When you want to host a memorable Halloween Party, there are several items that must not be omitted from your list of Halloween Party ideas.

Halloween party ideas means the plans outlined for the social gathering at the celebration of Halloween that will make it a wonderful occasion of pleasure and amusement.

Below are top ten (10) Halloween party ideas.

1. Home Decorations: There must be Halloween pictures and objects that will line up the front-door, the walls, the ceiling, and even on the floor. The windows and other glasses must have spooky items to match.
2. Costumes for people: You have to decide the type of Halloween garments to put on. What of the kids? Are you shopping downtown or on the Internet? What of the other accessory wears and the hairstyle?
3. Masks: There are bundles of Halloween masks to choose from. For adults, the more scary, the better.
4. Pumpkin Carved into a jack-o-lantern: This is one of the most important aspects of the Halloween.
5. Recipes/Treats: The meals must be real treats. Thus ordinary sweets purchased from the grocery shop down the street may not make the impression you desire.
6. Drinks: There must be enough to drink for the party as the people celebrate.
7. Music: You have to arrange for some sounds (music) that will fill the air.
8. Games/greeting cards: Please do not forget to plan for the Halloween games and greeting cards.
9. Tricks/story telling: The Halloween is a season of “treats and trick”. Thus you need to learn some magic for the occasion and lots of ghost stories to be told to the children.
10. Fortune telling: There is need for some “divination” concerning marriages, health, luck, and death.

As the weather starts to get colder and indoor boredom sets in, give your children Halloween crafts to keep them busy. Depending on their age, this may or may not get them out of their cold weather funk. But even if they are getting a little older, there could be a lot of fun to be had if you can interest your children in Halloween crafts.

A good way to get them motivated is to have them gussy up the treats for the kids who come to your house to trick or treat. Get several bags of suckers and a box of tissues. Wrap the tissue around the round part of the sucker and tie a ribbon, rubber band, or even a twist tie right below the round part of the sucker. Make some eyes and an even an open mouth if you like and you have little ghost suckers to hand out on Halloween.

Another fun idea starts with drawing a spider’s body with no legs on a piece of construction paper. Cut some pipe cleaners to the appropriate length and have your children glue them to their spider’s bodies. Get creative with what you could do with the finished product.

If you are having a hard time coming up with ideas on your own then you shouldn’t have a hard time finding plenty of children’s Halloween crafts in any craft book. You could also get a craft book dedicated to Halloween to find some more spooky ideas to fill your Halloween with fun and fright.

Pumpkin Crafts for Kids

If you are in charge of a kid’s Halloween party at your house or school you will want to be ready with Halloween crafts for kids.

Pumpkin crafts can be easily made and will be lots of fun for everyone. Here are some Halloween crafts for kids that involve pumpkins:

Pumpkin Photo Card- Take a picture of each child with a Polaroid or digital camera. Purchase pre-made frames that will allow the kids to decorate them. Have markers, puffy paint, glitter pens and other decorating supplies available for the kids to use to decorate the frames. After the frames are complete you can tape each child’s photo on the inside.

Pumpkin Seed Necklace- All you need for this project is pumpkin seeds, white thread or Scrappers Floss and a needle. Prepare the pumpkin seeds ahead of time by cutting up the pumpkin and washing the seeds. Let the kids thread the pumpkin seeds onto the thread to make a necklace. When they are finished just tie the ends. You could also use orange beads with the pumpkin seeds. +

Pumpkin Candy Jar- Purchase clear 4" jars, orange pom poms, green chenille stems, black felt and candy. Glue an orange pom pom to the lid of the canister. Fold the chenille stem in half once and the fold again and twist. Glue it on top of the pom pom to make a pumpkin stem. Use the black felt and cut out a nose, eyes and mouth. Glue these onto the pumpkin and fill the jar with candy.

Other Halloween Craft Ideas for Children

Frankenstein is always a clever theme when it comes to Halloween decorating, crafts and parties.

First of all we will make a Frankenstein painted pot. All you need is a clay pot and some acrylic paint in various Frankenstein-like colors.

A cool accent will be the two push pins used to look like bolts. Have a wire cutter handy to cut off the pin part and then use a glue gun to attach the pins to the painted pot. You can put tissue paper inside and candy or other treats.

