... See, the idea is that the day before All Souls', the evil spirits come out and, naturally (like any good monster), they would go after children. So, the parents would send their children out disguised as monsters... but the children wouldn't have eaten any dinner, so they'd go begging door-to-door for their dinner... which is how the door-to-door tradition of trick-or-treating evolved.... or at least that's what I've heard. There are different stories and versions of how Halloween came to be as we here in the states know it... It's the legend that keeps on evolving.
Mostly, the holiday is about using your imagination, it's about giving, and it's about fun. So, as long as you're all having fun-- you're celebrating with style. =)
In American schools, they sometimes have a Halloween dance-- where kids wear costumes and stand around a gym while music is playing. LOL. (They're supposed to dance, but they usually just stand and talk!) They often have a costume contest-- sometimes doing a "best of" award or a "scariest" or "Funniest" costume category.
A lot of the elementary schools would have festivals or parties with carnival type games. Things like:
* Cake-walks-- it's kinda like musical chairs, but there are enough chairs for people. All the chairs have numbers. You play music. When the music stops, everyone sits in the closest chair. A number corresponding to one of the chairs is drawn and the person sitting on that number chair "wins" a cupcake or some sort of Halloween related prize.
* Bobbing for Apples -- Recently deemed "unsanitary" by a lot of people, this game involved a big bucket of water and several apples. The person doing the bobbing knees in front of the tub of apples and holds their hands behind their back as they try to bite into an apple.
* Fishing-- A big hit with littler kids, there would be a plastic tarp or curtain. There are "fishing rods" made out of a long stick, with a piece of yarn tied to it. At the end of the yarn is a clothespin. The kids "cast" over the curtain and someone behind the curtain attaches a prize and tugs on the line to let the child know they "caught" something.
* Bean-Bag-Toss -- Board with holes... you try to throw the bean bags through the holes. I can't remember if there are/were prizes associated with this game.
At one of my church parties, we had a "first aid" station... where they had gauze and bandages and fake blood and muslin or old fabric scraps torn to strips... and someone at the "first aid" station would gore you up... they'd bandage your arm or finger and make it look like a really bad cut. (This would probably be even more popular with the zombie craze that's going on-- of course, it costs bandages and blood)
Besides costume contests, there are also pumpkin carving contests.
That's all I can think of off the top of my head... if I think of more later, I'll try to post some more ideas. Also, if you could tell a little more about what you'd like to do-- it might help me think of some more ideas. Halloween isn't just about black cats, bats, pumpkins, and monsters-- it's about using your imagination to make the impossible, possible for only one night. =)
Hope your party is fantastic! I hope you let us know how it goes!!! =D
