A Halloween party (or any party for that matter) doesn’t have to be stressful. Because Halloween oftentimes falls on a weeknight, trying to put together a large party may not be possible. With some preparation, however, you can easily add a little something more to your Halloween party, big or small.
Halloween is one of the holidays that makes me feel most nostalgic. Although Halloween can be fun as an adult, there’s nothing quite like the meticulous planning that went into Halloween as a kid. First, you had to select your costume. Then, you had to plan your trick-or-treating-route. Finally, you took your pillowcase and ran around for three hours getting free candy.
Planning a Halloween party that reflects your childhood memories is an excellent way to honor your past while building new family traditions. Â
Halloween Party Foods
Although I now live in Savannah, Georgia, my Halloween traditions come from where I grew up: southeast Michigan. For my Halloween dinner, therefore, I highlighted three of my favorite Detroit-area foods:
- Coney dogs
- Vernors
- Better Made Chips
These foods all remind me of my childhood in different ways, so I particularly like sharing them on Halloween.
Coneys are a type of chili dog native to Detroit. While you can get them at any Coney Island (Detroit speak for diner) in the Detroit-area, my family and I prefer Lafayette Coney Island downtown Detroit. Lafayette is an institution in the city. We love it there so much that when we were visiting last summer and had a packed schedule, we ate coneys for breakfast!
Once we moved to Georgia, I kept craving coneys and couldn’t get them anywhere. At first, my parents brought me the frozen sauce in dry ice. Later, however, we started making our own sauce. There are lots of recipes out there, but this is the one we use. Â
Making coney sauce is easy, but does require some patience. After browning the meat and mixing in the sauce, it takes about 45 minutes to get to the desired consistency. At this point, the sauce will be very thick. If you taste it, however, it will be a bit bland. Once you blend it a second time, however, it magically takes on the perfect flavor.
Coney sauce is perfect for a busy Halloween night because you can make the sauce ahead and reheat for dinner.
Coney sauce is best on natural-casing hot dogs and, although it’s not the traditional bun, I like Pepperidge Farms top sliced hot dog buns.
Vernors is a Michigan ginger ale (now available nationwide, however) that is superior to all other ginger ales. It’s sweet and spicy. When people drink it for the first time, they sometimes cough because the spicy bubbles get in their nose. You can also pour it over vanilla ice cream for a float. However you drink it, Vernors is the perfect accompaniment to any Halloween party.
Better Made potato chips are not something you will find throughout the country. In fact, in order to get the chips for my Halloween party, I had to ask my aunt in Michigan to ship them to me. I was so grateful to her for this because they added the perfect Michigan flair to my Halloween dinner.
Better Made chips (and their distinctive yellow bag) always remind me of trick-or-treating. There was a house in our neighborhood that always gave out small bags of Better Made chips, and I remember thinking that was so special compared to the candy I got at other houses.
If you don’t have a relative in Michigan to send you chips, you can find them online.
While I didn’t drink beer as a child, putting Bell’s Octoberfest in the cooler was a welcome addition. Bell’s is a brewery in western Michigan, but their beers are nationally distributed, so it was easy to include in my party. You may have a favorite Michigan beer you would like to include, so feel free to mix up the drink selection to your tastes.
Creating a Halloween party menu that includes foods from your childhood is a fun way to pass on food traditions and share memories with family and friends.
Halloween Party Table
After determining your menu, you can focus on setting a special table. I like decorating in the traditional orange and black, mostly because you can collect items over the years and use them in different ways.
I set my table using my Kate Spade All in Good Taste Deco Dot plates, which I think are perfect for Halloween. They are not only playful, but also complement the Halloween color scheme.
Halloween decorations are typically not very expensive, which makes it easy to buy fun things to add to your table each year. This year I purchased a number of small foam pumpkins and metal treat pails from Target. I used the pumpkins to decorate the plates and used the metal pails to hold candy as a favor for my guests. Because Halloween is typically a casual affair, I used plastic cups from one of my favorite local shops: Emily McCarthy. (I know, not from Michigan, but, seriously, I could not resist the cute cups!)
At Target I also found small Halloween paper trays, which I filled with candy corn and topped with a candy apple. These can also be taken home by guests.
Sometimes it’s fun not to use traditional napkins. In this case, I used four coordinating dish towels to add some color and texture to the table.
For my centerpiece, I stacked two bowls on top of each other to add height to the table. Next, I simply rolled my paper napkins to make a festive and functional centerpiece. Coneys can be messy to eat, so it’s handy to have extra napkins readily available.
Halloween Party Bar
For this year’s Halloween party, I was most excited to make a pumpkin cooler for the drinks. I got the idea from one of my favorite blogs: How Sweet Eats. While I attempted to draw a straight line around the pumpkin as a guide, I failed miserably. I’m not super crafty, so Sal just started cutting because my line wasn’t exactly in the right place. Despite my ineptitude at crafts, we were able to salvage the pumpkin and turn it into a cute cooler for our beverages.
It would also be fun to fill the pumpkin with dry ice, if your party has a spooky theme.
After cutting the top off the pumpkin, I scraped out the seeds and it was ready to use. The only downside, It did not hold many drinks. Because of this, you will need multiple pumpkins, or another place to store drinks. In the future. I think it might be fun to paint a number of pumpkins different colors and create a variety of coolers to be placed throughout the party. Â
Throwing a weeknight Halloween party does not have to stress you out. In fact, it can be a fun way to reconnect with childhood memories. I encourage you to use your childhood for your Halloween party this year.
Share your childhood memories (and Halloween party ideas) by leaving a comment below!
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Cindy says
You planned a lovely party! Thanks for sharing so many memories from the Mitten.