I’m still amazed that it’s really October! The conversation at our house has pretty much turned to non-stop Halloween topics. Same for you? I keep warning the kids that Halloween is not a big deal in France (and that October 31st falls during a 2-week school break), but they can’t help themselves.
They are daydreaming about throwing a party for their friends. Bobbing for apples, pumpkin carving, maybe a spook house in the barn. Martha’s new book Handmade Holiday Crafts, came in the mail last Friday, so they’ve been taking turns bookmarking their favorite ideas from the Halloween section. Personally, I’m feeling drawn to the glittery projects (skulls, bones and pumpkins). I suppose I’m just looking for an excuse to get my glitter on.
Have you started making Halloween plans? Are you hosting a Halloween party this year?
UPDATE: The good people at Martha Stewart saw this post and want to offer 5 (autographed!) copies of Handmade Holiday Crafts to Design Mom Readers. So this post just turned into a giveaway. Woot! To enter, leave a comment below telling us about your favorite Halloween craft or tradition. The five winners will be announced on Wednesday.
——–
The winners are Kelly, Rik, M. Peterson, Heather and Janeannechovy. Thanks for playing!
I like the traditional pumpkin carvings. Triangle eyes and nose and toothy smile!
we just love to dress up in different costumes. we can never just pick one. and we love all the decorating!
I love Halloween- we always ate chili before going out to trick-or-treat. I think my mom wanted something nutritious in there before the candy :)
I just love trick or treating and passing out candy!
Gah! I love candy corn wayyyy to much. It’s my favorite part of Halloween. As soon as it turned October I would always beg my mom for a bag.
I love Martha! I’m sure the book has wonderful ideas!
oooh, how fun! I am always a sucker for an amazingly carved pumpkin. No matter how time-consuming or short-lived once finished, I will love them forever and a day.
Definitely pumpkin carving and roasting the seeds!
hot apple cider after trick-or-treating….yum!
My Favorite part is getting creative about costumes. The idea is to go as unique and homemade as possible. I’ve managed to reuse the same bridesmaid dress three times now. Proving that Yes, you can wear them again, just maybe not as the bride intended.
Sign me up for the giveaway! That book looks great!
Growing up, Halloween preparations started in the spring, when we’d plant our pumpkins in the garden. We’d religiously turn them on the vines so we’d have perfect slates for carving come October. Now that I am grown and have my own family, I’m having so much fun planting different varieties of pumpkins so we can carve and decorate to our hearts’ content.
Sounds like fun! My son and I just made a Frankenstein face out of felt for our front door. It turned out really cute, but we’d love some more ideas!
For me, Halloween marks the time when the pomegranates are ready to be picked off the tree and the neighborhood Halloween Carnival. Two more words – Cake Walk!!
I would absolutely love a signed copy of Martha’s book!
My favorite October tradition/craft is homemade Halloween costumes. My mom was always very creative on a small budget and it was fun for us kids to run through the thrift stores brainstorming what we wanted to be.
Oh Halloween. My longtime favorite holiday. I love carving the day before and then crockpot taco soup. My little guy LOVES that he gets to ring every doorbell in sight.
I just found your site. Design+mommystuff= totally my thing.
My favorite tradition is making spider cupcakes with licorice legs, red hot eyes, and marshmallow fangs. Really creepy looking in groups. Always a big hit!
We love to decorate our house with papel picado and our wax leaves made with melted crayons. We also go to our local pumpkin festival (which has a giant pumpkin weigh-off) and Apple Hill to pick apples and eat apple pie. Fall is my favorite time of the year!!
Hope it’s not too late. Love Martha craft books – especially one dedicated to decorating for the holidays!
I usually put on my clown face and hat and hand out candy. We use the Mr Potato Head pieces to decorate a couple of pumpkins on the porch too.
I love Halloween, one of my favorite holidays, for sure. I love the weather change and how it gets darker earlier, I love the costumes, and jack-o-lantern glow. PS, I also love Martha.
Oddly enough one of the newer but definitely huge halloween traditions in our house is watching the Martha Stewart Halloween Special DVD over and over and over again. I’m not exaggerating when I say its in my sons top 5 favorite movies list.
He would be over the moon to get this book.
definitely my favorite part is the block party we hold in our circle every year on Halloween. we make soups, breadsticks, and salads so our trick-or-treaters have something healthy to eat before they head out on the candy hunt.
Not very original, but pumpkin carving is definitely my favorite activity!
