Remember yesterday how I said that I felt Lammas was “prepping for the end of the year”, well here it is August and we are planning our Samhain celebration! Now to fully understand, we take the entire month to decorate and enjoy in festivities. I have a Halloween party each year the weekend before Halloween, that’s the 23rd this year. This is the first time I have planned the holiday before Claire’s birthday, but it was her idea and honestly….we need more time.
Outdoors – I am determined that this year we will NOT buy our pumpkin from a church parking lot but an actual pumpkin patch. I want a hayride too! Matter of fact, I want a home school field trip surrounding this event. Also, we need more tombstones. I think this year I want us to each make one with our own names on it. Sounds morbid but I think it could be fun. We also have to make our lawnmower man this year, basically he got run over by our lawnmower. I also want some tiki torches for the yard to have lit up for our party and for Halloween night.
Indoors – Molly wants to craft a “thing in a jar” this year. I think what I might do is have each kid come up with some creepy craft they want to make. Martha Stewart’s Halloween Central has tons of cool ideas. My other favorite site for inspiration is Halloween.com. I also want to get some bloody hand prints for our windows. Lots of candles are in order. Well candles are always in order but I am going to “buy one for me and one for Halloween” sort of thing starting this next week. Also want to get more cobwebs for the house. Hubs insists we should just stop worrying about the ones we battle each week (we have lots of spiders for some reason) but I don’t know….it seems grosser when it’s authentic lol.
Costumes – I want more home made costumes this year. And I want to stray away from the typical “whatever is in fashion this year” type thing. I really want the kids to be creative. For myself, I am trying to get some help making my ritual garb. And I have my retractable teeth. Simple and yet perfect for me. All of this is a challenge since I can’t sew for shit yet.
Party – we are toying with food ideas already. Of course we are sticking with our “gross” theme. Things like Frankenstein Fingers (pickle spears), Scabs (chips), and bloody toenail dip (red dyed onion dip). We are also sticking with our potluck idea, I love seeing what people come up with! One year a kid brought vampire cupcakes that had puncture holes and gooey strawberry filling for blood. He was so proud of them so it made it that much more special. Molly wants to stick with naming soda’s too. Sprite is usually Faerie Tears and Cherry Coke is Vampire’s Delight. New for this year, we are working with a local ice cream shop to come up with some awesome Halloween ice cream. We have some we are working on, like Meat Chunks and something bloody themed. Not sure of ingredients yet but it’s a surprise. You will just have to make a trip here to find out LOL!
Altar – I need to dig up the pictures of our deceased that we are going to honor this year. For those not in the know, Samhain is a time to honor our deceased. Sort of like a Day of the Dead type thing. At ritual we also honor the unfortunate souls who were burned, tortured, or hung for witchcraft.
On top of that we will have Ritual to attend and I am pretty sure the Choir will have a very active part this year. I am hoping they stick with two days of ritual so I can still take the kids trick or treating on Halloween.
Of course I can’t fail to mention that I will be looking forward to Mrs. B’s 31 days of Halloween at her blog. If you love Halloween, you want to follow her blog at that time of year. She usually has a ton of stuff to give away and it’s so much fun seeing all the different items out there.
Whew, so much to do! I think this week I will be taking inventory of what we do have and then start up a what we need list in order of importance. I usually want to go way over budget so I need to know what will be acceptable to cut out. Then next week we will start with gathering up the items we need. I see lots of trips to AC Moore’s in the future lol!
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Sounds like a lot of fun! I’ve always enjoyed that time of the year ~ your foods reminded me of something we did in Brownies (I don’t think you have that in the US? It’s a part of the Girl Guides – kinda like scouts)… we had a room where you went in blindfolded (led by someone) and had to feel various “body parts” … I remember they used peeled grapes for eyeballs & cold pasta for brains. It was quite fun & rather gross LOL
That is a great idea! I will have to put that on list of possibilities. My girls weren’t in Girl Scouts but I do think there is a Brownie sect of GS. I think it’s for the young ones just starting out.
When I was a kid, Brownies was 6-9, then you went to Guides (9-12) and then Pathfinders (12- 15ish I think)… they’ve changed it up now though and added in this pink program called “Sparks” for the 5 & 6, making it so you have to be 7 for Brownies.
It’s all changed though – when my daughter went to Guides for a bit, a friend gave us her old Guide uniform.. which my daughter wore ONCE and never again, after we discovered that they now have “uniforms” that consist of track pants, capris, hoodies, and other more fashionable stuff LOL (although it just ain’t the same — I remember being PROUD of my stiff, scratchy uniform dress and the matching tights LOL)
I’m so jealous. I live out in the country, and nobody can see our house from the road well enough to appreciate any decorations. That’s not to say I don’t do it for me and my daughter, but I can’t impress anyone else.
Hard to believe Samhain is around the corner. As I type this, my woodstove and chimney are getting cleaned to get ready for wood-heat season. Where did summer go?
My daughter is in Sparks
I cringe when I hear them singing their goodbye song, with the “say your prayers” parts.
Pythia´s last [type] ..Aug 6- Movie and TV Spells
It’s still quite hot here so I haven’t begun to feel the signs of fall. Can’t wait, should be soon. Usually we can feel it first in the mornings.
What is Sparks? I haven’t heard of this!