Every year our family hosts a FLASHLIGHT CANDY HUNT for Halloween. INVITATIONS: We send out invitations using the evite website which sends out invitations via e-mail. That way
everybody can keep track of who is attending/not attending. Guests are able (and most do) make comments with their RSVP. It is a fun keepsake.
There is also a way to post pictures from your event after it is over. The pictures then get sent out to all that attended. ACTIVITIES: The main event is the Flashlight Candy Hunt which is similar to an Easter Egg Hunt. Weeks before the event, I buy tons of small candy bars and put them into small zip-lock bags (they are 3x3 and we get them from a local spice store). This ensures that even if it rains the candy will still be OK. The night of the party we throw the wrapped candy throughout our back yard. When all guests have arrived (in costume)we turn off all of the indoor & outdoor lights. The children turn on their flashlights and start to search for candy & other trinkets. After the hunt is over there are several additional activities. The kids can create a take-home craft (varies from year to year). We usually have 2-3 choices each year for crafts, but all are very simple. This year the choices include: foam pumpkin magnetic frame, or a mosaic bat using sticky tape. Another activity they can choose is reading a Halloween story to Riley the Halloween Hound. Riley is a certified therapy dog that participates in the Read To Rover program at the local library. We are lucky enough to get her at our party. Riley gives the kids additional trinkets: a bookmark, a Halloween pencil, and of course, animal crackers! There is also a professional story teller at the party who does 3 different sections. There are 2 bonfires (our neighbors like to get involved too) that the kids can go and warm up by. The favorite post-candy-hunt activity is by far the hay ride. This is just my husband putting groups of 8-10 kids in a trailer and pulling them around on the ATV. DECORATIONS: 40 small pumpkins are scooped out. We then use a drill and different size drill bits to make holes in the pumpkins. These pumpkins are used to show the perimeter of the candy hunt area. There are 3 bales of hay inside the perimeter for kids to climb on. We use a plastic "scene setter" (purchased at local party store) to cover the fence around the pool. It is a cemetery theme, so we also put plastic headstones next to that. Luminary bags light the route to the bonfires as well as the path for the hayrides. Spooky light-up eyes and ghosts are hidden in the trees along the hayride path. We have additional outdoor decorations, but like to keep it toned down. The outdoor speakers play creepy sound effects all night. FOOD: The party is held at 7:00PM to ensure darkness. So we aren't serving a meal, just snacks. We always have Halloween themed sugar cookies (bats, cats, pumpkins, candy corn, spider webs, moons). We make cheese sticks look like fingers by cutting an area where the fingernail would go. Sausage is cut with cookie cutters for a fun shape. LIVE & LEARN: The party takes alot of prep work (as any good party does). We send out invitations at least a month in advance. I start buying candy as soon as it hits the shelves at Target. I have learned not to buy the pumpkins until the week of, as they will either rot or the critters will get them! I also mentioned above about turning off indoor/outdoor lights. It does make a difference. The 1st year I was wooried pictures wouldn't turn out, so we kept lights on. Year 2 we turned off the outside lights. I noticed in pictures that the house lights were on. It looked silly. Years 3, 4, 5...lights have been and will be off. And every year on November 1st I go out and find as much stuff on clearance as possible so that I don't have to pay full price the next year.
