Halloween Experts

Pizza Mummies

Looking for a perfect Halloween party meal? These little guys are so easy to make, and make great appetizers for adults or main dishes for a kids’ party!

Ingredients
English muffins
Pizza sauce
Black olives
Scallions
Red or green pepper
Cheese sticks or slices

Instructions

Heat the oven to 350º F. For each mummy, spread a tablespoon of pizza sauce onto half of an English muffin (toast it first, if you like).
Set olive slices in place for eyes and add round slices of green onion or bits of red or green pepper for pupils.
Lay strips of cheese (you can use a pulled-apart cheese stick) across the muffin for the mummy?s wrappings.
Bake for about 10 minutes or until the cheese is melted and the muffin is toasty.

Apple Bites

These snacks are both healthy and scary! Don’t just make them for Halloween!

Ingredients

Apples
Slivered almonds

Instructions
Just quarter and core an apple, cut a wedge from the skin side of each quarter, then press slivered almonds in place for teeth.

Tips: If you’re not going to serve them right away, baste the apples with orange juice to keep them from browning.

Every Halloween Party needs background sound! If you are looking to put guests on edge, then you really need to buy a good sound effects, mood music sort of CD. One of the premier providers of just the kind of mood music you are looking for is a band called Midnight Syndicate. Founded in 1996, the group has written and produced 10 critically acclaimed and award-winning albums in the gothic/fantasy/horror genre, including soundtrack work for the movie The Dead Matter.

Halloween music takes hold of us when we’re young and becomes a part of every year’s celebration. Surely some of you remember from pre-school and kindergarten, singing this little ditty:

“Five little pumpkins sitting on a gate.
The first one said, “oh my it’s getting late.”
The second one said, “there are witches in the air.”
The third one said, “but we don’t care!”
The fourth one said, “let’s run and run and run.”
The fifth one said, “I’m ready for some fun!”
OOOhh OOOhh went the wind
and out went the lights
and the five little pumpkins rolled out of sight.”

If your party has more of a dance theme, then there have been spooky, creepy and Halloween themed songs on the charts for many years. Here is a list I have compiled of some the top rated Halloween party songs of all time. Add your own favorites for a rockin’ good Halloween bash!

Monster Mash – Bobby “Boris” Pickett
Ghostbusters – Ray Parker Jr.
Purple People Eater – Sheb Wooley
Werewolves of London – Warren Zevon
Boris the Spider – The Who
Wooly Boolly – Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs
Nightmare on My Street – DJ Dazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince
Thriller – Michael Jackson
Tubular Bells (theme song from the Exorcist) – Mike Oldfield
I’m Your Boogieman – original by KC and the Sunshine Band, but try the White Zombie cover for a real Halloween treat!
Time Warp – from Rocky Horror Picture Show
Welcome to my Nightmare – Alice Cooper
Don’t Fear the Reaper – Blue Oyster Cult
This is Halloween – Danny Elfman, from Nightmare before Christmas
Witchy Woman – the Eagles
Black Magic Woman – Santana
Somebody’s Watchin’ Me – Rockwell
The Legend of Woolly Swamp – The Charlie Daniels Band
Season of the Witch – Donovan

If Halloween is the night that the dead walk the earth, then what better place to visit than a graveyard? Since many spooky cemeteries spring up on the lawns of the living during this eerie time of year, we have gathered some actual epitaphs, poems and prose, from real tombstones. You might find inspiration here for making your own entertaining headstones for your Halloween decorating.

“Here lies an honest lawyer, And that is Strange.”
- Tombstone of Sir John Strange, in England

“I am ready to meet my Maker. Whether my Maker is prepared for the great ordeal of meeting me is another matter.
- From the headstone of Sir Winston Churchill

“Stranger ! Approach this spot with gravity! John Brown is filling his last cavity.”
- on the headstone of a dentist in England

“She did it the hard way.”
- from the tombstone of actress Bette Davis

“That’s All, Folks!”
- from the headstone of Mel Blanc, voice of Bugs Bunny, Porky Pig, Elmer Fudd, et al.

