Hallowe’en is a fantastic time of year, a chance to indulge in mystery and ghoulish goings on! Both adults and children can enjoy this time of year and we have some great ideas for your Halloween party, along with decorating your extendable dining table and wooden chairs and menu ideas too.
Set the scene
Pumpkins are, of course, mandatory for any Halloween party and with most squashes and pumpkins starting at 50p for small ones to a couple of pounds for very big ones, you can spend a very enjoyable afternoon pumpkin carving ready for your party.
As well as clustering pumpkins about the place, re-use jam jars as tea light holders for the table. Wrap tissue paper around the outside of the jar, complete with black paper shape cut outs. Scatter them across your large sideboard with spider webs for maximum effect (the bought stuff, not the real webs of spiders!)
You can find templates for Halloween cutouts online!
Quick decoration idea
Use any white cloth or gauze and give it eyes and a mouth and hang the mini-ghosts from tree and shrub branches in your front garden as well as around the door to give your guests a flavour of what is to come. Hang them from the centre of the square for the typical ghost ‘triangle’.
Party food
Invest in plenty of black and orange food colouring or prepared icing products because you are going to need it.
From the bubbling depths of butternut squash and red pepper soup to piping hot jacket potatoes, there are plenty of delicious party food ideas.
Create a fantastic spread of food across your reclaimed wood dining table and what their faces light up with delight as they enjoy the Halloween shapes biscuits, huddled on the dining bench. 
Use a basic biscuit dough to make these biscuits, using Hallowe’en cutters to get the shapes. Roll out royal icing, coloured with a few drops of orange food colouring or buy ready mixed black icing and use the cutters to cut out corresponding shapes. Using small dabs of runny icing as a glue, stick the icing shapes on top.
You can use the Hallowe’en biscuit cutters to cut out shaped sandwiches too. And don’t forget to place large plastic frogs in the jelly…
Everyone has a superpower
Parties are about having fun and there is nothing better than a theme to get the fun started. Halloween is a theme which has so many opportunities to dress up that it’s a shame to let it past.
As well as your typical guests of witches and ghosts, why not give a modern ring to your Halloween party. Witches were feared because of their supposed superpowers so why not ask everyone to come bearing a superpower? Even your pet pooch could get involved.
You could also make the pumpkin carving part of the Hallowe’en party. Pumpkin scoops are like mini shovels, perfect for little hands to handles.
Simply place the pumpkin fresh into your compost or if it isn’t too stringy – like in the smaller pumpkins – with plenty of seasoning, it makes a great pie or soup.
What do you think makes the best Hallowe’en party? We’d love to see your photos.