Yes, the Labor Day sales were barely over before retail shelves were stocked with the chocolatey goodness of Halloween candy! The year is flying by, but this is the holiday that many adults look forward to as much as their kids do. It’s when conversations about costumes to wear to work bounce off cubicle walls and in break rooms. It’s a day to be a kid again, when you can dress as your favorite superhero or horror movie character. Indulge your fantasy career by donning the attire of an astronaut or a medieval warrior.
This year there’s even more buzz surrounding this spooky holiday with the return of the indomitable Michael Myers. He’s back again, and no one can say they don’t get shivers down their spine when they hear the first few notes of his intro music! One of the most famous soundtracks in film, it gave voice to a low budget movie made in 1978 that spawned a cult franchise. The tenth installment is being released two weeks before Halloween this year.
With Myers helping to set the stage for this eerie holiday, our thoughts turn to celebrating it with a poolside party!
Pool Party Halloween Decorations
Floating Pumpkins
When it comes to pool décor it’s about safety first. You don’t want to do anything that would make the pool difficult to see or anything that would harm your pool by adding ingredients to the water. You can certainly make your guests take a nervous step back when they see blood red pool water, but we never recommend adding anything that could damage or permanently stain your pool’s interior.
That’s also why we like the fun, yet slightly spooky idea from Medallion Energy. They suggest adding glowing Jack ‘O Lantern buckets to illuminate the water’s surface. You can’t go wrong when a pool decorating idea is safe, fun, and easy to engineer.
Depending on the size of your pool, purchase enough inexpensive plastic Halloween buckets in a variety of colors; enough so they fill the pool but not so many that they can’t float freely. Purchase an equal number of matching glowsticks. Crack each glowstick to activate it and place one in each pumpkin. You can even scatter these newly created lanterns around your deck and patio for a soft glow throughout the yard. They will look just creepy enough. With no candles to worry about, they will also be totally low maintenance.
Ghostly Tulle Balloons
Another simple and affordable design device featured on MarthaStewart.com will fill the space above your pool and is great for accenting food and drink stations. Wrap white, helium-filled balloons in a blanket of soft, black tulle. Secure the tulle with a length of black ribbon, and you have a spooky, but elegant effect with these floating orbs. Use monofilament if you wish to string these accents from fixtures and landscaping.
Spider Webs
Pick up some white, stretchable webs that you can extend between trees and shrubbery. You can add some giant spider decorations too as these will cast a scary backdrop when lit with some tiki torches. Setting the ambiance is key. You don’t have to go overboard hanging skeletons everywhere or floating monster zombies in your pool. Simple is just as effective, especially when you add your party soundtrack.
Halloween Party Music
Considering what the Halloween movie’s theme song did to make it a cult classic, the music for your party will create the mood better than any plastic decorations. We love this collection assembled by Marie Claire Magazine as they provided the perfect list of 55 Halloween Songs to Soundtrack Your Spooky Soirée. These Halloween tracks are courtesy of artists from different musical eras and include of course Michael Jackson’s Thriller as well as hits from Kanye West, Florence + the Machine, Missy Elliot, Rihanna, Lady Gaga, Queen, Beyoncé, Katy Perry, and a staple of Halloween: the Time Warp from The Rocky Horror Picture Show.
Halloween Pool Party Food and Beverages
You could go with the gruesome holiday cuisine where the hors d’oeuvres look like bloody fingers, but we’d like to recommend adding a little Halloween Glam to your menu. Kids may enjoy the sheer “gross-ness,” but if you take the time and go to the expense of planning a pool party for Halloween, you may want your guests to enjoy the fruits of your labors, not be repelled by them!
Mummy Brie
This simple recipe from Delish needs only a sheet of puff pastry, one round wheel of brie cheese, one egg, a tablespoon of milk, pepperoni and two black olives. Just wrap strips of the pastry around the cheese wheel, decorate, and bake. Set the baked brie in the plate’s center and surround with crackers. When cut, that delicious cheese will ooze and spread easily for a great appetizer.
Jack ‘O Lantern Quesadillas
With some shredded rotisserie chicken, flour tortillas, shredded cheddar and Monterey Jack cheeses, lime juice, and garlic and chili powders you can easily assemble these gooey snacks. After placing all the ingredients on the bottom tortilla, use a paring knife to carve a Jack ‘O Lantern face on the second tortilla to sandwich all that flavor in place. Bake for 15 minutes at 425° and serve with hot sauce.
Perfect Caramel Apples
Nothing says the season like a crisp apple dunked into velvety caramel. A classic! The caramel itself is a mixture of sugar, light corn syrup, water, heavy cream, unsalted butter, vanilla extract and a pinch of salt. When cooled, it is thick enough to coat the apples. This recipe serves six people, but you’ll want to make enough for all your guests as it is the ideal hand-held dessert that is kind of grown up but fun. You can tie a ribbon around the sticks to make them even more festive.
Halloween Popcorn Treats
From foodie Giada De Laurentiis come these tasty concoctions that bring the sweet and salty together for a light, yet rich, chocolatey snack! Popcorn and butter combine with mini marshmallows and caramel, peanuts, chocolate chips, almonds, and M & M’s. Easy to make as you’re only melting some chocolate and making some popcorn! Combine all the prepped ingredients on a cookie sheet and let sit for an hour. Then you can break off the pieces into bite size morsels. Giada recommends placing pieces of this treat in small plastic bags and sealing with a colored ribbon. Could make a nice little goodie bag for your guests to take home!
Wishing you a happy and safe Halloween!
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