A Halloween How-To: Costumes, Parties, Decorations, and Destinations (Paperback)

~ (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In this entertaining romp, Bannatyne discusses Halloween trends past and present, dissecting such fun topics as costumes, recipes, movies, parties, myths and expeditions (Salem or bust!). She even closes with an up-to-the-minute chapter on "what's next" in Halloween observance. (According to the author, disguising yourself as a pillowcase ghost is so very last year, but you can't go wrong with classic monsters such as vampires and witches.) One of the most fascinating chapters addresses some of the myths about Halloween. Bannatyne claims, for example, that the razor-blades-in-apples-scare is merely an urban legend with no basis in fact. Who knew?

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

From a sociological history of Halloween and its contemporary traditions to a guide to the ideal sound effects to make your party creepy (think Wagner's Ride of the Valkyries), this how-to offers everything anyone would ever want to know about All Hallows Eve. Bannatyne takes us through decorating houses, yards, and ourselves; planning a killer Halloween party; embarking on must-see Halloween pilgrimages (don't miss the Punkin Chuckin' Contest in Morton, Illinois); and preparing Halloween cuisine ("beyond blood punch"). Bannatyne's anecdotes and lifelong obsession with Halloween give the book a readable quality in spite of the lengthy lists and detailed how-to information. This will be a useful reference for both the growing population of adults who revel in Halloween and folks who seek to make the trick-or-treat experience a little more harrowing for unsuspecting children in costume. If nothing else, those who follow this book carefully are sure to win every Halloween contest they enter, whether dressed as an out-of-work superhero or a giant post-it note. John Green
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Paperback: 272 pages
• Publisher: Pelican Publishing Company; illustrated edition edition (September 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1565547748
• ISBN-13: 978-1565547742
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (25 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #285,439 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

41 of 41 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Scare Yourself Silly, August 6, 2002

By	Terrie (Little Chute, WI USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)

Before some of my pagan friends get all upset, this book is about the All-American style hauntingly fun holiday, Halloween, not Samhain, not All Souls' Night, not All Hallows Eve though there are brief sketches about these feast days in the introduction. This is about trick-or-treat night! Haunted house week! Dress up and pretend night for grown-ups! Run around in the dark with the full moon sailing behind you night!
This book is a delightful compendium of ideas that are refreshingly clever, from easy to semi-difficult, and are very useful in creating a Halloween atmosphere of macabre fun and celebration. Many of the ideas will work well for both kids' and adults' parties, but most of them are geared toward adults. There are not a lot of photos in this book and the ones that are here are black and white, but this is a book where the text is inspiring and where you will have a delightful time reading over the creative ideas almost as if you are brainstorming with a friend who is as in love with this mad-cap holiday as you are.
There are chapters on decorating the house and yard, all about pumpkins, do-it-yourself costumes, parties, music and movies, recipes, actual expeditions to haunted locations, myths and monsters.
The decoration ideas are not the same old tired ones we are used to seeing and are easy to create since the directions are so thorough. There's even a long list of clever epitaphs for your frontyard gravestones. The pumpkin chapter is loaded with wonderful ideas that even a modest reveller will be able to implement, plus legends and how-tos. Really innovative, funny, spooky and easy costumes are found in abundance in this book...did you know bird-seed makes the best false bosom? Need a recipe for some good fake blood? It's in here. Choose from quick and easy blood, soaking and spreading blood, or cheap two ingredient blood with a bit of concentrated coffee for realism. Do you want dead skin, rotting skin, or old wrinkled skin? No problem.
Customize your Halloween party with any of these ideas and you will go down in history as a great party host or hostess. Why not try them all and land yourself in the Partier Hall of Fame! Invitations, theme party ideas, games that are actually fun, fortunes and favors, sound effects, lighting...it's all here.
There are over 20 pages of really excellent recipes for party foods that are not only visually satisfying for Halloween fun but taste delicious, too. There's a good listing of classic Halloween horror videos broken down into categories, a list of spooky classical music for Halloween atmosphere, a list of the best Halloween scary stories, and a list of places to visit where pros do it up big in theatrical haunted houses. There's even a list of places reputed to actually be haunted..if you have the courage!
Even if you have never really done much to get in the Halloween spirit before, this book is sure to infect you with the Halloween bug. The author clearly loves this holiday and she passes that love on to us with excitement and wonderful creativity. Don't miss it!