My favorite Halloween tradition is making a skeleton shaped tray of bread (Mr Bones). As a new family we’ll be hosting our very first pumpkin party in a few weeks- I’ll be sure to involve Mr. Bones! I want a copy of that book BADDDDD!!!!
I love apple bobbing (when I don’t think of it on a microscopic level), and I definitely love eating extra salty freshly roasted pumpkin seeds. And I love our local corn maze.
I started the boys costumes during the summer so I can enjoy Halloween! I’m a geek…I know.
My favorite part of Halloween is of course the trick-or-treating! I love watching my three year old run up to the doors in her little costume. She’s a little too young still to think about the candy – she’s much more excited about juice boxes-, but she loves the process of knocking on the door and saying “trick or treat!” to whoever opens it.
My son is five and we’re just working out our favorite traditions, but I’ve been doing home made costumes since he was 4 months. The last three years we’ve made a big spider on the lawn, and we’re adding stuff as we go – he LOVES it. Today we spent going through a bunch of my old MS Living magazines.
wooohoo!!! would love to own this book!
We love to order pizza and have a super early dinner around 4 – then get ready to trick-or-treat. Our entire neighborhood gets fully decked out, it is so much fun!
my favorite halloween tradition from when I was a kid was trick or treating in the dorms. my parents were both university profs and their school would open up the dorms to faculty/staff kids for trick or treating the night before halloween. it was great. I grew up in illinois so often it was so cold on halloween that you would be so bundled up for regular trick or treating that no one could see your costume. the dorms were warm and so you could show off your costume and the college kids were such a great audience.
We love painting pumpkins and baking pumpkin treats!
We love pumpkin carving and roasting the seeds. The kids also enjoy answering the door and giving out treats as much as the actual Trick or treating!
When my children were young, they would invite their friends over for a pre-trick-or-treating dinner of chili, fritos and root beer, then older siblings would chaperone younger siblings around the neighborhood. We would often have quite large crowds. They would return afterwards for a candy swap and candied apples. Loved it.
I want to start a tradition of stuffed capsicum (peppers) that look like jackolanterns, for dinner.
Each year, we like to reuse well loved costumes (and add to our collection of costumes too!)
Here’s my littlest one wearing a vintage baby leopard that was mine back in the 70’s!
http://bit.ly/9xBxz3
I’m not sure if it’s a tradition or not, but I always give out mini play doh containers instead of candy. The big and little kids love it and I like feeling like I’m not contributing to the massive HFCS overload. :)
We’re doing a dinner before the kids trick or treat with the neighbors and then we’ll bring out the portable fire pit and do a bonfire in the middle of our cul-de-sac. Then we can visit with each other instead of sitting in our houses.
Ooh, I haven’t seen this one yet~how exciting! I love Fall and always look forward to snatching up a bunch of Halloween-related magazines at the bookstore (including Martha!). I choose several projects (decor, cooking, baking, party-related, costume, etc) to complete during October. My daughter is 5 and I’ve been hosting a party for her each year. My best friend and I also always make Halloween cupcakes with crazy-fun decorations.
Wow. I have to say that I think I want to win this more than I have any other giveaway–and there have been much bigger ones! I have the Martha Encyclopedia of Fabric Crafts and it is awesome. A tome, and awesome. So this is probably just as delicious.
Martha is the queen of Halloween!
Best halloween tradition is bobbing for apples. Carmel apples rolled in peanuts make thoughts of the coming winter bearable. When I think of it…. the best part of fall involves all kinds of wonderful apple things. I didn’t even mention cider yet, Yum!
My favorite Halloween decoration is a skeleton my mom made out of those thin ridged paper plates back in the eighties. She used those brassish brad things to connect the pieces and the limbs would move at the joints. The skeleton had a goofy smile drawn on the face. We would hang it up on the front door every year. I wonder if that thing is still around somewhere…
How many times do I have to enter to finally win something?!
My favorite Halloween tradition is hand making all of my children’s costumes! I have never store bought one. My kids look forward each year to picking out what they want to be and helping me create it.
We just dragged out our box of Halloween goodies and realized that we need to make some new things this year! My five year old’s favorite tradition is making a big spiderweb out of the web material and putting big fake spiders in it to welcome guests with! Mine is roasting pumpkin seeds and making trail mix with them.
Love all things Martha!
every october, our little family makes our way to the pumpkin patch to pick a pumpkin. then we carve. i love it!
oh wow – i need to make some of those glitterly skulls!