Why We Celebrate Holidays

Most of us celebrate holidays - Christmas, Halloween, Valentine's Day - but why?

Of course, we celebrate some holidays because of our religious beliefs. However, there are other reasons why we hold to these joyous occasions. These holidays break up the flow of the year and bind us together as families and communities.

\"Halloween Decorations\"

We celebrate holidays because we want to have fun. We want a break from our regular schedules, jobs, etc. Without holidays our weeks would run together into years of humdrum mediocrity. What is October without children ringing our doorbells asking for candy? What is November without turkey on the table and family around it? What is February with no heart-shaped boxes adorning the kitchen counter? The answer: boring months, I say.

Why We Celebrate Holidays

We also celebrate holidays because they are reasons to reconnect with family and long lost friends. Although we can make the effort to see family and close friends anytime, many people do not. Many people make holidays the times they reach out to other people. And not only is it important to us to feel the warmth of family, we enjoy holidays because they bring out a sense of community. The bright red hearts decorating department stores in February, the blinking lights strung on lamp posts in December, these help us feel connected to something larger than ourselves.

In a world where get-togethers and barbecues do not happen as much as they used to in decades past. In a world where no one borrows sugar from his or her neighbor any longer or bakes a cake when someone moves on to the block, holidays tie us together.

I urge everyone to not throw holidays to the side of the street. Get out and decorate your home at Christmastime. Surprise your spouse, boyfriend or girlfriend with a Valentine's Day gift. And definitely have fun at Halloween. Even if you do not enjoy Halloween, I guarantee the children in your neighborhood will appreciate you dressing up, putting a graveyard in your front yard and passing out candy.

Why We Celebrate Holidays

Scott Faubion is one of the owners of Halloween Hill ( http://www.halloween-hill-props.com ), an online store that sells Halloween decorations, animated Halloween props, and handmade haunt items.

Scary (But Fun) Halloween Party Games

If you have ever been to a Halloween party you know that there are traditional games in which every kid has taken part of. Bobbing for Apples has been a Halloween party games standby for a century or more. The traditional telling of ghost stories with a flashlight on your face still is a Halloween party favorite. This year try something new at your Halloween party. Break from the pack and start a new trend by playing Halloween games that are popular themed and will really give memories of fright and fun and not of boredom. You are sure to think of a few new games yourself, but after reading these ideas it might prime you to be more creative.

Fear Factor is a game show on TV that challenges contestants to do scary and disgusting feats to win a prize. This Halloween, instead of the traditional Halloween party games, have a home fear factor. If you have not seen the show, the basic idea is to perform disgusting, gross dares that will even turn the garbage man's stomach.

\"Halloween Decorations\"

The best way to start the game is to go for touch. Put some disgusting stuff in a box with a hole cut in it. Tell the kids that there is brains in the box and they have to put there hands in the box to move to the next Fear Factor Dare. In the box have a bowl of cold spaghetti smeared with tomato sauce for fake blood. When the children put there hands in the box they will feel the spaghetti but without knowing it is food, they will think it feels like brains.

Scary (But Fun) Halloween Party Games

Have other boxes around for the blind touch game. Put a couple of grapes in a box and tell the child that is the eyes of a dead pirate. In another box put is some beef liver and tell the child that it is the insides of the last child that played the game and lost. In the last bog you can take tied together shoe laces that are wet and cold and you can tell the child that they are feelings the intestines of a murdered woman. You can spin the tale to fit the age groups of the kids, but their heightened imaginations will make this one of the best Halloween party games they have ever played.

The next Fear Factor Halloween game is played with bugs or worms. Have a child sit in a chair blind folded. Tell him that you are taking out a snake out of the box. Tell him that it is a rattle snake. Shake a baby rattle next to his ear and slowly pull a rubber snake over his shoulders and across his body. There are many other gross and scary things that you can incorporate in the game.

A good idea for the end of this Halloween game is to serve gross snacks. Gummy worms and chocolate spiders are a great treat. Candy corn in chocolate pudding also makes a gross, yummy snack. With a little imagination and some creative juices flowing you can make the Halloween party games of the past a memory in only your mind and not your kids.

Scary (But Fun) Halloween Party Games

If you're looking for some ideas for fun Halloween activities or kids Halloween party games, take a look at the Get In Costume website.

You'll find a ton of great ideas for Halloween parties and activities, plus you can get a free copy of my special report "The Family Guide To Halloween Safety" at http://www.getincostume.com

Halloween Decorating Tips - Spooky Fun and a Tree for Halloween?

Halloween is a time when anyone can be a kid at heart. You can celebrate the spookiest holiday of them all to your heart's content without having to break the bank in the process. With a little thought, you can create great-looking Halloween decorations. You're limited only by your imagination.

Spooky Halloween Decorating Tips

\"Halloween Decorations\"

Halloween can be a wonderful time for decorating, since it's so different from any other holiday, and it has really taken off as a chance to let people's imaginations run wild over the past few years. Here are a few ideas for adding some spooky Halloween spirit to your home:

Halloween Decorating Tips - Spooky Fun and a Tree for Halloween?

