Halloween Party Essentials

How stoked are you for Halloween? I personally am very excited. As you may have guessed. Halloween is one of my favorite holidays and today I'm going to combine it with one of my favorite things: Party Planning! Lots of people plan Halloween parties, so in case that's what you're doing this year... I thought I'd help you out. So, here it is. A list of Halloween Party Essentials:

1. A killer playlist. Any good playlist (for any kind of party) will combine new songs, nostalgic songs, and kind of filler-esque songs during which people can chat and play uno before getting super psyched as soon as that song everyone knows and loves come on. I've developed a sample Halloween Party Playlist which you can find here... but if you're going to make your own, make sure you include the Ghostbusters theme, Thriller, and the Monster Mash. Seriously, if you don't, your guests are bound to be disappointed. 
2. Halloween themed foods. I'm not saying that you have to make absolutely everything related to Halloween. This is a trend I've seen on pinterest. People are like, "dump some cheese puffs in a bowl and call them pumpkin poo and wallah Halloween themed!" Don't do that. Dump some cheese puffs in a bowl and let it be. It's orange, that's Halloween-y enough. What I'm saying is: make some ghost-shaped sugar cookies or decorate your cupcakes with candy corn. If you want some more ideas, I actually made a video about this! You can check it out! Or search through pinterest, but please avoid calling your marshmallows "ghost poo" and your cheese puffs "pumpkin poo" nobody wants to eat any poo, okay? OHKAY?
3. A familiar movie silently playing in the background. Sticking in a movie and silencing your TV is like setting up an animated decoration. Plus, it gives that one introvert who doesn't know anybody something to silently stare at without feeling too uncomfortable. My best advice is that you go with something everybody has already seen 100 times. Like, Hocus Pocus or Harry Potter. That way, people will look over at it and be like, "Ah, yes, the part where Ron barfs up slugs. Good times!" and not like, "What the heck is going on right now?"
4. Related: some stellar decorations. If you want to go all out, by all means, set up an amateur haunted house. Otherwise, you could just get some orange/black/purple/green bouquets or make yourself a ghost garland or make some tombstones out of styrofoam or, heck, just blow up some orange and black balloons. 
5. Disposable cameras! Everybody is dressed up super cute and they definitely want to document that. I know, I know, everybody has a camera on their phone... but personally I think the ability to take a ton of pictures and delete any you don't like kind of takes away from the photo-taking experience. Plus disposable cameras are fun. Also, this way you'll get to have all the pictures that people are taking, which is nice because you threw the party in the first place. Also, you don't want to give your guests access to your good camera if you're having one of those alcohol-consumption-type parties. Or, if you, like me, don't offer your guests alcohol but just happen to have lots and lots of clumsy friends. 
6. A few activities. Look. I know that "party activities" seem a little... juvenile... at first. But sometimes there just isn't much to do at a party other than, well, talk to people. Which I'm definitely all for. It's just... I like activities. Anyway. Here are some Halloween Party activity ideas:

• Give everyone a "Halloween Party" bingo card with things like "somebody dressed like Dr. Who" and "somebody whose costume is so obscure nobody ever guesses it correctly." This is something that probably works best if you're having a fairly large party, but it's nice because your guests' participation--when and to what extent--is entirely at their own discretion. 
• Buy a bunch of those little tiny pumpkins and some paints, then set up a little pumpkin painting station. I know what you're thinking: that's what they do at, like, six year olds' Halloween party. And that's true. But also it's also fun so stop being such a snob. Also, since it's a station, people can just go paint a pumpkin whenever they feel like it.
• Set up a sundae bar. Yes, technically this is a menu thing more than an activity thing, but putting together a sundae is fun and activity-ish, right? The point is, you can have ice cream, regular ice cream toppings, candy corn, crushed up Halloween Oreos, orange and black sprinkles, and any other festive toppings you can think up.
• Give any party game a Halloween spin. Like, Halloween trivia or Halloween charades. Also! You could play flashlight tag or murder in the dark. That stuff's fun for any party. 

Anyway! I hope you all have stellar holiday shindigs and remember: never ever, ever ever, call your cheese puffs pumpkin poos.