Next let’s try the Frankenstein laboratory hand. These Halloween crafts for children are great and easy to make. Take lime green construction paper and have each child trace her hand onto a folded sheet of the paper. Put the wrist on the fold while tracing and then cut out. Don’t cut on the fold! Open the hand shape and cut and glue pieces of chenille stems to the fingers on one side of the hand. This will allow the fingers to bend. Glue the hands together to form one hand. Cut fingernails of construction paper and glue on the fingertips. Glue a popsicle stick to the bottom of the wrist and add a spider ring to one or more fingers.

Another good Halloween craft for children is the freaky Frankenstein popcorn hand project. You will need disposable clear gloves, candy corn, popcorn and green curling ribbon. Put the candy corn in the glove first to look like fingernails and then add the popcorn. Tie the top with the ribbon and you are done.

Easy Halloween Recipes – Don’t have time for intricate Halloween recipes? Try something easy and tasty. Here are three Halloween treats that can be thrown together, quickly:

Bug Juice

Ingredients:

9 cups strawberries
2 1/4 cups lemonade concentrate
3 quarts ginger ale
3 cups frozen blueberries

Instructions:

Pour lemonade concentrate into a large punch bowl. Mash the strawberries in a separate bowl. Use a fork to do this. Next, add the mashed strawberries to the punch bowl that you’ve filled with lemonade concentrate. Chill for several hours. Before serving, add ginger ale and frozen blueberries, then stir.

Chocolate Spiders

To make these spider chocolates, you will need a double boiler and a pastry bag. Use two tips for the bag: a 1/4 tip, and a 1/8 tip.

Ingredients:

4 cups semisweet chocolate

Instructions:

Melt chocolate in the top of a double boiler. Allow the chocolate to cool for 10 minutes, then pour it into a pastry bag. Use a 1/4 tip to form the body, and a 1/8 tip to form the legs. Line a baking sheet with wax paper. Squeeze chocolate onto sheet, forming the spiders. Chill for 10 minutes. Remove spiders from paper, and store in the refrigerator.

Roasted Pumpkin Seeds

Ingredients:

3 cups pumpkin seeds
12 cups water
6 tablespoons salt
melted butter, desire amount
vegetable spray

Instructions:

Rinse the pumpkin seeds well. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Add seeds, water, and salt to a large pan, and simmer on low heat for 10 minutes. Use a colander to drain seeds, and lay them out on paper towels to dry. Toss the pumpkin seeds with butter, coating them well. Spray a baking sheet with vegetable spray, and add the pumpkin seeds to the baking sheet. Bake for 30 minutes, until brown.

Vampire’s Smoothie

Ingredients
1 full tray of ice cubes
6 oz. can of frozen raspberry juice
1 1 /2 cups vanilla yogurt
1 banana
desired amount of strawberries
small drops of red food coloring

Instructions
Add all ingredients into a blender. Blend to liquify. Makes 5 servings.
After the guests have quenched their thirsts with the Vampire’s Smoothie, treat them to these snack food recipes for your Halloween Party:

Brain Shrimp Dip

A brain mold is required for this recipe.

Ingredients
8 ounces soft cream cheese
1 10 3/4 oz. can of cream of mushroom soup
.25 oz. unflavored gelatin, softened in 1/4 cup of water
1 bunch chopped green onions
3 pounds coarsely chopped cooked shrimp
1 cup mayonnaise
Tabasco seasoning to taste
1 Tablespoon lemon juice

Instructions
Mix cream cheese into heated soup. Stir in gelatin, blending well. Stir in all other ingredients, and pour into an oiled mold. Chill until firm, and serve with assorted crackers.

Bat Sandwiches

A bat-shaped cookie cutter is required for this recipe.

Ingredients
12 oz. shredded Cheddar cheese
8 oz. chive and onion flavored cream cheese
4 oz. diced pimiento, drained
1/2 cup chopped pecans, toasted
24 dark pumpernickel bread slices

Instructions
Stir Cheddar cheese, cream cheese, pimientos, and pecans. Use a 3 or 4 inch bat-shaped cutter, cutting 2 bats from each slice of bread. Spread 2 tablespoons of filling over 24 bats. Top with remaining 24 bats. Makes 24 sandwiches.

