Posted by Rae Lynn on 10/12/2016 to Halloween
Tap into the past, present and future unexplained mysteries of the universe and enter the world of the supernatural, if you dare. 

For inspiration, we’ve compiled a list of paranormal party themes for unearthly creatures, spirits and sorcery, along with a few decorating ideas to get you started.

Creatures

Silly-Monster Bash: Featuring adorable, google-eyed monsters, not the scary kind. Create whimsical & colorful little creatures by adding eyes, teeth, hair, horns and/or claws to just about anything.

o  Decorate chairs, balloons, plastic eggs, planters, pitchers, tables, cups, glass containers
o  Create monsters with food: cookies, finger sandwiches, cupcakes, oranges, pumpkins, apples, & lollipops
o  Decorate the front door as a giant monster
o  Add monster footprints with chalk on asphalt and/or with a stencil and flour, white paint or glow-in-the-dark paint on the lawn
o  Make pebble monsters by painting smooth stones different colors, add a mouth and/or teeth, then stick on jiggly eyes
o  Use a bubble machine 
o  Stuff gloves with tissue paper, add claws, hair and/or scars
o  Make a monster “family” photos wall
o  Serve cocktails with eyeballs or attach jiggly eyes to the glass

Gothic Monster Mash: An old-school, scary monster soiree featuring vampires, Dracula, Frankenstein, mummies, and werewolves.
 
o  Decorate the scene as:
-  Dracula’s castle
-  Frankenstein’s laboratory
-  A haunted house 
-  Graveyard with a full moon
o  Make castle walls from dyed white sheets, a stone-pattern stencil and paint
o  Serve “swamp water” in a bowl set inside a larger bowl with dry ice 
o  Rim glasses with black sugar
o  Drip red wax over white candles
o  Decorate with crows, skulls, pitchers of “blood” and vials of poison, coffins, dripping candles in a candelabrum or wine bottles, bats, chains, bloody gauze
o  Fill glass jars of heads, brains & body parts with green glow sticks
o  Table of protection: silver crosses, wooden stakes, silver bullets, garlic necklaces, clubs, holy water
o  Serve red velvet cake, red m&ms, in black containers
o  Serve drinks of wolfs bane, bloody Mary’s
o  Apply dripping blood and handprint removable decals
o  Make a sign for the bar: “The Slaughtered Lamb"
o  Add instant atmosphere with a fog machine

Unicorns & Rainbows: For the child at heart, create a magical setting of mystical unicorns and cheerful rainbows.

o  Rainbow colors for food and décor
o  For a softer look use pastel colors
o  For a dinner party, strap a stick horse (with horn) to the back corner of each chair
o  Make unicorn decorations with swim noodles; fold 12 inches down and secure with a ribbon tie, add jiggly eyes, rainbow mane and the alicorn (unicorn horn)
o  Use an upside down ice cream cone as a horn on cupcakes
o  Make hanging clouds from cotton batting & paper lanterns
o  Serve fruit on a stick in rainbow colors
o  Position a rocking (or carousel) horse with the base covered in “clouds” as a focal point, obviously also add a spiral horn
o  Create an enchanted forest background with natural and/or simulated trees, branches, ferns, moss, grass, mushrooms/toadstools, stone, wood and flowers
o  Add mini lights, fairy lights and hanging candlelight

Zombie Apocalypse: Replicate the panicked collapse of civilized society with a night of the walking dead, featuring a disturbing scene of death, dismemberment and mutilation.

o  Decorate with representations of death: graveyards, coffins, spiders, skulls, dead trees
o  Add intact, severed, decomposing & mutant body parts
o  Include ears, brains, hands, arms, scars, eyeballs, feet, fingers, hair
o  Outstretched/reaching arms through boarded windows, doors & fireplace
o  Add silhouettes of walking zombies
o  Position green glow sticks for an eerie effect
o  Post signs & caution tape: Beware, Do Not Feed, Infected:Keep Out, Quarantine, Don’t Hesitate, Decapitate, A Night To Dismember
o  Put dry ice in an outer bowl with inner punch bowl
o  Freeze water in a latex glove for an ice hand for the punch
o  Decorate with bloody gauze & handprints
o  Make a zombie family portrait wall
o  Use blood stained sheets as a photo booth
o  Make a food buffet with jeans and shirt laid out in human form with dishes inserted into cut holes and at the head. Add skeleton hands and feet.
o  Drip red wax on white tapers for bleeding candles


Spirits

Angels & Devils: Aka Naughty & Nice, Heaven & Hell, Sweet & Sinister, create parallel experiences of good and evil, then let your guests choose their preference.

ANGELS
o  Decorate in white with gold accents
o  Cover furniture in white and walls in white tulle; tent the ceiling in white fabric
o  Use cotton batting to make fluffy clouds
o  Trim furniture and accessories with white feather boas and/or ostrich feathers
o  Accent with metallic gold, a harp, and white mini lights
o  Serve white food and angel’s food cake

DEVILS
o  Decorate in red and black
o  Use candles, red bulbs, and red mini-lights
o  Cover furniture in red; tent the ceiling in black
o  Use red cellophane or foil on the walls, red & black ostrich feathers as centerpieces
o  Accent with skulls, scythes and hanging pitchforks and chains
o  Create fake flames with red/orange/yellow tissue paper and/or flickering lights
o  Serve red & spicy food and deviled eggs

BOTH
o  Offer guests the choice of horns or halos when they arrive
o  Use a fog machine for both areas

