Thread: Attempting a Voodoo Bayou Theme

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I was just on ebay looking for some witches stuff and found a new to me ebay store. It is called Curts Novelty And Gift. It has evidently been a store on ebay for a long time. I am not affiliated with it in any way nor promoting the store.

That said, they had some cool voodoo shrunken heads that were pretty reasonable. They also had pirate heads and other things that you might be able to use.

You can probably do a search there for the store name. If not, PM me cause I bookmarked it.

Lots and lots of moss for outside.

I would make a voodoo "altar"/cabinet inside. If you have a...I'm not sure what you call them, like a cabinet/shelving thing with double doors? Maybe it's a sort of liquor cabinet. I have seen a bunch of movies and tv shows where they have one of those with the "altar" inside. If you don't have something like that you could use a shelf or sideboard.
This is close to what I mean by the cabinet:
http://evminiatures.tripod.com/voodoo_cab.htm

If you have open shelves in your kitchen or living/dining room, I would suggest having a lot of voodoo-esque things displayed such as vials and jars of dried herbs and other things like skulls, animal parts/feet, feathers, candles, etc... Make sure to have candles which are partially used. A gator skull would be a nice touch.


I actually just saw dried or roasted chicken feet for sale at a pet store (as a dog chew/treat.) That would avoid the issue of spoiling.

Chicken feet:
http://www.auntjeni.com/store/index....products_id=18

This was a nearby local haunter a few years back in Rancho Cucamonga, CA that hosted this yard haunt. Maybe it can help you with some ideas..


http://www.sinisterpumpkin.com/main.html

Hi Redheadarn! We're also doing the voodoo bayou theme. Tried to be original with the title of the party, but the whole voodoo on the bayou thing just sounds so good!

Anyway, much like everyone else, we're also doing voodoo in the kitchen with jars/candles/voodoo artifacts everywhere. Making shrunken heads from apples, using chicken bones, twig/twine voodoo dolls, etc. Dining room will be a little more old southern plantation themed (a la interview with the vampire), with little touches of purple/green/gold (PGG) throughout. Bathrooms will be bayou themed with croc-filled tubs, plant life, fireflies, and swamp sounds (even hoping to steam up the bathroom with hot water prior to the party in order to get that humid feel). Basement will be back to the southern mansion look in the movie room, along with a voodoo alter and more candles/jars.

We're playing Interview with the Vampire and The Skeleton Key. We've got a mix of New Orleans music and jazz, as well as songs written about the crescent city.

We're serving cajun food (hubby grew up in New Orleans, so he's got this down!), beignets, pralines, and we've already ordered our Pat O'Briens hurricane mix!

Oh, and we're handing out PGG beads at the door.

I'm sure I'll be back with more detail, but sounds like we're all doing very similar things! Good luck and hope you've collected some good ideas.

Originally Posted by Monroe58

Hi Redheadarn! We're also doing the voodoo bayou theme. Tried to be original with the title of the party, but the whole voodoo on the bayou thing just sounds so good!

Anyway, much like everyone else, we're also doing voodoo in the kitchen with jars/candles/voodoo artifacts everywhere. Making shrunken heads from apples, using chicken bones, twig/twine voodoo dolls, etc. Dining room will be a little more old southern plantation themed (a la interview with the vampire), with little touches of purple/green/gold (PGG) throughout. Bathrooms will be bayou themed with croc-filled tubs, plant life, fireflies, and swamp sounds (even hoping to steam up the bathroom with hot water prior to the party in order to get that humid feel). Basement will be back to the southern mansion look in the movie room, along with a voodoo alter and more candles/jars.

We're playing Interview with the Vampire and The Skeleton Key. We've got a mix of New Orleans music and jazz, as well as songs written about the crescent city.

We're serving cajun food (hubby grew up in New Orleans, so he's got this down!), beignets, pralines, and we've already ordered our Pat O'Briens hurricane mix!

Oh, and we're handing out PGG beads at the door.

I'm sure I'll be back with more detail, but sounds like we're all doing very similar things! Good luck and hope you've collected some good ideas.

Hi Monroe (and others)!

My wife and I are also doing Voodoo as our theme this year (small world, huh?). I love your ideas! Only thing I'd recommend is: be VERY careful with the Pat O'Briens hurrican mix. We have a fairily mature ("tame") crowd, but I still decided against the Pat O'Brien's because of one word: carpet. That stuff tastes great and fits the theme well, but is murder (yuk yuk!) to get out of the carpet.

My wife and I live in the Bay Area as well, but we're both from the South. (She's from southern MS, near New Orleans, and catered weddings for nearly 10 years, so she's got the food stuff DOWN. lol).

As far as decorations, our main decorating now is centered on our ideas for our living room. We plan to cover the walls with black - either a cheap cloth or even several of those black plastic tablecloths from a dollar store (doesn't matter since you won't see that part). On top of that we're covering all the walls with moss, vines, and all kinds of greenery. We'll also drape some from the ceiling. Some fake trees in the corners and a few strands of purple and/or white "Christmas" lights in the ceiling will complete the decorations. Then we're gonna run a good fog machine in there and play swamp sounds. This should make this large part of our house seem fairly swamp like. We'll probably also cover the couches with drape cloth.

Anyone looking for Swamp sounds...look for the nature sounds in iTunes, they're great and relatively inexpensive.

Our kitchen will probably be a Voodoo lounge, and the dining room (where most of our is served) will be a Headhunter's Cafe. Haven't made too much leeway on decoration ideas for these two rooms yet except for the standard: potion jars, shrunken heads, an "altar" to Marie Laveau, etc. Also, lots of skulls/skeletons, etc.