Green Slime Smoothie

Ingredients
1 1/2 cups chopped kiwi
1 cup diced ripe banana
1 1/2 cups lime sherbet
1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Instructions
Blend all ingredients until smooth. Serves 6 ghouls.

Severed Fingers

Ingredients
1 egg
1 cup powdered sugar
1 cup cup butter
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 2/3 cups flower
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
3/4 cups whole almonds
strawberry jam

Instructions
Beat together sugar, egg, and vanilla. Add flour, baking soda, ans salt. Beat well. Place in refrigerator for 25 minutes. Remove 1 quarter of dough from refrigerator. Roll teaspoons of dough into fingers, pressing 1 almond into tip of finger to make a finger nail. Work with paring knife to form rounded knuckles. Grease baking sheet, and bake cookies for 20-25 minutes at 325F. When cooled, add strawberry jam to imitate blood.  Repeat process with remaining dough. Makes 5 dozen cookies.

Caramel Apples

Ingredients
6 large apples
14 ounces caramel candies
2 tablespoons milk

Instructions
Remove stems from apples, and insert wooden craft sticks.Microwave caramels and milk for 2 minutes. Stir. Allow to cool. Dip apples in caramel sauce to coat. Place apples on buttered baking sheet to set.  Serves 6 ghouls.

Popcorn Balls

Ingredients
5 quarts popcorn (popped)
3/4 cup corn syrup
1/4 cup margarine
2 3/4 cups confectioners’ sugar
1 cup marshmallows
2 teaspoons cold water
vegetable shortening

Instructions
Combine all ingredients, except for popcorn, in sauce pan, over medium heat. Heat to a boil, stirring regularly. Combine mixture with popcorn.  With greased hands (vegetable shortening), shape fully coated popcorn into balls.  Yields 20 popcorn balls.

Halloween Pumpkins are the pumpkin fruit decorated for the celebration of Halloween. The pumpkin is usually carved into a jack-o-lantern. The pumpkin is a large pulpy round fruit that has a thick, orange-yellow rind and numerous seeds. The Halloween pumpkins are the most famous symbol of the Halloween festival.

The Halloween is an ancient celebration held on 31st of October every year in the United States and some other countries. The traditional belief is that on that day, the souls of the dead relatives revisit their former homes. The ancient people usually position a pumpkin carved into a jack-o-lantern placed on the window at sun-down to placate the spirits and obtain blessings from these spirits.

Pumpkins can be purchased from the open markets or from the Internet. Some Halloween celebrants also decide to cultivate their own pumpkins. This adds more fun to the celebrations. There are many shapes, sizes, and colors of the pumpkins that can be used for the celebration.

Some pumpkins are a few pounds in weights while there are reports of pumpkins that weigh over a thousand pounds. Cultivation of the pumpkin to make it as large as possible is not an easy task. The farmers still regards their information as technical secrets.

Carving the Halloween pumpkin is very popular. With a sharp knife, one can make openings on the fruit with ease. If one wants it to appear like a human head, then there will be slots for the eyes, mouth, etc. There is an even an online step-by-step guide on some website on how to carve your pumpkin into a jack-o-lantern for the Halloween.

Halloween Pumpkin Carving Pattern Ideas

Halloween carving patterns are easy to find at a variety of places:

• You can often find free Halloween pumpkin carving patterns online. These are great patterns and you can just run them off using your printer.
• Another place to look for Halloween pumpkin carving patterns is at the public library. The library often has various books and publications that feature these kinds of patterns.
• Any bookstore will carry Halloween books or magazines that contain the patterns you are looking for. These books or magazines will have detailed instructions on how to create a fantastic looking pumpkin.
• You can actually buy kits at a hobby or craft store. Sometimes grocery and drug stores also have these kits. The kits are a good buy because not only do they have patterns but they also contain the carving tools needed to carve many marvelous pumpkins.

Once you have the patterns and carving tools you might want to host a pumpkin carving party. Have your friends and neighbors bring pumpkins and a Halloween treat to share and you have almost everything you need for a great party.

There are many choices for Halloween pumpkin carving patterns. You can choose from ghosts, bats, witches and cats. Most of the kits have several patterns and they vary as to degree of difficulty.

Good luck with your Halloween pumpkin carving patterns; it’s a festive fall activity you and your family and friends can enjoy together!