19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars MAYBE THE BEST BOOK ON HALLOWEEN!, August 26, 2005

By	Tim Janson (Michigan) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)

There's only one thing that keeps "A Halloween How-To" from being the perfect Halloween book and that is that there are no color photographs. That one little drawback aside, this is maybe the best book on Halloween I've ever seen and I've reviewed a LOT of them. Unlike some of the more cutesy-crafty books on the market, this book is more designed for the real Halloween aficionado. This is the person whose more interested in scaring the pants off trick or treaters rather than winning an award from the neighborhood garden committee.

The first chapter covers tips on decorating your hose and yard and range from the simple to the very elaborate. Fake Tombstones can be pretty expensive if you buy them in the stores but this book shows how you can make them inexpensively from builder's foam and some paint. Another quick project is the quarter (or more) of dancing lawn ghosts made with old bed sheets stuffed with plastic bags on wooden dowel rods and then arranged in a circle. More elaborate projects can be made by a concoction called Monster Mud, which can be used to mold creatures from. Tips on proper lighting for your outdoor display are included as well. The second chapter covers everything you need to know about choosing, carving, and preserving your pumpkin. A great trip is rubbing it with petroleum jelly or vegetable oil after you carve it to keep it from drying out too fast.

Chapter three deals with costumes and make-up, and features designs for fifty different homemade costumes, and patterns for making things like capes and hooded robes. Beyond that it provides techniques for spattering blood on clothing or giving your clothing an aged, rotted look. There are also recipes for making your own costume blood from corn syrup and red food coloring.

Parties are covered in chapter four and these are squarely aimed at adults with various themed parties such as gothic or Victorian theme. Ideas for décor, invitations, recipes and games are included along suggested Halloween readings from such classic writers as Poe and Ambrose Bierce. They even tell you how to hold your own séance! Chapter five is a nice accompaniment with its suggestions for music, sound effects and the best scary films to watch on Halloween. One of my favorites is "The Lady in Whites". Chapter six follows up with dozens of recipes.

The longest chapter in the book and my personal favorite is the one on Haunted Destinations. The author takes the reader on a whirlwind tour of some of the best and creepiest destinations to visit during the Halloween season. The witch-haunted town of Salem, MA, has their three week long Haunted Happenings that begins the second week of October with various parades, parties, candlelight tours of haunted sites throughout the region. Take a trip to Sleepy Hollow in New York for their annual Halloween festivities or down to New Orleans to visit the Voodoo museum or the famous cemetery crypts. Other destinations include tours of the Edgar Allan Poe gravesite in Baltimore, the Lizzie Borden Bed & Breakfast in Fall River, Bachelor's Grove Cemetery outside of Chicago, and many other ghostly sites. The book also lists some of the more famous seasonal Halloween attractions like haunted houses and hayride out on by various cities throughout the country.

The book concludes by taking a look at some of the more infamous Halloween myths and current trends of the Halloween holiday. This book just has a wealth of information and is the most comprehensive I've ever read. It's a true celebration of the Halloween season.

Reviewed by Tim Janson

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars the only thing it's missing is photos, July 24, 2002

By	trystan "trystan" (Silicon Valley, CA, USA) - See all my reviews

An excellent overall book on Halloween & ways to celebrate it. The party tips are well-themed & not cliched -- they're also geared towards adults, not kids. There's some unique decoration ideas here that will help make your party shine. The only problem is there are only a few photos in this book, & they're black & white so you can't see much detail. But the party suggestions are first-rate, & not the same old stuff as in other books.