If you’re hosting a Halloween party, decorating your home in a spooky but fun way is essential for creating a creepy atmosphere. There are lots of things you can do to add a frightening touch to your party decor and make your home feel like a haunted house. Here are some ideas for Halloween party decorations.
Of course, no Halloween party is complete without a jack-o-lantern. It’s customary to place one by your front door to welcome your guests, but you can also put them in other places around your home and yard. Carved pumpkins can also be used for holding dishes of food or bowls of punch.
In addition to candlelight, or at a kids’ party where you want to avoid having lit candles, an easy and effective way to provide spooky lighting is to replace your regular light bulbs with colored ones, such as orange, red or green.
Inside there are lots of crafts that kids can make that you can hang around your home, in doorways, on picture frames or on curtain rails, for instance. Things that fit with the Halloween theme include bats and spiders.
You can also buy cheap plastic versions that you can place in strategic places to add to the ambiance and make your guests jump, such as a plastic spider in the bathroom. To save some money, why not have a go at making your own homemade Halloween decorations? If you have children, then you could get them involved in some projects. For example, you could make a stuffed dummy to prop in a window or porch to scare trick-or-treaters and your party guests.
Use old clothes and stuff them with scrunched-up newspaper. For the head, you could use a pumpkin with a scary face painted on, or a balloon wearing a Halloween mask. You could make a dummy to look like a witch, goblin, vampire or zombie, depending on what materials you have to hand.
Other Halloween props that are easy to make include gravestones for decorating your yard. You could use large sheets of sturdy cardboard cut into tombstone shapes, or old pieces of wood. You can use tent pegs to fix them to your lawn and could place candles or tea-lights nearby to draw attention to them.
You could buy or make scary pictures to hang on your wall or stick over your mirrors. For example, you can buy sinister-looking portraits with eyes that glow or flash. Illuminated skulls are another option, which can work well placed in dark corners.
For decorating your table and displaying the party food, you could get an old white sheet and make red handprints on it, or stencil Halloween shapes on to it. You could also make edible decorations such as bloody finger biscuits.
Decorating your home and yard for Halloween can be a lot of fun and the whole family can help out. With a little advance planning and creativity, your decorations can really add to the party atmosphere.