I was going to skip creating a Halloween party this year. It’s my absolute busiest time of the year, and I thought I’d be a fool to take on one more thing. But my party pals changed my mind and the result is my Halloween Trick or Treat Party.

Zoila of Squared Party Printables offered me one of her great printable collections. Then Ellie of A Felt Affair said to let her know if she could send me a garland. I still stayed strong. And then Debra from Titi’s Tutus told me about her tulle-wrapped mummy spoons and I could resist no longer! I totally caved to the peer pressure. (And I’m so glad I did!)

As usual, my twins collaborated on the planning of this party. (Our kids have the best ideas!) I may twist and turn some of their ideas around, but let’s face it: who knows better than a kid what’s fun to a kid?

Zoila’s printables inspired our concept: Trick or Treat. I thought it would be fun to create a whole party where the kids couldn’t be sure what was coming next, and where every thing might be either a trick or a treat.

Halloween Dessert Table Décor

I love the classic colors of Zoila’s designs, so I focused on orange and black to represent the “trick” and the “treat.” I divided my buffet into an orange side and a black side. The backdrop I made by covering two peg boards with a 1½ yards each of orange and black fabric. (Just use packing tape, and stretch the fabric tight over the boards.) I attached the trick or treat banner to the backdrop with Glue Dots.

I found the stockings by Designs by Nancy on Etsy. How great is the idea of a Halloween stocking?! They are attached with Command Strip hooks.

In keeping with our theme, one stocking was filled with Halloween treats from the dollar store and the other was stuffed with paper – our trick stocking. Of course, I made Grace share the treat stocking with Meg, so both girls got tricked a little bit!

On the dessert table, my wonderful seamstress, Amy from Custom Creations, made a runner to fit my space that was half orange and half black. (You also could just fold fabric to fit and save a little money.) Across the front, I added A Felt Affair’s felt dot garland.

Last year’s candy pails became serving pieces. Just cut floral foam to fit the pail and then top the foam with black scrapbook paper cut to fit. The foam does a great job of supporting the push-up pops.

In the back of the buffet, I added two frames that normally hold baby photos of the girls. I replaced their photos with two Halloween cards. The frames just helped fill the long space.

Halloween Dinner

You could host this party any time leading up to Halloween, but we always have family and friends over on Halloween day. I take the day off from work, and we spend the afternoon in trick-or-treat prep mode, carving pumpkins and getting costumes ready.

One of the big challenges of Halloween is always getting the girls to eat a hot meal before heading out on their candy hunt. For grown ups, I usually do a lasagne or chicken chili, a green salad and crusty bread – something easy to prep ahead of time.

But for the kids, I started with their favorite food: chicken nuggets. I turned the nuggets into sliders, and snuck in a Roma tomato slice and lettuce. One frilly, orange toothpick later and I had “impaled nuggets.” But of course, when the girls asked what the sandwiches were, I said things like, “Well, they look like nuggets, but you never know…” A little adventure definitely helped them eat their sandwiches.

I gave up entirely on a separate vegetable, but did add frozen “goulish grapes.” I tried to make the grapes more fun and easy to distribute by serving them in gumball pipettes from Polka Dot Market.

Halloween Party Desserts

Given how much candy I knew the girls would soon collect (and that I would – ahem – steal), I skipped candy other than candy corn colored M&Ms. But the grown ups need dessert, right? I made my first layered Jello dessert – purple, yellow, green and orange – in push-up pops. Everything else, I purchased, just to make life easier:

• Cupcakes from Target were custom decorated for me with swirled black and orange frosting.
• Scrumdiddlyumptious Bakery made me darling Nutter Butter ghost cookies. They taste just like Butterfingers and my husband wants more as soon as possible.
• Sweet Goosie Girl took my vision of a classic pumpkin candy pail and knocked my socks off with these cookies.

Halloween Table Décor

Custom Creations made me two table runners for the dining table: orange with white polka dots, finished with black pom-pom fringe. Amy also made 17” napkins in the same fabric, finished with black rick rack. At each place, we had:

• Tulle-wrapped mummy spoon from Titi’s Tutus. I love these!
• I layered black and orange square plates, and topped those with these Halloween cups. (There was much competition for the black cat cup!)

For our centerpiece, I used one of the black plates that I also used as serving pieces on the dessert table. These were a Goodwill find and had some sort of mystery goo on them that I cleaned up. They have a cool, scalloped shape, so I cut scrapbooking paper to fit. The black cat came from Michael’s and I added the orange bow.

Come back tomorrow to see our party activities and favors!

Vendor Credits

• Party Styling: The Party Teacher
• Photography: Viridian Images Photography
• Printables: Squared Party Printables
• Felt Garland: A Felt Affair
• Mummy Spoons: Titi’s Tutus
• Napkins and Table Runners: Custom Creations
• Ghost Cookies: Scrumdiddlyumptious Bakery
• Candy Pail Cookies: Sweet Goosie Girl
• Burlap Stockings: Designs by Nancy