Weekend Entertaining : Tips on Making a Halloween Party a Treat to Put Together

With Halloween parties, as you know, the theme’s the thing. It’s the costumes and the decorations. The hoopla and howl. It’s child’s play with or without the kids. And anything goes.

Take the one where the guests came to an Alice in Wonderland party in a rented submarine. In that one, the guests were dressed like the characters of the Lewis Carroll tale--Alice herself, the Mad Hatter, the off-the-wall queen, the nutty animals. The entire, blooming mob. And a string quartet, too. The brew poured from the teapot was booze and the tea cakes were laced with everything from bee balm to rose water.

So if you’re looking for the party to throw for your 200 best friends that will get you off the hook for the rest of the year, budget-wise and otherwise, Halloween is it. Look around. Where else can you find a no fuss, no muss party where the guests are the entertainment? Where the guests bring their own costumes, and the food, usually junk food, is secondary? Cider and doughnuts. Corn candy and popcorn. Such.

A Few Themes

So Halloween is a simple party with simple foods and beverages, and not much for the host to do except look silly. Let’s discuss a few themes that could give your Halloween party a twist. Quickly, the invitations. And none too soon, too.

Frankly, the best themes, say some top party planners in town, are borrowed from classic opera, movies and fairy tales.

Take Little Red Riding Hood, which Nabokov used as his inspiration (they say) for his novel “Lolita.” In the Nabokov novel, the lascivious stepfather, the child-victim and the unwary grandmother parallel the characters in the fairy tale. The idea could make a fun costume party, whether you use the ancient tale or the modern adaptation. Both suggest the type of food to serve. How about a picnic? Things like delicate English-style tea sandwiches (watercress and cucumber is easy), sugar cookies and tea cakes, which you don’t even have to make yourself. There are plenty of British food stores around town to help defray time and energy costs.

Cinderella. Remember her? She had those ugly stepsisters, the witchy mom, a handsome prince and fairy godmother who always seems to look like Mary Pickford. Your friends would love them. With Cinderella as a theme, you can work around--what else--pumpkins, decorated like a train of carriages and hollowed out to fill with sandwiches, candies, popcorn, fruit, salads and punch. Or anything you see fit.

White and Dwarfs

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs are also good for a costume and decoration theme. All you have to do is find a supermarket in town that sells the costumes to trick-or-treaters, who seem, these days, to grow bigger and bigger.

The theme, if you insist on making the menu more elaborate than necessary, might suggest fruits of the forest, perhaps done up as pastries served with plain champagne or punch. You can bring in masses of potted trees (rented possibly from a nursery) for atmosphere. Witches brooms and paper moons come to mind, too.

Don’t overlook window dressing outlets for Halloween props. Some do offer rentals. Or ask a “party planner” to take care of some of the tedious chores for you. Some caterers also will take a few odd tasks off your hands. Party centers, costume stores and rentals are everywhere in Hollywood and most other communities, too. And, as we said, supermarkets and even five-and-dime stores should not be overlooked as possible sources for costumes, food and props.

Opera Ideas

Need a few suggestions for classic opera themes?

Try Madame Butterfly. And don’t forget the Japanese tea (green) and tea cakes, which you can pick up at relatively low cost at any Japanese supermarket, and the music from the opera.

Doing Carmen? Tapas-- the small Spanish appetizers eaten on tiny plates--would be fun. They can be ordered from a Spanish restaurant.

Movie themes are endless, and you can help yourself to your favorite, past and present.

Casablanca? A Moroccan nightclub where the food can be anything from well drinks and peanuts to mint tea and cookies. Middle Eastern appetizers and rakki, the licorice-flavored brandy that turns milky when water is added, wouldn’t be bad, either. Middle Eastern take-outs abound.

If you are including children in your parties, think of separate stations for the food. Mary Micucci, of Along Came Mary catering, is doing a Halloween party with hot dogs (called goblins, hobgoblins and dogs) at one station, a “spooky pizza parlor” at another and a “screaming chili bar” for the adults. In another party, the pumpkins are decorated to resemble Picasso, a punker, medieval knight, and others. Or they could be decorated to resemble your friends. The food is simple. Crisp fall vegetables and dips or chili and dessert. Nothing grandiose. Nothing gourmet. Just fun.

Main thing is to watch the witches fly.