Thread: All About Themes

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Ecula....not to long ago someone came into our local consignment store with quite a variety of Egyptian statues and such also King Tut. I scooped up some of it for a pretty good price. I'll get some pictures of it as soon as we start decorating.

As far as themes......I have always decorated the inside of my house for Halloween as did my family. So the 2nd year I was in this new house I started inviting the kids in for their candy. Parents did not know what to make of it so I invited them in also. We are in our 6th year this season and last year had 600 people come through the house. I did not think I could afford to change themes each year but I keep buying so this year we are changing things a bit. Last year we did not get everything up. SO we decorate our foyer,down the hall is the Mad Scientist, bathroom is the "Bat Room", never decorated the bathroom until some kid coming through had to use the bathroom so now we decorate it. Dining room is the "Spell & Potion Room", Kitchen is "The Cadaver Cafe & Candy Kitchen", living room is the funeral parlor. Last year we did not do the funeral parlor & did not finish the kitchen but this year we will. Then you step into the garage which housed a dungeon like room with a witch & her table of goodies. This year the garage will house 2 scenes...a Vampire Ball & a gypsy tent.
I been buying stuff all year so I'm pretty excited to start unpacking.

The people come through the house & get treats, a bag of freshly popped popcorn and their candy bag in the kitchen. We also hand out brownies & last year I made gourmet chocolates for the adults. Outside we have a cemetery that is a work in progress. Best new item this year is the antique pump organ I just bought. TOT's are gonna love it.

As far as storing???>>>>hahahah ...it's everywhere & I mean everywhere, the garage, under the beds, on the shelf above the washer & dryer, in the barn, some stuff that we needed weathered was left outside & now it looks great. Sometimes I lose stuff....for instance I lost the Halloween shower curtain for 2 yrs., just recently found it in hubby's closet!lol So sometimes I don't gather it all up. Its also in the basement & in my office. We have a commercial kitchen & when the health inspector came she wanted to know why we had a full sized coffin sitting at the entry door. Had to do some explaining with that!lol

@MUFFY:

First, HAHA, that coffin episode sounds funny!

600 hundred people! Now that is something. Lots of work! And
popcorn to pop. I have in my small apartment about 13 friends.

- - -
Dear Reader, tell us your theme this year!

I'm reading through all of these theme ideas, and I feel like a lame-o. My husband and most of our friends just got back from Iraq, and so we have a reason to party But we can't decide on a theme. I want to do a 'P' party. Everyone has to come in a costume that starts with a P. Princess, Pimp, Pilot, Peacock, etc. Anyone who doesn't come in costume has to wear a pig nose all night. I also thought of a "Past & Present Heroes" party. Guests could come as a super hero, or as whatever their heroes were when they were younger. We always just do simple Halloween style decorations, so we don't have to worry about trying to decorate in theme. So what do you think? Lame or easy and effortless? I'm worried about how much people are really going to want to dress up, so I'm trying to keep it simple.

@88Mwife: Hows your party idea doing? P-party or heroes? I am starting to
decorate next weekend. Woohoo.

Last year was our first year with a house and yard to haunt, and I had always planned that when I could I would do a yard haunt. Of course the first year was a big rush starting just a few weeks before Halloween so I didn't really consider a theme. However this year as we added to it I decided that I wanted something to bring the whole haunt together. While I like themes I wanted something a little more. Which is why I created a history for the house and a reason for the haunt. It seems to pull everything together for me, so I am gong with it. The story of the house centers around a fictional family I am creating that lived in the area a hundred years ago. What I really like about it is the family was reclusive so no one ever knew how many of them there were. Since I do not like to do one simple theme but a series of different scenes each with their own theme it works out great for me having a whole family to create to fit each scene. As an example when I started telling my hubby the story he asked me how he was gonna be able to fit the circus theme into the storyline. He has been wanting to do a creepy circus scene. My response was "We can have a long lost cousin who ran away with the circus years ago and returns for a reunion with his whole troupe of crazed carnies."
I eventually want to do stone tablets etched with parts of the story that people can read as they traverse the haunt and learn about each family member and how they fit in to each scene. I am hoping it works out. I have high hopes.
If anyone is interested I have started a blog to tell the story of the Ravenfells and their manor. Kinda hoping to get some insight into what people think of it. http://www.halloweenforum.com/blogs/...beginning.html

@Ravenfell Manor: Sounds great, that idea of yours. Now when I have been
reading these, I am thinking, that I most definitely have to do some kind
of mystery thing myself one year. It is just that my apartment is so small,
that I would need more space. And, I hope to see pictures later, maybe on
your blog. How things are progressing/evolving/coming up (as I am Finnish,
I really don't know, what term I should use), and how it all is, when ready,
and how did your party go.

Ancient Egypt theme is something I have been dreaming of as I have also been fascinated by it since I was a kid. It´s just really hard to find decorations/stuff for that I think, especially with a low-budget... But someday, someday... I just found a very cool band called Melechesh (from Jerusalem) and their oriental black metal would be so cool for Egypt theme!

Ecula, is the last pic of your Gothic manor/Haunted mansion post last page taken by you? The one from the bone church in Czech Republic? Anyway, so cool themes everyone and it's great someone decided to make a list of them.

It has been 16 years since I have had a party; so I decided to go big this year. The theme is “Seven Deadly Sins.” Each area/room has been decorated based on sloth, pride, lust, greed, gluttony, envy, and wrath. It has taken me seven months to plan everything. It took almost two months just to get the basement decorate. The trophies, invitations and the games are all based on the theme. I even decided to hire a DJ and photo booth to make it a party that no one will ever forget. With 70 people attending, I can’t wait until the party starts….only two more weeks!

More pictures in my album.
I did a VooDoo theme last year.

Originally Posted by star_girl_mag

However my brother keeps trying to convince me that we should do an Egyptian curse theme. Which would REALLY mean starting from scratch and most places don't carry anything like it.

MAN. I get that it would be hard to find decorations for it, but it would completely ROCK if you were able to go all out for something like that.

As for us, we've never really bothered with a "theme," to be honest. It doesn't help that our Halloween parties are more along the lines of movie parties than honest-to-goodness parties. We make Halloween-themed food, have our decorations up, turn down the lights (except for the jack o'lanterns and such, of course) and play spooky movies.

ALTHOUGH, the movies are always chosen by theme. The first year we did a general Horror movie theme, but that became far too all-encompassing. What we do is collect all the movies from a specific theme and vote on which movie to watch next. I think that first year we ended up with "Secret Window," "The Shining" and "Poltergeist."

Since then, we've enforced themes within the general horror theme - Vampires, Werewolves, Ghosts, etc. This year we're going with Classic Universal Monsters. Considering that most of my friends actually haven't seen any beyond Dracula and Frankenstein, it should be interesting.