Adult Halloween Party

Dastardly Delicious Drink

Ghoulishly Good Appetizers—Your Choice

‘Goblin’ Good Food

Devilishly Good Desserts—Your Choice

Freaky Fun

• Address invitations ’Uncostumed individuals need not enter our gate.’ Or invite guests by phone, complete with eerie-sounding background music.
  
  
• Award prizes for costumes; mystery books are a great choice.
  
  
• Provide a fortune-teller. (Or do this yourself and think of fortunes ahead of time.)
  
  
• Play a murder-mystery game available at game stores.
  
  
• Do a reading of the classic frightening poem The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe.

Dramatic Decor

• Greet guests with a lawn decorated with tombstones. Write guests' names above the R.I.P. and add eerie epitaphs to make them shiver. Cereal boxes covered with white butcher paper make terrific tombstones.
  
  
• Light the lawn with luminarias.
  
  
• Party stores are full of Halloween decor; shop early and choose decorations that suit your party best. Stuff rented costumes or old clothes with newspaper or plastic dry-cleaning bags, and place these extra ‘guests’ throughout the house to promote conversation and merriment.

‘Goblin’ Food Fun

• Give scary names to all the menu items, such as Eyes-of-Newt, and write them on name cards to help set the mood. Embellish the cards with Halloween stickers, jewels or glitter markers.
  
  
• Make enough spritzer to serve in a punch bowl. Freeze cranberry juice in plastic gloves (wash and rinse gloves first to remove any residue). When juice is frozen solid, carefully cut off gloves with scissors. Float hands in punch bowl.
  
  
• Serve the stew from a witches' cauldron, a large cast-iron pot or a hollowed-out and cleaned pumpkin. Surround the pot with dry ice and water (look for ‘"dry ice"’ in the Yellow Pages).
  
  
• Garnish stew servings with a spiderweb of sour cream or squeezable cheese. To make, squeeze circles of sour cream on top of stew from a squeeze bottle or plastic bag with a corner snipped. Drag a knife through the sour cream from the innermost circle to the outermost one. Repeat dragging from center to edge of pan to create web. Toss in a few gummy candy spiders.
  

Up to 1 Month Before

• Bake and freeze unfrosted cupcakes or cake for Spooky Kooky Cupcakes (if served) or Easy Red Velvet Cake (if served).

The Day Before

• Chill beverages for Cranberry-Apple Spritzer.
• Make Deviled Eggs with a Kick (if served); store covered in refrigerator.
• Make Ghost Cupcake Cones (if served), using recipe’s Do-Ahead Tip.
• Bake Red Velvet Rich and Creamy Cookies (if served); frost when cool and store tightly covered at room temperature.
• Frost the cake or cupcakes.

The Morning Of

• Prepare Smoky Cranberry Chicken Wings (if served), through Step 2.
• Cut cat shapes for Black Cat Canapés (if served); store tightly wrapped until baked. Make olive dip in Step 3; cover and refrigerate.
• Prepare and bake croutons for Ghostly Greens; store airtight at room temperature.
• Place all ingredients except tortilla chips for Bubbling Cauldron Cheese Dip (if served) in microwavable bowl; cover and refrigerate.

About 5 Hours Before Guests Arrive

• Make Harvest Beef Stew.

About 3 Hours Before Guests Arrive

• Make Slow Cooker Bloody Mary Dip (if served) and thaw shrimp in fridge, if frozen.
• Assemble Bacon-Wrapped Figs (if served), using recipe’s Do-Ahead Tip; refrigerate.

About 1 Hour Before Guests Arrive

• Bake Smoky Cranberry Chicken Wings.
• Make Eyes-of-Newt (if served); refrigerate.
• Prepare and bake Crusty Mummy Fingers (if served).

Last-Minute Prep

• Finish Black Cat Canapés, Bacon-Wrapped Figs and Bubbling Cauldron Cheese Dip with Bat Wing Dippers.
• Bake Easy Garlic-Cheese Biscuits; serve warm.
• Complete Ghostly Greens.
• Make spritzer.
• Serve appetizers and spritzers.