Halloween games are activities providing entertainment or amusement during the Halloween celebration. They may be online or offline. Due to the Internet revolution, more and more people are playing online halloween games.

The major objective of the games is to provide fun for the whole family that is celebrating. Thus there are games for the kids and games for the parents. The kid’s games are usually educational as much as it is fun. For the adults, it is mostly entertainment.

The internet now makes it possible for people that are celebrating Halloween to play online games even when they are thousands of miles apart. It is wonderful and that adds to the fun of the Halloween.

Common Halloween games are usually about haunted houses, skulls, ghosts, vampires, and monsters. There are many designs available. Some online games are free while others are available at reasonable prices.

Some games involve the use of cards to do divination or fortune telling. The people that play the games usually “read the future” of the other person from the cards. From there, they can say whether they will have good or bad luck, ill-health or good health, etc.

According to ancient Halloween traditions, the spirits of the dead roam abroad during the Halloween and so the atmosphere is charged with supernatural powers. Hence the information about the future can be obtained from the spirits around.
Young people that want to get married also go for divination at this time about whether the union is sanctioned by the gods.

As people eat and drink at Halloween celebrations, the games add more fun to the party atmosphere. Thus it may not be a grand Halloween if there are no Halloween games.

6 to 8 weeks before the party: Help child select a theme of his or her choice. View over 130 themes. Decide on the number of guests and create an initial guest list. Decide on the time, duration and location of the party. Purchase your Party Kit and the matching Favor kits! 3 to 4weeks before the party: Mail or deliver the party invitations to your guests. Choose themed activities appropriate for the age of guests attending. 1 to 2 weeks before the party: Prepare an agenda for the party. Purchase any supplies needed for party games and activities. Test the games or activities so you'll know how to explain the rules. 2 to 3 days before the party: Contact any guests who have not sent an RSVP. Shop for groceries, table decor, and solid color kits to match the theme. Prepare activities, party favors, crafts or cutouts. The day before the party: Clean up the party area; vacuum, clean bathrooms, etc... Bake or pick up the birthday cake. Call to arrange delivery of subs or pizza. (Easy!) Book a massage for next week! 6 to 8 hours before the party: Decorate the party area and table tops. Put candles in cake and locate the matches or lighter. Arrange activities in order, and have all supplies ready to go. Locate a pad of paper to record gifts for Thank You cards. 1 hour before the party: Dress the guest of honor in costume to match the theme. Turn on back ground music and adjust room temperature. Add final touches and blow up balloons, it's going to be a great party! Brought to you compliments of the party experts, BuyCostumes.com

A truly successful Halloween party begins the moment your guests set foot through the door. That mystical, creepy ambience can be so easily accomplished through each decoration used for the Halloween party. With a touch sensor mat, each guest can step into the party with a creepy howl. Fresh decoration for the Halloween party is both easy and fun to create.

With fun lighting, entry can continue through a dimly lit hall. You can use the dramatic fire-simulating lights or simply change your regular light bulbs to black or orange bulbs. This is the easiest way to create a fun and creepy lighting effect. Even the simplest decoration for a Halloween party can produce dramatic effects.

With a Halloween CD playing in the background, screams and howls will bring the party to new auditory heights. You can purchase Halloween CD’s at any party store, or you can make your own. Children, especially, will love recording haunting voice-overs with your choice of creepy music.

Actual decorations can be as simple as a web of black and orange streamers to hanging body parts and motion activated Halloween frights. With a relatively inexpensive fog machine, you can also create a mood that your guests will talk about long after the party has ended.

And don’t forget those Halloween treats. One of the most memorable and fun aspects of any party would be the themed-edibles. From cookies shaped like bats and witches to cakes resembling pumpkins, you can create a spread of hallowed munchies. With candy worms and spiders and some crushed cookies you have ready-made worms and dirt. Gelatin creates the perfect wiggly base for any creepy morsel, and cottage cheese with just a little blueberry juice is transformed to a lovely brain dip.

Whether you add just a touch of decoration to your party or go all-out to create a haunted house, you will capture the spirit of Halloween and create a night to remember.

Creepy Decorating Ideas

Scary Halloween decorations create a fun and creepy atmosphere. They encompass everything from yard props that entertain trick-or-treaters, to interior decorations, to moody lighting, to food and serving dishes.

