Halloween party ideas

[cookies]

I am having a Halloween party for about 100 people(adults and children) , any tips, advice, recipes and decorating ideas?

 

[lovemygoofy]

Prep all you can ahead of time especially with food. You can make alot of things or at least different dough ahead of time. Keep a simple menu.

Spread the food out around the room with that many people. Set up different stations with plates and cups and whatever you are serving. Are you going to have help with the food? I can't imagine trying to keep up on serving food for a 100 people alone.

Are you having alcohol? One way we try to ensure that the alcohol drinks are seperate from the kids' drinks are colored cups and sizes. Smaller cups and one color for the kids and a bigger cup and a different color for the adults.

Are you having this at your house? Either way if possible, try to make a quiet room somewhere. Sometimes kids can become too stimulated and need some quiet down time to regroup. I usually use my bedroom.

Are you having give aways or prizes or goody bags? I simply can't imagine wanting to have a party for a 100 people. You are impressive!

 

[barkley]

we helped a neighbor throw a great halloween party last year.

for decorations, we enlisted everyone to drop over (up to a week ahead of time) a jack o lantern for a contest (we did electric tea lights in them the nite of the party for safety). we hit up everyone for any spare decorations they might have (ended up with TONS). got a projector that attached to a laptop and projected old monster movies on the wall (dollar store has a ton of the old black and whites, also used netflix).

now we were doing this as a neighborhood thing, so no one person was providing all of the food-we did it potluck style and ended up with all kinds of stuff. if i were doing it on my own, i would still stick with the kinds of foods we ended up with-easy to prepare in advance: pulled pork and bunz, bbq beans, coleslaw, potato salad, chili (with chips and cheese for nachos, hot dogs and bunz for chili dogs), and a last minute item i brought for the younger set-several of the jack o lantern cheese and pepperoni pizzas from papa murphys. the main dessert item was (of course) lots of trick or treat candies, but ds and i also made a "grave yard" that was very popular-instant chocolate pudding mixed with oreos-absent the filling-then we got "gummy body parts" that we made sure poked out the top. for headstone we got pepperage farms milanos, and iced them with white frosting tinged with black (ended up a nice gray)-then piped RIP (with selected adult neighbor names) on them


keep in mind-if you are celebrating on the actual holiday this year, since it's a sunday, you may have people not staying as long as they would at a standard party (esp. if they have kids that have to go to school the next day) so food consumption may be lessened, and if you are celebrating on saturday AND your community adjusts trick or treating to saturday as well, you need to reduce the amount of food the kiddies will eat (they consume the candy first if allowed), and the time the party commences (don't set it for a time where the parents have to choose between letting the kiddies trick or treat and attending the party during the period of time when the games/activities/feasting commences).

 

[cookies]

Thanks for the tips! My husband decided to have the party last night and we already have a list of 150 people!!! We are going to throw the party on Saturday night. we live on the end of a large cul-de-sac and are closing the street down. All the neighbors will be at our house so they dont mind. We have a huge inflatable movie screen so we will play movies all night.
Foodwise, it's going to be a appetizer and dessert party. I am a pastry chef so dessert will be crazy!! Most of my friends are bringing apps or bottles. Everyone is excited about this already!!!

 

[Piglet843]

I throw a large Halloween party every year.
I start with a theme. One year it was Harry Potter, last year it was a Vampire theme, this year we talked about doing an Insane Assylum.
The theme helps get the ball rolling. Plan all your food and decorations and games around it.
I keep all my documents and checklists used in planning (food, drinks, plans of decoration by room, games to play) If you would like any more information about any of it just let me know.
Good luck - sounds like its gonna be fun!

 

[minniebeth]

Subscribing...I am thinking about doing a Halloween party for my DD's Brownie troop and families, so it will end up being a lot of people, and it will need to be done on a budget.

Piglet843, I love your idea of a theme within the party~