Planning A Halloween Party

Every year around this time, I start thinking about planning my Halloween party. It's an annual event for me and my friends and relatives always keep their calendar open of it. So you know it has to worth it every year. Once I pick my date, I start looking for themes. I'll share some my suggestions for your own Halloween party planning.

Party Planning Process

The process is a simple one. Though not every decision within that process is. But keep to your process so you won't miss a step and end up crazy at the last minute.

• Set the date - even if this involves checking with most of your guests for their availability. 
• Decide on a theme - Halloween itself can be the theme, but you can also have some fun with other themes, like costume contests, zombie invasion, ghoulish food tasting.
• Gather your guest list - including making sure all addresses are up to date.
• Order the Invitations - this is more than just date, time and place. Tell you guests the theme, notes about contests, the party style (i.e. pot luck, sit down dinner, cocktail party, etc.)
• Plan menu - if you're serving all the food and drink (or most of it), you'll want to make sure that you have time to order specialty items, like food molds, dry ice, Halloween glasses. 
• Determine what foods can be made early and frozen, then plan to get them done.
• Decide on what home decorations you want to use. Again, this might require some ordering of fun items like creepy cloth. So plan this early.
• Make timing decisions - when will you decorate outside and inside, when will you purchase food and drinks, etc.

Make Sure to Plan Your Own Fun at the Party

As the host or hostess of a Halloween party, you often are so involved in food and drink preparation that you forget to enjoy your own party. It's very important that that stops! You don't throw a party for the work, you throw a party for the fun. So plan in your own fun.

Make sure food is prepared well ahead of the time guests arrive. A little replenishing of a buffet table is one thing, cooking while your guests are having fun is a different thing.

Delegate some of the chores to friends or relatives.  Assign the job of keeping the ice bucket refreshed to someone else. You'll find most of your guests will be happy to help in little ways. So plan for those little ways and delegate. You'll enjoy the party much more yourself.