Halloween history

Folks have celebrated a form of Halloween for several thousand years, beginning with the druids. It was part of the annual harvest, hence the scarecrows, corn, straw and pumpkins, and occurred on the eve of All Saints Day, which is why we have ghosts and mummies as Halloween symbols.

Why not throw a party this year? It can be as simple as a family dinner party, or as elaborate as you wish and invite the whole neighborhood. The formula for a party is simple -- choose a theme, make or buy invitations, decorations, games and costumes to match that theme and offer great, ghoulish food! Your party will make memories for decades!

When choosing a theme, remember the age of the kids. You want silly and fun for the smaller kids and scarier parties for the older ones. Some ideas are wizards, black cats, witches, bats, pumpkins, scarecrows, trolls, ghosts or green-faced goblins. Your invitations can complement the theme. Make them out of construction paper -- huge full moons with silhouettes, mummies, bats, black cats or ghosts. Use gel pens on black paper to mark the date, time and location of the party.

Decorations

Decorations can be a simple string of orange lights and a carved pumpkin, or you can create a Halloween Hall! Make signs and tombstones out of cardboard and put them everywhere. The signs can point to a haunted pumpkin patch, graveyard or mummy cafe. Blinking lights and strobes combined with mirrors and aluminum foil taped to the walls (with signs and masks) add great effects.

Have a dozen white balloons filled with helium and place a square of cheesecloth (from the fabric store) in the center of the top with a dab of glue. Draw black circles for eyes and a mouth, and you'll have little bobbing ghosts floating around your house! Carve faces into peppers and paint faces onto pumpkins with reflective paint and place them on trays arranged with strings of lights.

Games

Be creative with games, but keep it simple. Award prizes for the best costume or a pumpkin carving contest for the scariest, the silliest, the happiest, etc. Let younger kids use markers on their pumpkins. Musical chairs or a cupcake walk to the "Monster Mash" are fun ideas. Fishing games are good with younger children. Their "fishing poles" can snag a prize or treat behind a cutout cardboard window decorated like a pond. Enlist some artistic talent for a pin-the-face on the jack-o-lantern game out of foam-core board. You'll just need to add a blindfold.

The grand-finale is the food! Use the food as decoration, too, placing veggies and dip on trays with carved pumpkins. Add apples wherever you can, as a game, decoration and as food. Popcorn balls are great to make and eat and caramel apples are traditional. Another fun idea is a "dirt cake" with a cardboard and foil covered tombstone stuck in it. Pumpkin seeds, nuts and little white chocolate peanut clusters that look like ghosts are also great ideas. Below are some recipes to make your Halloween memorable. Trick or Treat!

Caramel Apples

Ingredients:
Four apples, washed and air dried thoroughly
2 cups of sugar
1 tablespoon corn syrup
1/2 cup water
2 sticks of butter, softened at room temperature
1 cup heavy cream
Chopped nuts (optional), like walnuts or pecans
Pinch of salt
Sticks from the craft store, or small skewers from the meat department at your local grocery

Directions:
Prepare your apples by inserting the skewers firmly into the center. Place on a cookie sheet on top of parchment or waxed paper. In a saucepan, combine water, corn syrup and sugar. Stir with a wooden spoon. Allow to gently cook over a medium heat until caramel in color. Remove from heat and stir in the cream, butter and salt. Working quickly with the bone-dry apples, dip them into the caramel, then roll quickly in the nuts. Place them on the tray and continue until all apples are coated. Refrigerate for 15 minutes until firm and serve or wrap in cellophane bag.

Serves 4.

Tombstone Cake

Ingredients:
2 boxes chocolate cake mix, baked according to directions and cooled
2 large boxes of instant chocolate pudding
1 bag of Oreo cookies, crushed in a bag with a rolling pin
Gummy worms

Directions:
Prepare and cool cakes and pudding. Crumble the cake into the pudding, mixing in a large bowl. Add the crushed Oreos and the gummy worms. Pile in a large roasting pan around the tombstone, which can be made out of cardboard and foil and decorated with markers. Put a small plastic shovel in the pan to serve with. Enjoy!

Popcorn Balls

2 1/2 cups unpopped popcorn.
Oil for popping
1/2 stick of butter
1 cup brown sugar
2/3 cup heavy cream
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup corn syrup

Directions:
Pop the corn in small 1/2-cup batches at a time. Put aside in huge buttered bowl. In a large pot, heat the butter, corn syrup and sugar, stirring well. Bring to a boil over medium heat. Stir in the cream. With a candy thermometer, check the temperature and remove at 238 degrees F. Add the vanilla. Pour the caramel mixture over the popcorn and stir well with a wooden spoon, so that all kernels are coated. With buttered hands, shape into balls and place into cellophane bags secured with wire twists.

Makes 15.