Getting in the Mood

Halloween is one of my two favorite holidays (the 4th of July is the other). Unfortunately, it has been years since I’ve done much of anything to celebrate. This year we’re hoping to make up for all those uneventful Halloweens past.

As a general rule, we’re trying to keep the party relaxed, low key in a lot of ways. The basics are:

1) Costumes are required. If you show up without one, you’ll be subjected to whatever “punishment” the costumed guests require in order to enter.
2) We’re providing lots of liquor.
3) There will be a bonfire.
4) There will be music.
5) There will be some fireworks (we found some leftovers from the 4th while cleaning up over the weekend).

As for decorating, we aren’t doing much. Most of my wife’s co-workers refer to the Devil Queen as “that scary crack house,” so how much more decorating do we need? However, if the weather gods would like to provide us with a thick fog, that would awesome.

To add to the ambiance, we’re replacing all the light bulbs with low-watt, colored bulbs; think Edgar Allen Poe’s Masque of the Red Death. I’m also building a voodoo alter (sort of). Our skull arrived yesterday (“John, unless you’re going start reciting Shakespeare, would you please quit messing with that!”), so now all we need to do is find the shrunken head. Yes, my wife has one.

I have a World War I era photo album full of pictures from the Western Front. I picked it up at an antique shop years ago; there are some battlefield photos (skeletons churned up by the constant artillery fire), that I thought fit the occasion (creepy death). I’m considering copying one and projecting it onto a wall with a colored tint (red, blue, or green?) to add to the macabre atmosphere.

As for the menu, it will be limited and rather ordinary in many regards. No “special” Halloween food per se, but the presentation may make up for that. Descriptions can go a long way; instead saying “we’re having brats,” substitute “roast flesh.” It certainly sounds quite different, no? Right now I’m trying to figure out some sort of arrangement where it looks like you’re fishing them out of an animal’s body cavity, but I haven’t worked that one out yet.

We have some other ideas that we’re working on: dry ice, games of divination, and the like. I guess we’ll see what happens.

And, hopefully, we’ll have another working bathroom finished in time for the party. Currently, I am one caulk job and two coats of paint away from installing a sink and toilet in the hall bathroom. The question is: will I make it in time? Wish me luck.

Oh, one further note on the ambiance. The Devil Queen is haunted. Really. More on that later.