Ghosts & Ghouls: Invoke the spirits of ghosts, ghouls and phantoms for a haunting, soul-filled manifestation of merriment.

o  Welcome guests with a graveyard of tombstones, hanging ghosts and blue glow sticks
o  Place glow sticks in toilet paper rolls with eyes cut out, to hide in bushes & discreet locations

HAUNT YOUR HOUSE
o  Cover furniture with sheets
o  Simulate boarded up windows
o  Use gauze and cheesecloth as tattered curtains and on chairs to look worn
o  Use barren, black curly twigs in vases
o  Decorate with black plants, branches, flowers, wreaths, garlands, and foliage 
o  Add cobwebs, spiders, rats, skeletons, chains and bats
o  Put black candles in a candelabrum and candle holders
o  Rip cheesecloth and hang from the ceiling
o  Hang ghostly candles by attaching flameless tea-lights to spray-painted paper towel rolls & hang with fishing line
o  Dip strawberries in white chocolate candy coating, add mini chocolate chips for eyes & nose
o  Make ghost luminaries by putting candles in canning jars painted white with ghost eyes & nose or wrap with white gauze with jiggly eyes

MAKING GHOSTS
o  Use coat hangers and a Styrofoam ball to shape cheesecloth into ghosts, then spray with liquid starch leaving some areas dry for a flowing effect. When dry, add eyes and mouth. Hang or mount on a pole just above the ground
o  Cover tissue paper bells or large white gourds with cheesecloth & add black felt eyes & mouth
o  Draw and cut out ghostly figures on frosted window film and stick to a mirror or window
o  Cover white mini-lights with ping pong balls, draw ghost eyes and noses, then glue cheesecloth onto each ball/ghost
o  Cover foam wig mannequin heads with cheesecloth
o  Draw ghost eyes and nose on milk jugs, insert a portion of a white mini light strand into the back of each one to create a row of ghosts along the walkway
o  Fill white plastic garbage bags with leaves or paper, then draw on eyes and mouth
o  Make a gaggle of ghosts with white-washed wood blocks of varying heights, then paint eyes & nose in black


Sorcery

Witches, Warlocks & Wizards: Conjure up the magic of witches, warlocks and wizards for a spell-binding good time.

o  Use aged parchment paper for invitations
o  Put striped socks and witch (old lady) shoes on the legs of a table or sticking out of the doormat
o  Light area with pillar candles on stands, dripping tapers
o  Create a bubbling black cauldron with dry ice and green glow sticks inside; set the cauldron on 3 small skulls and place crumpled foil underneath with blinking orange mini lights threaded through the crumples 
o  Fill glass apothecary jars with eyeballs, bat wings, shrunken heads (apples) & werewolf claws (slivered almonds)
o  Print labels for glass jars and bottles of potions & poisons
o  Decorate with barren branches and black foliage
o  Hang witch and wizard hats, brooms, magic wands & staffs
o  Serve witch’s finger breadsticks & wizard hat cupcakes
o  Include a gold crescent moon & stars, bats, rats, crows, bones, skulls, & black cats
o  Drape witch capes, wizard robes and/or warlock cloaks on the back of dining chairs
o  Serve cocktails with eyeballs (hollowed out radishes with olives inside)
o  Use a large old book for “Spells” and add an eye looking out the front

Abracadabra! It’s Magic: Amuse and entertain your guests with the pomp and circumstance of a magician’s theme.

o  Set the scene in black, red & white
o  Tie back black or red curtains for an entrance
o  Set top hats and bouquets of “magic” flowers as centerpieces
o  Serve magic wand fruit kebabs 
o  Decorate with magic wands, top hats, white bunny rabbits, cards, 8 balls, fake money, white gloves
o  Hang gold stars from the ceiling
o  Make streamers of colorful handkerchiefs tied together
o  String playing cards garland
o  Decorate with hearts, clovers, diamonds and spades
o  Magic carpets, Chinese linking rings, cups & balls

Harry Potter: Recreate the magic and adventure of Harry Potter’s life at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

o  Make invitations tickets on Hogwarts’ Express
o  Make the front door bricks (painted); use a sponge the size of a brick, randomly dipped in one of 3 shades of brick red paint, paint black along the bottom and right edge, press to a door-covering or sheet painted mortar gray
o  Decorate with snowy owls and pillar candles on pedestals 
o  Attach flameless tea-lights inside spray-painted paper towel rolls & hang with fishing line; drip wax or hot glue down the sides for effect
o  Serve mandrake cupcakes, plastic babies with plant tops hot-glued to the head, inserted in chocolate cupcakes, served in terra-cotta flower pots
o  Upside down ice cream cones, dipped and frosted as wizard hats
o  Create flying letters out of the fireplace, suspended with fishing line
o  Print banners for each house at Hogwarts on parchment paper or affix to house-color fabric/flags
o  Make small tree branch wands
o  Use coat hangers and a Styrofoam ball to shape cheesecloth dyed black into a Dementor then spray with liquid starch, leaving some areas dry for a flowing effect. Hang or mount on a pole just above the ground.
o  Potion bottles of various shapes, colored liquids and labels
o  Make Hogwarts wizard & magic book covers for a stack of books
o  Serve butterbeer
o  Greet guests with a wood directional sign
o  Stack vintage-style suitcases
o  Suspend a golden snitch (discreetly); spray paint a wiffle ball gold and thread white tulle through for wings

Tell us about your supernatural theme party decorating ideas for creatures, spirits and sorcery. Next up: pseudoscience, religion and fantasy.