Halloween Table Décor:

Fall Table “Still Life” – Place a med-large pumpkin (12” - 15” high) in the center of your table, surround it with smaller pumpkins, gourds, berry covered branches and persimmons.  Leave it on your table even after dinner is over, it will stay fresh for up to two weeks.

Burlap Tablecloth – Buy a roll of burlap from your local garden center, it’s traditionally used in the fall to wrap and protect plants.  Cut it longer than the length of your table and use it as a tablecloth.  Combine unexpected elements when setting the “burlap table”, use fine china, sterling silver and crystal.  Use richly fall colored napkins in burnt umber or rusty red.  For the center of the table use lots of candlesticks at different heights and add even more height with berry filled bittersweet twigs in clear vases.

Mini-pumpkin Tealight Holders – Trace the circumference of a tealight on top of a mini-pumpkin and carve it out.  Rub some Vaseline on top of the pumpkin to keep it from drying out, insert the tealight in the pumpkin and use them in the center of your table or interspersed with fall leaves and flowers.

Libby’s Halloween Party Ideas:

Haunted House Party – If your crowd of friends is past the costume phase, invite everyone to wear black and temporarily (and easily) transform your home into a haunted house.  Replace most of your lamplight with only candlelight, cover your furniture in old white sheets and tables in black fabric, use lots of artificial cobwebs all over the house, fill up clear jars and vases with food coloring water and set green grapes in one (eyes), A fennel bulb in one (a heart), and a head of cabbage in one (a brain).   Set up the bar with red wine and “eyeball” martini’s (vodka, fresh lime juice, lychee nectar and garnish with a fresh lychee, it looks like an eyeball).  Set out candles/ luminaries in the walkway up to your house, and set out lanterns, big knotty branches, and dried leaves at the entrance.  Have low, slow organ music playing when people enter.

Pumpkin Carving Party – Plan and outdoor pumpkin carving party, it’s fun for adults and kids (just make sure not to include the really young ones that could get hurt with the sharp carving tools).  Set up a big table outdoors with cozy blankets on chairs and benches.  At each place set out a cutting board, instead of a placemat, and in addition to silverware for lunch, wrap a dishtowel napkin around carving “tools” (spoon for scooping, pairing knives, awls, melon balers and tiny saws).   Begin with mugs of hot tomato soup to get appetites and creative juices flowing, and offer a glass of hot chocolate, mulled cider or Beaujolais nouveau as guests choose the pumpkin they are going to carve.  Let everyone begin carving and set up a buffet of warm, rustic chicken potpies and cheese biscuits. Set out caramel apples for dessert and watch the friendly competition begin!

Kids Scavenger Hunt – Plan a scavenger hunt for the kids and at each stop plant another clue for the next stop and also have a “Ghostly challenge” with each clue.  Whoever wins the “Ghostly challenge” wins a goody bag with candy (it’s a good idea to have extra bags so there are multiple winners and no hurt feelings).   Challenges can include bobbing for apples, picking up coins with your toes and the “brains and bands” challenge.   Cook a large pot of spaghetti, let it cool and pour oil in it, then add a few bags of rubber bands. Stir it all together and let the kids roll up their sleeves and dig in.  Whoever gets the most rubber bands out of the cooked spaghetti pot wins, it sounds gross but kids love it! (just make sure you have some towels standing by to wipe off greasy arms afterwards).

read more Halloween Ideas on my blog