Decorating for Halloween can transform your home into a haunted and creepy haven in no time at all. From nauseating edibles to fog and special lighting, there are lots of decoration ideas for Halloween, and they do not have to be expensive.

Halloween Decoration Idea #1 – Create a Crime Scene

Why not start with the exterior of your home? Create a simulated crime scene by purchasing crime scene tape at any party store. Then, with a piece of sidewalk chalk, lie down in various poses on the driveway and have somebody trace the outline of your body. Instant crime scene! This simple and cheap decorating technique will emulate a covert crime and add that spooky flare to your home. There is no limit to decoration ideas for Halloween once you get started.

Halloween Decoration Idea #2 – Add atmospheric mist

Dry ice, which is easily accessible and inexpensive, can create the perfect fog facade for your home. When placed in water it produces fog. The cloud of fog will actually move when the wind blows (an open window is fun here)! Just remember that dry ice is not a toy for children and will require extreme caution and use of gloves.

Halloween Decoration Idea #3 – Colored light bulbs

Change your ordinary light bulbs with orange and black bulbs to create a dreamy, haunting look. Balloons and streamers always add a touch of celebration, and special food preparations can provide even more fun.

Halloween Decoration Idea #4 – Revolting food

Make a brain dip with either a cottage cheese base or a cauliflower base. With a touch of black food coloring or blueberry juice you will have bulging, gray brains. For an extra touch you can serve it inside a carved pumpkin.  A little food coloring in whipped cream also helps to add that sickly hue to your dessert!

Halloween Decoration Idea #5 – Create a theme for your party

A unique way to create scary Halloween decorations is to come up with a theme, and decorate accordingly. This works well both indoors, and outdoors. Some theme ideas: a haunted pirate ship, a space ship, a vampire’s lair, and a mad scientist’s lab. The possibilities are endless! Start by making a list of what would be found within a specific theme, and work from those plans.

Spooky Decor Tips:

• The addition of ambient lighting to Halloween decor makes for a spookier, creepier setting. String lighting isn’t just for the Christmas season. Look for string lighting in purple and green where Halloween decorations and crafts are sold.
• Black lighting works well, and gives a room a supernatural glow.
• Food and treats are a big part of Halloween. To add a special touch, use special gelatin molds to create edible hands, hearts, and brians. Serve normal foods in creepy containers like, small caskets and skull bowls.
• Place lanterns along a walkway, and they will give off a warm glow in the dark.
• Fog machines and dry ice create erie clouds. Make sure party guests know that touching dry ice can result in injury.
• If you plan to carve pumpkins, get some of the smaller ones, too. Hollow them out, and place tea light candles inside, then scatter them around a room, or cluster them all together.

First you can start with an easy to make holiday display. Look around your home for any glass jars or containers of different sizes. (You could even use canning jars!) Fill several containers with Halloween candy such as candy corn, mellow creme pumpkins, chocolate bats, black licorice, gummy spiders, etc…anything that looks like the season!

Find a spot to display the jars like on your kitchen table, counter top, living room table, etc. You can tie a bow around the middle of each container and let it drape down onto your table or counter. Use solid color ribbon such as black or orange colored ribbon or ribbon with a Halloween print. Add some fall leaves tucked in and around the jars or some twigs with artificial berries. This will invite an instant Halloween holiday appeal to your room!

Scarecrow in the House

You’ve heard of a scarecrow in the pumpkin patch to keep the crows away but how about a scarecrow sitting in a corner of your entryway or kitchen to greet your family every morning? Make a friendly fall fellow(sitting him in a chair) using old pants or overalls for the legs (stuff with quilt batting), long sleeve shirt for the upper body (put a wooden dowel, piece of plastic pipe, or broom through the arm of the shirt for the arms and tie waist with string and tuck into overalls or pants.

Fold a flour sack (or use a pillowcase) in half and sew up the edges leaving the bottom open to stuff and then tie off with ribbon or string for the head. Add a cute face with paint, markers, or glue on pieces of felt. Put the head into the top of the shirt and button the top button.

(You may have to lean the head against a wall to get your Scarecrow head to stay in place. Stick the legs into boots or shoes and top off the head with yarn hair and a straw hat! Add a few pumpkins sitting by him and you’ve got a display sure to make everyone smile that sees it!

