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Tips for hosting an adult Halloween party we know will leave your guests howling for more.
Select Your Theme
The first step of party planning is to select a theme. Are you hosting a traditional Trick-or-Treat party? A gothic steampunk soirée? A séance? Each theme will have different foods, drinks, and decorations that will level up your revelry and selecting the theme will give you direction on what you need to make the most of your gathering.
Let The Décor Games Begin
Whether you’ve put up fake webbing all over your house, opted for tarot-themed tchotchkes, an elaborate Día De Los Muertas shrine, or festive fall décor inside, a Halloween soirée calls for a little extra ambiance. Many of the additional touches you may opt for will depend upon your chosen theme- for example, a traditional Trick-or-Treat party might have a pumpkin carving station. A séance-themed party might have a table set up for tarot card reading. But there are a few universal decoration ideas that allow a party theme to transcend from simple to sensational.
- Candles make a huge difference in setting the mood. Regular tealights, the smallest sized candles, will burn for three to five hours and can even be floated in water for an amazing effect. Try floating them in vases filled with colored waters: blue for a séance-themed party, dark red for a vampire-theme, a mix of purple and orange waters for a Trick-or Treat theme, etcetera. This is also an excellent time to pull out elaborate candelabras and light elegant taper candles to add a polished-feel to your adult Halloween social. One thing to keep in mind when setting out candles: if you are hosting a party with food, opt for unscented candles as the smell can impede taste.
- Flowers are still an amazing way to make an impression. Fresh floral can help set your tone as either casual or formal. With fall in full bloom, you can embrace the gold, orange, red and brown foliage available for traditional Trick-or-Treat theme parties, or deep red roses for a Victorian gothic-inspired gathering.
- Tablecloths are a third simple addition to your home décor that can impact the aura of a party. Go from hokey Trick-or-Treat hoedown to a chic and eclectic shindig by replacing a plastic orange tablecloth with an elegant rust colored tablecloth. Real tablecloths will enrich the feel of the room, making it feel less casual and more elegant. Select a tablecloth that fits the theme of your party, and enjoy the decadence it adds to your ambiance.
Food For All
Part of selecting the food you will serve at your monster bash is deciding what type of party you are hosting. Is this a cocktail party, where you will be serving finger foods?
Or a sit-down dinner with three courses and a wine paring? Once that decision is made, menu planning takes over.
At an adult Halloween party, you do not need to get cheesy with creative names or ghoulish looking finger food. You can serve what you would serve at any other upscale cocktail party, whether it be Assorted Deluxe Canapes or Ahi Tuna Poke Spoons. Take advantage of having Draeger’s awesome catering menu and find some bites that will tantalize your adult taste buds.
Of course, if you’re looking for thematic food to fit your bill, you can do that too, Draeger’s has all of the components to make your own scary good food! For a gothic-inspired dinner party, you might choose to serve rare beef tenderloin with a cranberry red wine reduction sauce or black squid ink risotto. At a Trick-or-Treat themed cocktail party, you could simply put out bowls of different candy. For a creepy carnival-themed party you might serve traditional caramel apples, popcorn, and corn dogs. A mad-scientist-themed party might serve fruit ‘molecule’ kabobs, green deviled eggs, or sushi rolls.
Lastly, don’t forget dessert! Halloween-inspired cupcakes, holiday shortbread cookies in the shapes of bats, cats, and ghosts, and pumpkin cheesecake can all be found in Draeger’s Bakery department. Or, if you’re feeling creative, you can snag the ingredients to make ‘blood clot’ cups or ‘graveyard dirt’ cups.
Pick Your Poison
If you’re throwing an adult Halloween Party, Halloween ‘Boos’ should be on your shopping list. Opting to only serve beer and wine makes clean up a little easier, but there are a million creative, creepy Halloween cocktails you can make for party-goers as well.
There are some amazing creepy Halloween wines that taste incredible: The Prisoner Red Blend, Bogel Phantom Red Blend, Seven Deadly Sins, The Wolftrap Red Blend, Ghost Pines Zinfandel, La Catrina Cab and Chard, the list goes on.
Halloween-themed cocktails are sure to impress. Below are a few links to our favorites:
Level Up Your Music Game
Just like décor, the music you select will help set the tone for the atmosphere you are looking to provide. With a theme selected, your playlist can practically write itself. We all love a great Monster Mash, but when hosting an adult Halloween party, you don’t need to be beholden to the kid’s classics. A few good examples: if you are hosting a creepy circus-themed party, Spotify actually has a playlist for that! It features carnival music by Derek and Brandon Fiechter (actually, Derek and Brandon Fiechter have quite a few thematic playlists of music they’ve composed for everything from Fairytale Romance to Mystery of the Swap Portal to Inns and Taverns music, and much more, so if you’re looking some very specific fantasy-themed music, they’re your guys). For a gothic-themed dinner party, you could opt to play Bach or organ music. Think creepy, not cutesy. For a mad-scientist themed-party, try the Spotify playlist mad scientist core. Or create your own playlist to fit the tenor you want for the gathering.