Thread: El Día de los Muertos theme help

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For the past 2 years my Halloween parties have become legendary, mainly due to the ideas and advise from you all. This year I am looking to do a Day of the Dead theme. Where I am stuck is I want to do more than an altar and I can't figure how or what to use as a backdrop or way to convert the rooms.

One idea I have is various decorated foam skulls painted in day-glo under blacklight hanging in the entry way. Now I just need to figure out what to do in the main part of the house.

Anyone have any ideas?

I would use a lot of colorful lanterns with lights in them - think fiesta, and colorful lights to brighten everything up. Then add a lot of those Day of the Dead skeletons around too.

Oddly enough I am doing the same theme as you this year and it will be my third big party!

My plan is to make dozens of orange and yellow tissue flowers - like the large groups of marigolds used in the festivities, and spread them about the place interlaced with orange and red LED lights and sugar skulls. I am taking much inspiration from the photographs of the processions I have seen, and setting up an ofrenda in my hallway. I am also decorating a lot of my previously bought skulls and skeletons by dressing them up as people, and putting flowers in their eyes etc

Hope this helps somehow!

Thanks for the ideas. They have me rolling in the right direction.

You could also have an empty place setting (silverware, glasses, plates, napkin ect...) like a dumb supper, left for "ghostly' visitors. Place pictures all over of any past relatives, flowers, garlands, sugar skulls...do you have recipes for making Day of the dead bread or sugar skulls?

As tending to the graves of relatives is an important part of the holiday, you could perhaps have a graveyard scene with "ancestral spirits" (not sure if you have the resources, but projected flying ghosts rising from the graveyard would be cool). Or, since some families (I'm not sure if it is regional or not) picnic at the ancestor's grave site, perhaps your serving area could be done up in graveyard fashion (gravestone covers for chairs, headstones along the walls, simple lanterns and/or candles to light the area). Just some thoughts. Good luck!

If you're stumped for costume ideas...I saw a really awesome couple of day of the dead costumes in the 2008 photo gallery for the 2008 Salem Witches Ball.
Sean Brown as Day of the Dead street vendor, 2008 Official Salem Witches Ball $1000 1st prize winner for best costume on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

Great ideas. Absinthe- i don't have a recipe for the bread. I was fixin on making the sugar skulls but haven't seen a mold yet. The picnic in the graveyard will be perfect for setting the food and hanging out. Spy- I do have a costume already, but I also have a mannequin that I just figure out how to dress. Thank again.