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By October 31st the dark nights are getting drawn out and colder, and it’s easier to dream of another world of Halloween ghosts, walking dead, witches, skeletons and hobgoblins. You may be one of the many hosts planning to invite hordes of these scary creations into your home that evening for a Halloween costume party.

Perhaps you will be arranging a Halloween costume party this year, and looking for fresh Halloween ideas.

First, think who your guests will be. Your plans will be different for children or adults. If a broad age range of family guests will be invited, you will need to plan how to meet the different needs of each group as the evening goes on, and make the entertainment more scary after the little children go to bed for the night.

You can have a great deal of fun preparing your Halloween theme invitations. Part of the attraction of Halloween is how many variations there are on the ghostly themes. Your invitation should be novel, colorful and scary, but be sensitive about doing things like including imitation body parts to fall out of the envelope. Not everyone will see that as a joke. You should tell your guests if they are expected to wear Halloween costumes. Don’t forget to include an RSVP so you know how many guests to cater for.

Halloween decorations inside and out can take time to set up but make the evening more memorable. A cemetery scene with tombstones is a great idea, with subdued lighting, images of ghosts and ghouls, hairy spiders and their webs, sound effects and perhaps even a fog machine. Halloween is about Jack-o-lanterns made out of pumpkins with a candle inside. You will need to make quite a few, in different sizes, to help set the atmosphere.

With all that pumpkin flesh left over from carving your pumpkins, your party menu might include pumpkin soup and pumpkin pie. It’s fun to create a scary Halloween menu for the party food. However, following the horror theme to an excess with Halloween decorations when laying out your table can detract from the pleasure and fun your guests will have at your party. Instead focus on food with a Halloween theme to make for a memorable party.

You will need to decide whether you will be serving a full dinner or just finger food. Will you serve your guests at a table, or provide a buffet? The meal can be a good time to distribute party favors, especially if your party bag includes jokes, games or other things that will stimulate conversation.

Whether to buy, hire or make your Halloween costumes needs to be planned well in advance. Inviting your guests to wear costumes is a great way to get your guests into a party mood, to get conversations started and to get people laughing, but you need to tell them early enough. Going a step further and having your guest wear masks is a traditional way of making your guests less self conscious, and to start conversations. It helps if you can learn how to face paint especially to make up children with Halloween face painting designs.

Halloween music and sound effects should be used to help set the atmosphere as part of the party entertainment, but at some point your older guests will likely want to dance to the latest hits. Making up a compilation of music specially for the evening on your computer can be fun. You might like to show short or full horror movies in the entertainment.

Party games and spooky Halloween themed entertainment adds to the fun. It works better with an enthusiastic person to get everyone participating.

Great children’s parties do not happen by accident – oh no! Behind every great kids’ party, a well-organised and creative Mum or Dad has spent a great deal time and effort crafting a memorable event for their child. Here we reveal the essential elements of a successful children’s party so that you too can throw a party that your child and his friends will remember for years to come.

If you begin the planning stage by choosing the party’s theme, the rest of the planning will be much easier. So, does your child have a favourite book, movie, or television show? Maybe they have a fascination with fire fighters or cowboys? Discuss theme options with your child and before you know it, you could be arranging a birthday adventure with Rhino and Mittens (from Bolt the movie), or a 1960s psychedelic extravaganza or a nerve-jangling murder mystery event.

Next, involve your child in designing the party as much as possible. Chat about the invitations, the guest list, the menu, the program, the décor and the goodie bags. All of these are a great opportunity for the child to learn about what goes into organising a party, about making decisions, about how much (or how little) things cost and best of all, it’s an excellent opportunity for any parent to understand their child better. For instance, you may find that your little one prefers small parties of five or six friends as opposed to the banquet you were planning or that he or she is very thoughtful about everyone’s beliefs and asks for no pork or beef to be served when food is discussed.

Once you and your child have decided on a theme and a date, it is time to create invitations – these should include the date, time and venue of your party as well as a date by which you require RSVPs. This date should be set 4 or 5 days before the actual party to give you time to shop for the appropriate amount of food, prizes, party-ware (such as straws, plastic plates, cups etc) and goody bag contents.

When shopping, always purchase more than you think you will need. It is not part of every culture’s ‘protocol’ to RSVP their attendance, so expect unexpected guests!

The games, food and fun activities you have planned may well fail if the atmosphere is not welcoming. Good decorations that are centred on your theme are pivotal to a successful party. Use bright colours and upbeat music to set the stage for an energetic disco party or dim the lights, scatter beanbags and have the smell of buttery popcorn greet those who are attending a pre-teen movie marathon party.

A successful party has age-appropriate games and activities to keep the children entertained, young children love the old favourites such as musical chairs and pass-the-parcel, while older kids enjoy scavenger hunts and murder in the dark. Kids are unpredictable so have more games/activities planned than you think you need. If a certain game is not working out or is causing conflict, having an alternative on standby will be a great help.

Make sure you have a 2:10 children/adult ratio meaning that for every 10 children there are at least two adults present – this will ensure that the party will run as safely and as smoothly as possible.

On the day, start the party with an un- structured activity like coloring in, so that any early kids have something to do and late kids do not feel like they have missed anything by arriving on time or a little late. So for example, if you’re hosting a Bratz themed party, at sites like Bratz Coloring Pages you’ll find the best color in Bratz

Have a plan regarding when you’ll play games and when you’ll break for food, cake and the opening of presents but be 100 percent prepared to ditch it. The concept is for everyone to have fun and you may well have to sacrifice the ‘master plan’ to achieve this. Not all children will want to play all the games. You may find that some will happily play with toys or colour-in, while the others compete in an egg and spoon race – and this is okay.

Entertainment other than games could encompass arts and crafts, gameshow style quizzes or perhaps you would consider hiring a professional such as a magician, a Bratz, a clown or a puppeteer. If you opt for the latter, ensure you book these entertainers well in advance and make a note of this on the invitation – not all children enjoy clowns for instance and a word of ‘warning’ on the invitation will be much appreciated by the parents.

Party food is at its best when it is kept simple. Teens love pizza, garlic bread and soft drinks while toddlers love tasty finger foods and ice cream. You cannot go wrong with snacks and treats such as crisps, cookies and chocolate but bear in mind that it is very likely some of your guests will have dietary requirements or allergies that you will have to cater for.

Children love the idea of a bag full of sweets to take home and party goodie bags are universally expected these days. However, they do not have to be a complex or pricey affair. Simple bags that contain a few sweets and chocolates plus a couple of novelties or a small toy are always well received.

All through the party, do not forget to record the event by taking many photographs and footage. Perhaps a capable friend could be assigned this task so that – for a change – you and your family members all appear on the photos and in the footage as well.

How you close the birthday party is just as important as how you begin it. As much emphasis should be placed on the farewell as was placed on greeting and welcoming your guests when they first arrived. Brief your child beforehand about the good manners required when parting with guests who need to be handed a goodie bag, thanked for attending the party and for the gifts they brought.

After the event, tidying-up can wait. Instead, spend some quality time with your child to chat about the party, his favourite highlights, the games, the gifts and the lovely friends who attended.