You can easily make a very attractive display by carving holes in apples the size of votive candles and then allowing the candles to float in a large glass punch bowl, galvanized metal bucket, or tub. It can be especially effective when all the lights are dimmed.

If you're having a Halloween get-together, you can keep the punch cold by freezing water in a rubber glove and then adding it to the punch bowl. It will effectively keep the punch from getting too warm while adding a wonderfully macabre touch to your table decorations.

Another fun thing you can do to dress up your punch bowl is to add plastic spiders and other creepy crawly things to your ice cubes by simply adding them to the water when you put your ice cube trays in the refrigerator. They'll add a nice eerie touch of holiday spookiness to your Halloween party.

On the outside of your home, make sure to add plenty of dry leaves around the porch. Their crunch and dead looks will make your Halloween decorations even more convincing, lending a haunted-house look to your holiday décor.

A Tree for Halloween?

Another unusual, but effective decoration is a Halloween tree. Manufacturers turn out strings of outdoor lights for almost every holiday nowadays, so it won't be hard to find orange lights and other spooky decorations for your tree. Just check your local home improvement center or large department store. Your kids will also have a wonderful time helping to create skeletons, bats, witches, and all the other assorted characters that have a special place at Halloween time to hang on your tree. Take a standard artificial Christmas tree as your starting point and then let your imagination run wild.

If you have railings on your porch, you can also find Halloween-colored garland to thread through the rails at the same store where you found your Halloween lights for the tree. It can be especially potent when combined with your spookily decorated Halloween tree.

There's an ever increasing variety of Halloween-related decorating choices to add spookiness to your holiday décor. You can put a special welcome mat in front of your door, you can get stick-on figures for your windows, you can get motion sensitive manikins that will make scary noises and move around when someone gets too close, and you can even buy fog machines to turn your front porch into one of the spookiest places in town on Halloween night.

Your decorations don't need to be expensive, however. Even small touches like painting river rocks along your walkway orange and adding figures or phrases like "boo" can help add to the overall ambience of your Halloween decorating. If you have a tall tree branch hanging in your garden, hang a stuffed sheet "ghost" and attach it to a hidden rope. Have someone hide and pull the rope back and forth to make the ghost move.

The bottom line: have fun with it. Halloween may be thought of as a children's holiday, but it can make for some of the most fun decorating that an adult can do every year!

Halloween Decorating Tips - Spooky Fun and a Tree for Halloween?

Jeanette Fisher helps home makers have fun decorating their homes. Free holiday decorating tips [http://JoyHolidays.com]

Home Decorating Interior Design Ideas at http://JoytotheHome.com

Copyright © 2006 Jeanette J. Fisher

Creepy Halloween Party Decorations For an Adult Halloween Party

When done right, good Halloween party decorations and props can give your adult guests genuine chills they'll remember long after the party. One of the most effective ways to give your decor more psychological impact is to choose a theme. A coherent theme helps set the mood better than a collection of random decorations.

Straight Out of a Horror Movie

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If you're a movie buff, this theme will be easy to create. Say your favorite scary movie is Psycho. Set up your entry way to look like the lobby of the Bates motel, complete with guest book. In the living room, dress up a corpse or skeleton prop as the late Mrs. Bates. And don't forget to put the remains of poor Marion Crane in the shower. With the horror movie set theme, details really help. Using the Psycho theme as an example, you might hang a lenticular changing portrait in your living room and label it "Mother."

Creepy Halloween Party Decorations For an Adult Halloween Party

Haunting Ghosts

Even those who claim they "don't believe in ghosts" still get a little spooked by seemingly paranormal activity when the mood is right. To really rock the ghost theme, don't skimp on your ghost decorations and props. Hanging bed sheets won't cut it. What you want, at least for your most visible ghosts, are specters that look like they used to be human. It's the twisted faces, pale skin and hollow eyes that really creep people out. If you have some room in your Halloween decorations budget, look into a ghost illusion prop. These project semi-transparent, 3-D figures that look disturbingly realistic. Ghost illusion DVDs will get you a similar effect cheaper.

A Night with the Devil

This is another theme that's more about chills than gore. To get the most out of this theme, set up a devil prop that's as life-like as you can find. Place him where your guests will be spending most of their time, whether that's in the living room or outside around a bonfire. To compliment your devil, pick up some ghouls and demons. Decent motion- or sound-activated animated demons can be found for less than . Hang up a few winged demons and leave standing ones lurking in dark corners. Placing one outside on a window ledge looking in also creates a nice creepy effect.

Creepy Halloween Party Decorations For an Adult Halloween Party

Once you have a theme in mind, decorating is just a matter of knowing where to get affordable, quality Halloween party decorations and how to set them up for the greatest impact. Visit HalloweenPartyDecorations.org for cheap décor and props and ideas on setting them up.