Halloween the way the pros do it
October 21, 2011
If you’ve got children in your life, you’re likely already on the Halloween train. You know the one. It takes you to the land of marshmallow spiders, princess costumes, pumpkin carvings, and to the candy aisles of the grocery store—sometimes several times a week! How can we resist? There are so many great ideas out there for costumes, crafts, activities and our favorite, food. Now, with Halloween homestretch in front of us (only one week to go!) there’s no time to mess around. Here, we turn to the professionals for their Best-Of ideas on everything from food to fun, so you can enjoy Halloween the way the pros do! Here’s the 411 direct from Yoyomama, Lunchalicious and VancouverMom.
Who she is: A guru of activities, keeping moms on the go in the know (in BC and TO!)
On Favorite Halloween Food:
“In our home, Halloween happens in tandem with our oldest daughter's birthday (October 29th), which means her parties often have a spooky theme. Last year for example I made Frankenstein Cupcakes (pictured above). Honestly, these were rather more of an undertaking than I'd envisioned but did receive a standing ovation from the elementary school set!”
“I've also made coffins - pita bread cut into coffin shapes and toasted with a bit of Parmesan on top and then dipped into hummus. Another idea: Amanita muscaria, which I’ve made out of eggs and toothpicks and various other things.”
On Activities: “One of our favourite things to do in October is visit the Pumpkin Patch. We love the Westham Island Herb Farm in Ladner and we combine it with a visit to the Reifel Bird Sanctuary just down the road. It makes a lovely afternoon outing. This is inevitably followed by pumpkin carving, though I must admit we have, on occasion, cheated and just drawn on spooky faces.”
On Crafts: “This year I want to try this zombie craft perhaps while listening to a little Halloween music (I Want Candy by Bow Wow Wow anyone?)”
Who they are: A specialty school lunch service run by a dynamic duo: Carrol and Leanna. They deliver fun and healthy lunches to students across the Greater Victoria area.
On Exciting Yet Healthy Food Ideas: Lunchalicious provided us with SO MANY fabulous ideas. Among our favorites is this Skeleton and Brain Dip, this Cat Skeleton and this Ghoulish Black Bean Dip. It’s all about arranging veggies in hilariously scary shapes.
They also offered these fabulous snack ideas:
- Make Witches fingers using carrot sticks with slivered almond finger nails
- Make Witches brooms using thin carrot stick for handle and celery cut into a brush
- Cut your child’s sandwich into fun shapes (i.e. pumpkin, ghost, bat - use raisins for eyes, witch, etc.)
- Make raisin stuffed grapes = Goblin eyes (ew!)
What is Vancouver Mom? A fabulous online magazine showing moms in the city how to really live it up!
*(Ideas below care of Vancouver Mom Contributor Amber Strocel)
On Ghoulish Halloween Food: “At Halloween food should be fun, even if it's healthy. Lay your veggie tray out in the shape of a skeleton (carrot sticks make great ribs) or give the kids some fruit and tooth picks and let them make edible art. Giving ordinary food spooky names is another great Halloween tradition. Orange juice becomes beetle juice and spaghetti with tomato sauce is veins and blood.” Great advice!
On Pumpkin Joy:
“At our house it's all about the jack-o'-lanterns. We buy several pumpkins and take great joy in carving them all differently. Some are sad, some are happy, some don't even have faces on them. The kids really get into it, and when Halloween's over we can bake our artwork into a pie.
Thanks so much to each contributor! To our community, if any of you has Best-Of Halloween ideas of your own to share, join our conversation here!
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