Holiday Gifts & Gift Baskets Blog

Archive for September, 2010

This Halloween, make your house the scariest on the block! Halloween is one of the biggest yard decorating holidays of the year. Here are a few decorating ideas to draw the trick or treaters in! They won't know what to expect - a trick or a treat - when they creep up to your door!

Don't forget to decorate the inside of your home as well. I have also included some great interior decorating tips to make your haunted house eerily fun and festive - also perfect for a Halloween party!

Interior Halloween Decoration Ideas:

Fake Cobwebs - You can buy bags of fake cobwebs at local party supply stores. These days they come in various colors, but we personally use the white ones to make them look a bit more realistic. Use them on corners, trees and around door frames.  One bag goes a long way - they really stretch!  A small black plastic spider is usually included in each bag of webbing, but buy some extras so that you can have several spiders 'crawling' on each web.

Bloody Hand prints & Footprints - Many companies sell sets of window clings that look like blood spatter and bloody hand prints and/or footprints. Place some across your front porch to send a chill through guests' bones!

Reusable Jack O'Lanterns - Realistic-looking foam pumpkins are available with sizes ranging from small to gigantic. They are worth the money as you will be able to use them for many years to come.  Most plug in to outlets with a small lightbulb inside.

Candles & Holders - Place candles throughout the house for an eerie evening effect. If you are using real flame candles, be sure to keep an eye on them so that they don't burn down too far creating a fire hazard.

Spooky Music - No haunted Halloween house is complete without scary music playing, so be sure to buy a Halloween themed CD featuring organ music, blood curdling screams and shrieks.

Exterior Halloween Decorating Ideas:

Lighting - Many spooky lighting kits and accessories are available at stores near you. Lights can be used to set the mood for the yard - from scary to fun.  To create a really frightening haunted house feel, replace all your outdoor lights with black lights then create spotlights on your decorations for eerie effect.

Tombstone Graveyard - Transform your front yard into a graveyard! You can either purchase vinyl or wood tombstones at a local party store or you can make them yourself if you are crafty. The best thing about making them yourself is that you can create interesting shapes and funny epitaphs and scary names like Rob DeGrave or Miss N. Cranium. This can be a fun project to do as a family.  I recommend that you place the tombstones in the yard and if possible add some mounds of sand in rectangular shapes (like you might see at a freshly dug grave in a real graveyard). Then place the fencing around the outside and add a grim reaper or crypt keeper motion sensitive Halloween monster for the ultimate graveyard!

Half-Buried Monsters - Many online Halloween gift and party companies and party supply shops sell the ground torsos or head and hand sets that light up for a great effect in the dark. You can also find light-up skeletons that are meant to be half-buried as well. Place them along the sidewalk or driveway where the party guests or trick-or-treaters will be walking up to your house.

Motion Activated Decorations - There's nothing scarier than walking past a decoration that looks harmless, but then it starts moving or making noise!  Check your local stores for a variety of scary decorations that sense when someone is walking near.

For even more great decorating ideas, check out this Halloween Decorating Ideas lens at Squidoo!

Jack-O-Lantern carving has become an art in recent years. The artistry and innovation people are coming up with is amazing. There are new tools, stencils, and designs coming out every year for pumpkin carving enthusiasts. But if you’re not an artist, don’t despair.  You can still carve your pumpkins the old fashioned way simply and with beautiful results. Here’s how:

• Choose a pumpkin that is firm and regularly shaped. Avoid any with damage or a flat side. Your Jack-O-Lantern won’t look as good if you start off with a lopsided pumpkin. However, if you want to do a cute variation of the standard pumpkin, then you might want to go with oddly shaped or colored specimens.
• Don’t carry your pumpkins by the stem as the stem could break off. If it does break off, you can always carve it from the bottom and still have a lovely finished product. But if you have your heart set on the traditional pumpkin, be gentle with the stem.
• Decide what you want your pumpkin’s face to look like. Are you going for the triangle eyes and wide, toothy grin? Are you aiming for a more serene or sweet looking end result? Plan it out on paper first. You can then either draw freehand on the face with a permanent marker (water based markers will wipe off the pumpkin’s skin) or you can cut out the individual pieces from your paper and trace around them.
• You’ll need a sharp knife. More injuries happen with dull knives than sharp ones. With a duller knife, you’ll have to press harder and may slip. Don’t let children do this part of the carving unless they are closely supervised. Kid-safe tools are now available that allow them to punch and scoop out the pumpkin’s design, and there are no sharp edges to worry about. These tools usually come in kits that can be found in grocery and discount stores during the Halloween gift season.
• To carve your pumpkin, start by cutting out a circle around the stem of the pumpkin. Lift the top of the pumpkin off. Reach in and scoop out the pulp and seeds. You’ll want to use a heavy metal spoon to scoop down the sides and bottom to really clean it out. If you want, place the seeds in a bowl and wash them off so you can toast them later in the oven for a nutritious snack. Make sure you get out every bit of the pulp as it will make the pumpkin decay faster if you leave it in.
• Now you’re ready to cut out the eyes, nose, and mouth you drew on. Insert the knife and make short cuts, doing a little of the design at a time. Don’t make large, broad strokes as this can lead to cutting off more of the pumpkin than you meant to. Pop out the cut material and continue on until the whole design is cut out.
• Decide on how you will light your Jack-O-Lantern. There are many choices on the market today, some of which were not available in years past. You can buy flame-less flickering votives in white or color that run on batteries. You can also get flashing strobe lights designed especially for pumpkins. Glow sticks also work well. If you want the traditional look, you’ll want to go with votive candles. You will, however, have to keep an eye on them if you have an open flame.

If you asked grandparents what they would like for Grandparent's Day's, the answer you would hear most is "A Vist".  Spending time with your grandma and grandpa is the best gift you could give them.  But if they live far away, a heartfelt gift along with a message of love would also warm their hearts.

Here are some more Grandparent's Day gifts:

1. A Handmade Gift - Have children make a homemade card or poem for their grandparents.  Including pictures makes it even more special.  If you're an adult grandchild, you could make them a no-sew fleece project like a blanket, scarf, or pillow.  Anything you made yourself will be special to your grandparents.

2. A Photo Book - Companies like Snapfish and Shutterfly make scrapbooking easy!  Just upload your favorite photos, then pick fun backgrounds and add your own text.  A photo book with current photos, or one with past photos of family is a great gift for grandparents.

3. Classic DVD's - What TV show did your grandparent enjoy watching?  Many classic TV shows are now available on DVD, and are fun watching all over again!

4. Fresh Baked Cookies - Grandparents are known for having goodies on hand for the grandkids!  How about getting them a basket of goodies just for them?  At Holiday Gifts & Gift Baskets we carry a variety of delicious treats from cookies to snacks packagaged in "Happy Grandparent's Day" containers, like the ones shown below.

For even more great ideas, check out this Grandparent's Day Gift Ideas lens at Squidoo!