Haunted Harvest
Halloween brings out the mischief maker in everyone, so serve up a little double, double toil and trouble. As long as you lavish your table with spooky sweets, no one will want to play tricks on you! 
Boo-tiful Bounty
Seize your last chance for outdoor fun by holding your Haunted Harvest party outside. Cover trees in wispy layers of cobwebs (using the canned kind, cotton batting, or a cobweb shooter), then, before layering on a wealth of orange and black details, put pumpkins and gourds everywhere. Fill in with lifelike crows, spooky spiders, black cats, witches' cauldrons, and urns (hint: Spray-paint plastic garden-shop versions). Keep the color scheme going in your cocktails and baked goods.
Outside the Box
Since nothing's more valuable on Halloween than your candy, give it the same treatment you give your real treasures. Find an old jewelry box (the more elaborate, the better!) and fill it to the brim with favorites. Create a wall of twist pops in back, then fill the compartments with orange and black Sixlets and jawbreakers, and stuff the drawers with striped, old-fashioned swirl lollipops. Fill a vase, goblet, or apothecary jar with the likes of Sixlets, peanut butter cups, Peeps, or candy corn.
Do Me a Favor
Send grown-up guests, who no longer get to go door to door, home with their very own bag of loot. Stuff clear favor bags with four to six different kinds of black and orange candies (rock candy, candy corn, jelly beans, chocolate truffles, Halloween M&M's, you name it); put in a confetti-topped noisemaker, and tie each bag two- thirds of the way down with a fastener or rubber band adorned with a black plastic spider. Hang bags from tree branches that have been painted black and propped in urns.
Bewitchy Bags
For the trick-or-treaters in your group who can't seem to get enough treats, be sure to have lots of candy (such as old-fashioned plastic-wrapped black and orange lollipops and candy sticks, gumballs, and mellowcreme pumpkins) on hand. Display in garden-variety plastic urns that you've painted black, or just prop them up in black gift bags filled with orange confetti and decorated with labels and stickers.
Beastly Brew
Make your own frightfully fiery liqueur to give as a hair-raising hostess gift or bloodcurdling addition to the bar. Pour a 750-ml bottle of Seagram's 7® American Spiced Whiskey into a large container and add 1⁄2 cup spicy cinnamon Red Hot candies and 1 cinnamon stick. Cover and let stand for 8 hours. Filter through a fine mesh strainer and discard solids. Decant into small decorative bottles. Makes about 17 servings.
Skittering Sweets
Disguise a batch of Orange Swirl Cupcakes to resemble a creepy-crawly army of spiders. After baking and frosting, place cupcakes in spider cupcake holders (there are many types available online and in stores) and arm each little soldier with a black-and-orange candy weapon. Add on eyes, if desired. Finally, scatter spiders around the tabletop, as if they are scurrying into every corner.
Make a Date
Find this premium Evite invitation and thank-you combination at Evite.com/ SandraLee and more inspiration for your Halloween party at ideas.evite.com.
For great invitations, candy, and paper goods go to Evite.com and BirthdayExpress.com.
Boo-tiful Bounty
Seize your last chance for outdoor fun by holding your Haunted Harvest party outside. Cover trees in wispy layers of cobwebs (using the canned kind, cotton batting, or a cobweb shooter), then, before layering on a wealth of orange and black details, put pumpkins and gourds everywhere. Fill in with lifelike crows, spooky spiders, black cats, witches' cauldrons, and urns (hint: Spray-paint plastic garden-shop versions). Keep the color scheme going in your cocktails and baked goods.
Outside the Box
Since nothing's more valuable on Halloween than your candy, give it the same treatment you give your real treasures. Find an old jewelry box (the more elaborate, the better!) and fill it to the brim with favorites. Create a wall of twist pops in back, then fill the compartments with orange and black Sixlets and jawbreakers, and stuff the drawers with striped, old-fashioned swirl lollipops. Fill a vase, goblet, or apothecary jar with the likes of Sixlets, peanut butter cups, Peeps, or candy corn.
Do Me a Favor
Send grown-up guests, who no longer get to go door to door, home with their very own bag of loot. Stuff clear favor bags with four to six different kinds of black and orange candies (rock candy, candy corn, jelly beans, chocolate truffles, Halloween M&M's, you name it); put in a confetti-topped noisemaker, and tie each bag two- thirds of the way down with a fastener or rubber band adorned with a black plastic spider. Hang bags from tree branches that have been painted black and propped in urns.
Bewitchy Bags
For the trick-or-treaters in your group who can't seem to get enough treats, be sure to have lots of candy (such as old-fashioned plastic-wrapped black and orange lollipops and candy sticks, gumballs, and mellowcreme pumpkins) on hand. Display in garden-variety plastic urns that you've painted black, or just prop them up in black gift bags filled with orange confetti and decorated with labels and stickers.
Beastly Brew
Make your own frightfully fiery liqueur to give as a hair-raising hostess gift or bloodcurdling addition to the bar. Pour a 750-ml bottle of Seagram's 7® American Spiced Whiskey into a large container and add 1⁄2 cup spicy cinnamon Red Hot candies and 1 cinnamon stick. Cover and let stand for 8 hours. Filter through a fine mesh strainer and discard solids. Decant into small decorative bottles. Makes about 17 servings.
Skittering Sweets
Disguise a batch of Orange Swirl Cupcakes to resemble a creepy-crawly army of spiders. After baking and frosting, place cupcakes in spider cupcake holders (there are many types available online and in stores) and arm each little soldier with a black-and-orange candy weapon. Add on eyes, if desired. Finally, scatter spiders around the tabletop, as if they are scurrying into every corner.
Make a Date
Find this premium Evite invitation and thank-you combination at Evite.com/ SandraLee and more inspiration for your Halloween party at ideas.evite.com.
For great invitations, candy, and paper goods go to Evite.com and BirthdayExpress.com.