Feel free to steal any ideas I've had...and I would LOVE to hear any suggestions for my own rooms.

Thanks!

Originally Posted by airmanjerm

Hi Monroe (and others)!

My wife and I are also doing Voodoo as our theme this year (small world, huh?). I love your ideas! Only thing I'd recommend is: be VERY careful with the Pat O'Briens hurrican mix. We have a fairily mature ("tame") crowd, but I still decided against the Pat O'Brien's because of one word: carpet. That stuff tastes great and fits the theme well, but is murder (yuk yuk!) to get out of the carpet.

My wife and I live in the Bay Area as well, but we're both from the South. (She's from southern MS, near New Orleans, and catered weddings for nearly 10 years, so she's got the food stuff DOWN. lol).

As far as decorations, our main decorating now is centered on our ideas for our living room. We plan to cover the walls with black - either a cheap cloth or even several of those black plastic tablecloths from a dollar store (doesn't matter since you won't see that part). On top of that we're covering all the walls with moss, vines, and all kinds of greenery. We'll also drape some from the ceiling. Some fake trees in the corners and a few strands of purple and/or white "Christmas" lights in the ceiling will complete the decorations. Then we're gonna run a good fog machine in there and play swamp sounds. This should make this large part of our house seem fairly swamp like. We'll probably also cover the couches with drape cloth.

Anyone looking for Swamp sounds...look for the nature sounds in iTunes, they're great and relatively inexpensive.

Our kitchen will probably be a Voodoo lounge, and the dining room (where most of our is served) will be a Headhunter's Cafe. Haven't made too much leeway on decoration ideas for these two rooms yet except for the standard: potion jars, shrunken heads, an "altar" to Marie Laveau, etc. Also, lots of skulls/skeletons, etc.

Feel free to steal any ideas I've had...and I would LOVE to hear any suggestions for my own rooms.

Thanks!

Luckily, airmanjerm, we just moved into a place with all hardwood floors...that's why we're feeling okay about the hurricane mix and all the red wine we'll serve!

We're lucky to have spouses with experience with the food...makes things so much easier!

Your plans sound really great; hopefully we'll see pictures soon after Halloween. Oh, and thanks for the iTunes tip. We will definitely use that!

Hey, I meant to add that if you had hardwood floors then I'd be 100% jealous that you get to serve Pat O'Brien's! lol

Yeah I saw someone posted links somewhere else to a $15 CD that had one 3-minute track of swamp music...the things on iTunes aren't Halloween-related (I just typed in "Swamp sounds"), but work pretty well.

We haven't made up a menu yet, although I'm sure it'll consist of lots of cajun-themed foods. We should share "menus" here to help each other with our Voodoo theme!

Haha! We are very thankful for this home's flooring...the best part is that when the kids spill something it's an easy clean up! Can't wait to get the hurricane mix in...we ordered the concentrate; hope it does the trick.

With the swamp sounds, I didn't plan on making it Halloween-y, just as authentic as possible, so that's fine. Hubby is in charge of music/sounds, so he's on iTunes right now.

Here's our current tentative menu:

Jambalaya
Gumbo
Red beans and rice
Muffuletta dip
Crawfish boil (if we can get ahold of any crawfish here)
Breaded catfish nuggets
Beignets
Pralines


How 'bout you guys?

Hey,

Well honestly you're further than we are with menu decisions. Needless to say ours will be similar to that, but I'm sure we'll have some non-Cajun stuff also. A couple other things we'll probably have is a shrimp-and-grits station, and "Mississippi Caviar" (you can find recipes online...it's a dip). Here's one I found real quick:

http://www.relishmag.com/recipes/vie...pi-caviar.html

(My wife knows how to make this so I may try to get her to write down her own recipe for me).

I'm allergic to seafood so we'll probably make shrimpless jambalaya (chicken and sausage only), but that's a "gimme" for a cajun party. Beignets are also a plan here, and pralines.

As for crawfish, I had a friend here a few years ago (I'm in the military) who had run her own restaurant in Shreveport, LA before joining the military. She had a large amount of crawfish flown in to have an old-fashioned Boil here, and I remember her going on and on about the nightmare she had getting it into California. So, it may be worth it but it could also be more trouble than it's worth. If you work it out though, be sure to boil it with some corn and serve the corn on the side!

If you want some extra drink ideas, look up "Old New Orleans Rum" and order some of their Cajun Spiced rum. It's spiced with cajun spices and has a great flavor. Plus, it mixes well with sweet tea! Don't make the Pat O'Brien's with it though, you wouldn't want to waste it as a mixer. OH: I've learned to add a little orange juice to the powder mix to make it a little better...your call of course, but made according to directions makes it a little watery to me.

(Speaking of....if you're gonna have an authentic party set in the South....Voodoo or not....you gotta serve REAL sweet tea. By "Real," I mean you add a good cup of sugar to it while you've got the tea bags boiling on the stove, then add more water (to get it to the size of your pitcher) and then ice. Southern Sweet Tea secret: you GOTTA add the sugar while it's hot! No adding it later when it's iced down...hee hee.) This would make a good non-alcoholic drink, but if you're not from the South it can be a little sweet.

I'll post more menu ideas as the wife creates it.

Do you have room inside to do a raised tomb like they have in New Orleans graveyards?
Would it be rude to put an X on your door like they did when checking houses after Katrina? That would say spooky abandoned house to me!
Like this: http://photos.nola.com/hurricane_kat...omblog=8000910