You Get the Picture Decor

Take a variety of picture frames and fill them with photos of Halloweens past! Make a cute display of your little ghosts and goblins in all their dress up splendor! Add a few sugar pumpkins to the picture display and take spider webbing (whatever you call the stuff that stores sell this time of year that looks like the real thing!) to drape around your frame display.

If this is your child’s first Halloween, no worries! Have a fun photo session and dress your child in his costume then snap pictures with different backgrounds indoor and out and a variety of poses. Print the pictures off on your computer and there you go! Making memories was never so easy or fun!

If you want a little more sophisticated display, spray your pumpkins a metallic color or turn them into a spider. You could also use a witches hat as part of your display and set your pictures around it or scrapbook some pictures and clothespin them to the hat. Let your imagination go!

Easy & Fun Tablecloth Idea

Gather some beautiful fall leaves, some pictures of your family in Halloween attire, and vinyl lettering with Halloween sayings, etc…put a white sheet or tablecloth on your table then arrange the items on the cloth. Cover the table with clear vinyl tablecloth fabric. Your family will have all kinds of things to talk about each time you gather at the table to eat! They’ll love looking at their pictures and will enjoy discussing fond memories they have of Halloween.

See all of these ideas are easy to put together and won’t cost much because many of the items you need to create this decor with will be around your home! You can even invite your children to help! Happy Halloween decorating!

We love the holidays at Christmas Twigs! You will find darling kids Halloween costumes at http://www.christmastwigs.com/category_123/Kids-Halloween-Costumes-and-Dress-Ups.htm and fun family holiday ideas at http://christmastwigs.blogspot.com/search/label/Hallween

Planning the party for the first time? Ask your friends and family members to help you or someone who has an experience or who can do better. You must have some ideas in your mind. Not them together and prioritize them later. Keep a brainstorming session if you have some other people with you. This will not only make you feel relaxed but will also bring up new ideas. If you are working all alone, you might want to shout on other people out of frustration, which nothing but natural.

The date of the Halloween party is normally placed somewhere in the last week of October. Because the other guests might have other plans for Halloween, you could either setup the party at an earlier date or time. The invitation for the guests should be given sometime around the last 2 weeks of September where they can still find time to prepare for the costumes to be used at the party. For couples, a Halloween couples costumes might need some careful selection and some may even decide to have it custom made, unlike the Halloween sexy costumes that can be easily found in shops and stores.

If some of the guests that you invited are working during the morning hours, you will probably have to make a deal with the costume shop for those guests who prefer it like that. You can mention the address and the contact number of the shop form where you rented the Halloween sexy costumes or are available at a special price only for your guests. This will also ensure that they do not turn up in a wrong attire as the shop owner will provide them with the costumes matching with the selected theme.

The invitation should give a hint of what to expect in the Halloween costume party. It is a plus to be able to spook the guests at this point, so they will expect more when they arrive at the party. A lame looking invitation can be a factor for the invited guests on whether to come or not. A well prepared and scary invitation card will surely raise their curiosity which will make them want to see more. Also, it should indicate on the card what to expect for those who will come in complete Halloween attire and to expect the unexpected for those who won’t come dressed to the occasion!

The food should look spooky and scary in a Halloween party but at the same time should also taste good. Covering the soup with flour or something edible making it look like eyeballs, cocktails with blood red color, cakes covered with slime green color can really add to the magic of the party. Play safe and prepare some finger food or bat crackers bust in case no one dares to touch the food.

Halloween without prizes? Keep in mind that it is one of the many essential reasons that persuade the guests to attend the party. Halloween sexy costumes grab hold the prize most of the times. But now a days cute bubbly and funny looking costumes are competing with these. Also Halloween couple’s costume, if well prepares can win the race!

Make sure that you enjoy the party to the fullest as it is the most important aspect of the party. Try to wear a scary mask if you were not able to arrange for a costume as its not the costume that’s important, but the enjoyment and the your company.

As the owner of a leading adult costumes store, Raymond Plona markets different costumes as well as costume accessories like hat and wigs for costumes for example. His site regularly features clearance costume sale on items like angel costumes, pirate costumes, Disney princess costumes, just to name a few.

#1: My children end up eating too much candy.

Solution: Limit the amount of candy your kids collect, rather than attempting to stop them from eating it once they have it.

