You don’t need to throw a party to have an excuse to add some spooky touches to your place; the time of year alone warrants it. So be creative and haunt your house for the holidays! Some suggestions below to get you started:
– Blood Curdled Candles: tint corn syrup with red food coloring and pour a little into the bottom of a clear votive candle holder. Place a tealight inside and voila.
– Spider/Cockroach Infestation: affix plastic spiders and/or cockroaches running up the wall, along the baseboards or up the fireplace with removeable poster putty.
– Life-like crows or vultures perched on bookcases or at the top of the stairs.
– Moth-eaten Curtains: stain cheesecloth by dipping it into black tea, cut it to fit your window and add some random rips and tears.
– Cover furniture with white sheets.
– Cover mirrors/clocks with sheer white cloth (a custom in some parts of the country to honor a death in the household).
– Replace houseplants/bouquets with dead (i.e. dried) flower arrangements.
– Clear out clutter. Spare surroundings imply abandoned, which implys haunted.
– Replace everyday objects with their seasonal equivilent. For example, replace the fruit bowl on your kitchen table with a witch’s cauldron and fill it with apples.
– Sounds contribute to ambiance. For something subtle, I like the “thunderstorm” relaxation cds– spooky in the right context, but not over the top.
Picking a theme for a room can be a fun way to decorate as well– mad scientist’s lab, witch’s coven, funeral parlor, seance room, graveyard, etc. Pick a few key larger decorative pieces to make the statement, then smaller touches to pull it all together. And remember, you don’t have to spend a ton of money at a props or party store to pull it off– use your imagination and be creative!
