Hotel Treats Shaken Laguna Children to Party : Recovery: Halloween goodies and costumes donated by local businesses help littlest residents forget horror of seeing their city burn. ‘This is the best thing they could do,’ says one grateful parent.

Sitting among the Halloween witches, ghosts and goblins Saturday was a small boy dressed up in a shiny fireman’s costume, a poignant reminder of last week’s firestorm.

But there were no sad faces at this Halloween party, thrown for the children of Laguna Beach a day before Halloween at the Surf and Sand Hotel. Happy faces and laughter punctuated the Halloween activity at the hotel, which sponsored the event.

“The fire was such a negative--we didn’t want the kids to have a ruined Halloween,” said Gregg Desher, the hotel’s director of food and beverage.

With food and costumes donated by a host of local businesses, the hotel took care of the orange and black decorations and provided the space for children to paint pumpkins and faces, trick or treat and bob for apples.

“Me and my friends are making painted pumpkins,” said a smiling Jamison Tisdail, 8, who had a ‘90s addition to his Dennis the Menace costume--a fake snake tattoo on his left arm.

Skinny skeletons, blushing brides, witches with long black fingernails, ferocious vampires, peaceful hippies, Charlie Chaplin, Frankenstein, and even Butt-head of MTV’s animated “Beavis and Butt-head” series were all getting a piece of the Halloween action.

Most of the children at the party were not directly affected by the fire, but many knew of classmates who had lost homes.

“This is the best thing that they could do,” said Theresa O’Hara of the Arch Beach Heights neighborhood as she watched her son, Brendan, 3, run around in his Captain Hook costume. “It’s been very scary for them. They understand that something is wrong and it’s going to impact them.”

Outdoors, Scott Brown, 8, dressed as a pirate, got soaking wet bobbing for apples. After he came up empty a couple of times, one trick-or-treater told him impatiently, “Get something, will you?!”

“Nah, I don’t like apples,” Scott explained. A minute later, however, after he had gotten sufficient air, Scott plunged his head back into the bucket and finally came up with a shiny green triumph.

Throughout the two-hour event, the hotel’s main room was filled with shouts and laughter as children slurped juice and munched cookies. But the noise level reached a downright feverish pitch when it came time for the real goodies.

After being handed plastic bags, the trick-or-treaters were off and running, scrambling up and down the hotel’s four levels for candy. At the doors adorned with a pumpkin, hotel guests and staff handed out goodies to the eager revelers. The pace was frenetic as more than 400 children ran from room to room and crowded into the hotel’s stairways.

“I’ve already been up there,” screamed a Charlie Chaplin to his ghoulish friends, who were starting to make the ascent to the top floor. The troupe headed downward, as a young princess in a glittering green dress looked for her lost mom.

Most parents and teachers who attended the party agreed that it was an excellent way for children to release a lot of the tension and fear about the fire.

“Right now I think they’ll need a little venting time,” said Mary Minerman, a second-grade teacher at Top of the World Elementary School.

The school has already planned small group activities, journal writing, and thank-you letters to firefighters as a way for children to express their feelings about the fire, she said.

Even the Fairy Godmother, portrayed by Cynthia Holman, was there to add a bit of cheer to the children’s lives. Sprinkling some “magic” glitter on some young heads, she explained that their wishes would come true.

“Grateful wishes,” she said, “that some of us still have homes.”