#2: My children and I endure endless negotiations about how much candy they can eat and when they can eat it.

Solution: Try something crazy: just let them eat their candy! It’s not only easier, it’s often healthier to let your children decide for themselves how much to eat and when they want to eat it. Why?

#3 – My child seems overly-interested in sweets, candy and junk food, and I want to make sure that Halloween candy doesn’t encourage this interest.

Solution: Use Halloween as an opportunity to teach your kids to be “picky junk food eaters.”

#4 – But, candy is junk food and I want to make sure all this candy doesn’t harm their health.

Solution: Feed your children extra nutritious food for meals and snacks! Eating all that candy really won’t hurt kids… if you make sure they are also getting the protein, vitamins, minerals and other nutrients their bodies need.

Ellie Taylor, RN and Pamela Gould are the authors of Feeding the Kids: The Flexible, No-Battles Healthy Eating System for the Whole Family. It’s the new book that will make feeding your family a (mostly!) nutritious diet do-able, simple and even fun. The book is available at Amazon.com and at bookstores nationwide. Go to http://www.FeedingTheKids.com to find out more.

Six Flags over Texas Fright Fest, Arlington

Giggle with the ghouls at this family-friendly event. While some attractions may be too intense for very young children, scare-free zones are provided.

Nightmare Factory, Austin

Your fate is in your hands as you choose which way to turn along the path at the Nightmare Factory mansion, which has been scaring folks in the capital city for nearly 20 years. Dubbed “the most terrifying haunted house in Texas,” this attraction is not for the faint of heart.

6th Street Halloween, Austin

As the moon begins to rise over the capital city, Austinites gather along a seven-block stretch to cavort in costume. This event is one of the world’s largest Halloween celebrations.

Dallas ScareGrounds, Dallas

Celebrating its 10th season of scares, this Halloween haunt houses three terrifying attractions in a 23,000-square-foot venue. Dallas ScareGrounds also offers a FestEvil featuring a series of live bands.

Boo at the Fort Worth Zoo, Fort Worth

This family-friendly event combines the fun of an evening zoo visit with the excitement of trick or treating. Lions and tigers greet young ghosts and goblins in three sections of the zoo; along with trick or treat stations, the event includes stage shows and plenty of carnival games.

Cutting Edge Haunted House, Fort Worth

Billed as the world’s largest haunted house, your screams will echo inside this former meat packing plant. Texas Chain Saw Massacre ghosts will terrify visitors, and jolly old Saint Nick will never look the same after an encounter with Santa’s spooky specter.

Terror on The Bayou, Jefferson

The train whistle mimics the screams of the passengers who dare to climb aboard the Runaway Fright Train, which makes a five-mile trek through the Piney Woods. Family-friendly trips are scheduled for the early evening hours, while a PG-13 version is available as the clock creeps closer to the witching hour. Other attractions include a haunted forest walk, the Creepy Screamin’ Maze and the underground Tunnel of Terror.

Nightmare on Grayson, San Antonio

Scaring citizens of the Alamo City for nearly 20 years, this haunted attraction also features the family fun of FestEvil, a carnival-style atmosphere complete with flame throwers, a magician, face painting and tarot card and palm readings.

Thrillvania/ Verdun Manor, Terrell

Considered one of the top haunted attractions in the nation, creatures at the thrill park’s many different attractions lie in wait to send a shiver up your spine. The horror of “The Island of Dr. Moreau” is conjured up inside haunted Verdun Manor, and the surrounding grounds are no safer as you make your way through Voodoo Bayou.

Screams Halloween Theme Park, Waxahachie

As All Hallows Eve nears, the grounds of Scarborough Renaissance Festival are transformed into the World’s Largest Halloween Theme Park, where medieval mayhem awaits those who dare to enter the Castle of Darkness, the venue’s most popular attraction. Anarchy reigns inside the Arcane Asylum, while a crazed clown causes chaos at Terror Visions In 3D and time traveling trick- or-treaters can get sucked into The Black Hole and encounter a T-Rex and history’s most notorious night stalker, Jack The Ripper. Little ones can enjoy the park’s fear-free zone, Spooky Hollow.

Travel writers and husband-wife team Paris Permenter and John Bigley are the publishers of Texas Tripper Travel Guide at http://www.TexasTripper.com.