“All in all, I’d rather be in Philadelphia.”
- epitaph that W. C. Fields, actor & comedian, proposed for his headstone.

“I TOLD you I was sick!”
- from the tombstone of a well known hypochondriac, Key West, FL

“Here lies the body of Emily White. She signaled left, and then turned right.”

“Here lies Groucho Marx
and Lies and Lies and Lies
P.S. He never kissed an ugly girl”

“John Edwards who perished in a fire
None could hold a candle to him.”

“Here lies Lester Moore.
Four slugs
From a forty-four.
No Les
No More.”
- found on a old headstone in a western cemetery

“Returned – Unopened”
- on the headstone of a spinster postmistress in North Carolina

“Owen Moore
Gone away
Owin’ more
Than he could pay.”
- a tombstone in Battersea, England

“She always said her feet were killing her
but nobody believed her.”

“Here lies an Atheist
All dressed up
And no place to go.”

“Here lies John Timothy Snow,
Who died fighting for a
Lady’s honor
(She wanted to keep it).”
-headstone in Tombstone, Arizona

“Well, I’ve played everything but a harp.”
- from the headstone of actor Lionel Barrymore

“Involved in a plot.”
- from the tomb of poet and satirist Dorothy Parker

Halloween is a wonderful time for children and adults alike. For pets, however, it can be frightening, confusing and stressful. According to animal behaviorist and author, Diana Guerrero, “Although some pets might like to dress up and participate in events, many more have adverse reactions. Pets can get very frightened by costumes and other unusual activities surrounding the Halloween celebrations. Constant door knocking, bell ringing, and unusual appearing guests can stress pets or spook them. This can contribute to escape or aggression.” As a pet owner, you know your pet best, but unusual circumstances can cause unusual behavior at this holiday time. Before deciding if your pet should participate in Halloween activities, please consider some of the following suggestions from the ASPCA, the Partnership for Animal Welfare, and other pet experts.

1. Unless your pet is the most calm and social, all dogs and cats should be kept in a separate room, a quiet safe place, away from the front door during peak trick-or-treat visiting hours. Constant doorbell ringing and too many strangers can be scary and stressful for pets. Even normally friendly pets may become overly aggressive, fearful or territorial around guests in costumes.

2. It is safest to keep pets indoors on Halloween night, to avoid accidental bites, but also to protect your animals from strangers taunting, harming or stealing them. Cats are often the targets of cruelty on this holiday. Walk your dog well before the trick or treating hours begin to avoid meeting scary characters on the street.

3. Anything within range of a wagging tail or a curious kitten can be a potential hazard. Keep decorations out of the reach of pets. This is particularly true of candles and candle-lit Jack O’Lanterns. Some decorations can be lethal to pets if ingested, or if they become tangled in them. Keep electrical cords out of the reach of your fur friends.

4. When answering the door for trick or treaters, pets may dart outside. Consider putting a pet gate or baby gate across the doorway as extra insurance against escape. Make sure your pet is wearing up to date ID, just in case.

5. Halloween treats are for people, not pets! Keep all treats up out of their reach. Take charge of your children’s Halloween loot as soon as they return from Trick or Treating. Remind them not to leave candy or wrappers on the floor. Chocolate can be deadly to pets, and the darker the chocolate, the less it takes for a toxic dose. Candy with artificial sweetener is very toxic to animals, even in the smallest amounts. Be safe and make sure adults supervise the consumption of treats.

6. It might be hard to resist putting your pet in a costume for Halloween, but, most pets don’t enjoy it. If your pet is one who does, then choose the costume carefully. Loose parts and small, dangling accessories invite chewing and present a choking hazard. Make sure that the costume does not restrict the pet’s vision or movement. Consider a festive bandana or reflective collar or harness as an alternative. If you take your pets out onto the street in costume, make sure that you keep them on a leash.

Keeping these tips in mind can make for a fun and happy Halloween for you and your pets!