Haunted Halloween Party

You can be the hit of the neighborhood with a Haunted Graveyard party!  Yes it’s a little early to start thinking about Halloween but some of the props for the graveyard take a while to make.  I have one every year, I decorate my entire front yard as a spooky graveyard called Skull Valley Graveyard.  Then my annual party is at the Cemetery Caretaker House (my house) at Skull Valley Graveyard. I totally remade my graveyard this last year with all new props which are more durable. 

 

 

The fence around the new graveyard is made out of picket fence boards cut into four pieces then I aged them by chopping into them with my circular saw.  When they were all cut I painted them a dark brown and screwed them into 4’ fence sections. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The fence posts were framed with 2 x 2 boards with 1/4”
lauan boards screwed on the outside.

 

 

 

 

 

Once the fence posts were all made I applied thin set (a cement mixture used for laying tile) on the outside of them to make them look like stone and then painted them with outdoor gray paint.  I screwed life size plastic skulls on the top of them.  I used brackets and zip ties to connect the fence sections to the fence posts.  On the two fence posts on each side of the driveway I hung old candle hanging lanterns.

 

I made some gravestones out of 2” rigid foam board which can be purchased at Lowe’s or Home Depot.  It comes in 4’ x 8’ sheets and I cut it into various sizes for different gravestones.  Some were 2’ x 2’, some 2’ x 3’ etc. since in real graveyards all the gravestones are different. 

I engraved them with a soldering gun which gets very hot and then it melts and engraves the foam board (do this in a well-ventilated area).  The engraved letters were painted with black paint and the rest of the gravestone were painted with different shades of gray and tan to simulate stone.  
                       

        

       Since I didn’t have time to make all homemade gravestones I also bought some at Home Depot and then screwed 1x3 boards on the bottom to weight them down.  I painted those boards to match the gravestones (black and gray).

My most popular attraction in the graveyard is my Grim Reaper who is 6’ tall.  I made a new one this year also.  To make it you create a PVC pipe frame then put chicken wire over the PVC pipe frame.  After that you use burlap coated with “monster mud” and hang it on the frame.  Monster mud is drywall compound with black outdoor latex paint mixed in with it.  Once the monster mud coated burlap dried I spray painted it with spray black and gray rubber paint also purchased at Home Depot.  This makes it waterproof and more durable.

This year my new addition was my skeleton couple sitting on my front porch with their dogs.  They were purchased from Grandin Road which is an online company.  They were a big hit.

 

Also new this year was a wood life size coffin which I made and then painted black.  It had a lid which I propped open.  I bought a latex rubber dead man head from one of the Halloween stores which I put in it.  I put a red spot light in the base of the coffin shining up toward the head to make it look spooky.

This is a video of one of the spooky graveyard ghouls we added this year purchased from Grandin Road.

 

 I put spot lights set up to shine on the graves at night.  This is a perfect setting for the spooky Halloween Party which is always after dark.

 

The biggest hit for the kids is the candy hunt in the graveyard.  It like an Easter egg hunt only it’s tiny treat bags with candy and stickers in them.  The tiny treat bags I bought at Dollar Tree which were 40 for $1.  I bought many stickers and tiny toys very cheap off of Oriental Trading Company an internet company.  The treat bags are hidden around the graveyard.  I divide the kids into two groups, 5 and under and then older than 5.  The 5 and under can have an adult go with the to find the treat bags.  We hide the treat bags for the younger group in easy to find spots.  The second favorite game the kids like is the Halloween piñata.   

This year I added a few new games for the kids.  I did musical chairs to the song Ghostbusters with prizes for the winners.  I also did a Halloween floating duck game where the kids picked up a Halloween decorated duck until they found one that said “yes” on the bottom.  The rubber Halloween ducks were purchased from Oriental Trading Company I glued small metal washers on the bottom of them to keep them floating upright.  For the pond I bought a 2’ x 4’ Halloween buffet cooler that inflated which I ordered from Shindigz another internet company.

The food is all Halloween themed.  I serve Ghoulash, deviled eggs with black spiders made out of black olives on them, barbeque monster eyeballs (meatballs in bbq sauce), I make a brain jello with watermelon jello using a brain jello mold I purchased online, Halloween decorated cupcakes and cookies.  I also make fruit spears with various pieces of fruit on wood shish kabob sticks which are poked into a carved out pumpkin to look like the hair.

 I have all the adults and kids dress up in costumes which the kids love.  After all how many times do they get to see adults act like kids?

 

These annual Halloween parties are a huge hit and everyone looks forward to them every year, especially the kids.  What a safe way for kids to have fun at Halloween!

 

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