See how a teen Halloween party was imagined in 1963
One party guide from that year — featured in a fall issue of Ladies Home Journal — covered it all, starting with a suggested menu that leaned into playful names and seasonal flavors. Dishes like maple-glazed ham, red devil candied apples, and “midnight scramble nibbles” gave the table a little flair without being too complicated. Decorations were built from crepe paper, cardboard and raffia, and the games had a do-it-yourself twist.
A spiderweb maze made from yarn, a glowing skeleton dance-off, and a dice-based gift exchange all added structure to the night without taking things too seriously. It was the kind of party plan designed for teens to manage on their own, with a little help from the grown-ups.
This particular article reflects one vision of what a teen Halloween party could look like in the early ’60s. We’ve collected the full feature, including photos, food ideas, decorating tips and game instructions — all straight from its original vintage source.
Teen-age guests will swing at a party of food, fun and favors that a young hostess can make herself. Greet your invited ghosts and goblins with a party that says HELLO HALLOWEEN!
This All Hallows’ Eve — big night for fat black cats and broomstick-powered witches — you should welcome your ghost guests on their own terms.
They’ll arrive for the Halloween party amidst spooky decorations, perhaps behind eerie masks.
Meet them with a sprinkling of party witchcraft; entice them with unusual fun and favors; bewitch them with food that is not merely delicious, but to which you’ve added a dash of pure black magic.
Halloween party menu & recipes
Midnight scramble nibbles
Maple-glazed baked ham
Spook’s pickle-potato salad
Demon’s hot gingered fruit
Hades-hot buttered rolls
Red devil candied apples
Savory sugared doughnuts
Harvest-moon sippin’ cider
Midnight scramble nibbles recipe for your Halloween party
1 cup butter or margarine
1/2 teaspoon dry powdered garlic
1 teaspoon seasoned salt
1 teaspoon curry powder
1 tablespoon Worchester sauce
1 box (6-1/4 ounces) small cheese crackers
1 package (6-1/4 ounces) corn chips
1 can (8 ounces) walnuts
1 can (6 ounces) pecans
1 package (7-1/4 ounces) pretzel sticks
1 package (3-1/2 ounces) popcorn
Directions
Melt butter or margarine. Stir in garlic, salt, curry powder and Worcestershire sauce. (2) Combine remaining ingredients and toss with the butter mixture. (3) Place in two large baking pans in a warm oven. 250 F for about an hour. Stir frequently. Makes enough to serve 12 hungry goblins.
Maple-glazed baked ham recipe
1 canned or boneless precooked buffet ham (8 to 10 pounds)
1/3 cup butter or margarine
1/3 cup maple syrup
1/2 cup orange juice
Carrot curls, celery curls, ripe and pimento-stuffed olives, parsley sprigs (garnish)
Directions
Have your butcher cut the ham into 1/4-inch slices. Tie the sliced ham together with heavy string to form its original shape and place in baking pan. Bake in a slow oven. 325° F, allowing 15 minutes to the pound, about 2 to 2-1/2 hours total time.
(2) In a saucepan, heat together butter or margarine, syrup and juice. Bring to a boil and cook for 3 minutes. Remove from heat.
(3) During last half hour of baking, spoon half of sauce over ham; bake 15 minutes more. Spoon remaining glaze over ham and bake another 15 minutes.(4) Remove ham from oven. Place on
(4) Remove ham from oven. Place on platter and cut string. Garnish platter with olives, parsley sprigs, celery and carrot curls. Makes 12-14 servings.
Garnish: To make carrot curls. wash and scrape carrots. Slice lengthwise paper-thin with a vegetable peeler. Roll up and fasten with toothpicks. Crisp in ice water. For the celery curls. cut celery stalks in 2-inch lengths. Slit both ends in narrow strips almost to the center. Place in ice water to curl ends. Arrange garnishes attractively around ham.
Make a delicious, chocolate Ghosts in the Graveyard Halloween dessert with pudding & cookies (1997)
Halloween party fun & games
Let the spook party begin right at the front door. Cover the door with white butcher’s paper, oilcloth or plastic.
With a black indelible thick marker, write the words “TOMB ALL WHO ENTER ABANDON HOPE.” Tack dead branches on each side of the door to form an arch. Cut a black paper circle and attach to the wall.
Spiderweb Maze will confuse and delight your Halloween party guests as they enter. Make a maze (tangle) of yarn using as many different colors as there are guests.
Tie one end of each color to a stationary piece of furniture in the party room. Then wind around chairs, table legs, under rugs. Attach a clothespin to the end of each piece and hand one to each guest as he arrives. The aim is for him to untangle his color as fast as possible in order to get to the party room.
Jack-o’-Lantern contest — where would Halloween be without it? Have each guest A bring a hollowed-out pumpkin with him. but no faces. please. Supply knives, colored feathers, small vegetables, colored paper, and scissors. (Be sure to put down newspapers to protect the floor.)
Let each artist go to work and may the best jack-o’-lantern win! After the game, place candles in them and arrange around the room.
Everyone loves a dance — especially the Skeleton Sock Hop! Buy a life-size cardboard skeleton and paint it with luminous paint. (Or make one yourself, attaching the arms and legs separately so they “move.”)
One guest dances with a skeleton until the lights go off. If the skeleton taps you, you are now his partner. The idea is to avoid the skeleton that glows eerily in the darkened room.
Careless Casino. Have a mound of wrapped gifts in the center of the floor. and A have the guests sit around them in a circle (the gifts should be small and funny from the 5-and-10-cent store).
Each guest, in turn. throws dice. Any combination of seven or eleven takes a prize. If a player throws “two ones,” he gets to take any gift from anyone else in the game. Open when all gifts are gone from the center.
Halloween party favors & decorations
Festive table settings and decorations accent the magic of your meal and add atmosphere to your Halloween party.
A centerpiece of a spook, witch and scarecrow in a moonlit cornfield can be made by you. For the base, buy a 1-foot long, 4″-wide piece of Styrofoam from a florist or variety store. Cover it with crepe paper or straw. Our figures are made of raffia tied to sticks and clothed and decorated with tissue paper. Insert figures into Styrofoam base and decorate with leaves.
Halloween Voodoo Sticks: Buy three-foot lengths of wooden dowels from the lumberyard and paint black.
Make the heads from Styrofoam balls (6-8″ diameter) and wrap around with raffia in the color of your choice. Secure raffia with construction pins. Make the faces with raffia and pins or glue on pieces of felt. Fashion hats with colored tissue paper.
Bewitched Black Cat Lanterns: Cut off the tops of quart milk cartons and wrap with black paper. Draw on faces and cut out eyes. Paste on whiskers. Insert a candle in each one. Make half-pint containers for candies.
Pumpkin Pyramid Lanterns: For another centerpiece idea.hollow out small pumpkins. and cut out faces. insert a candle in each one.
On table or buffet table, place five or six pumpkins joined together at the sides with small dowels which you have painted bright colors. Stack about four more pumpkins on top of this. joined together in the same way. Top with one pumpkin for a pyramid. Place leaves around base.
Hocus-Pocus Owl Baskets: Use round cereal boxes as the containers. Draw black ovals in the center of small white paper plates for “owl” eyes and glue onto box near top.
Cut strips of black crepe paper. Cut jagged edges along the strips of black crepe paper and glue on box in layers.
By Mary Jane Engel – Photograph by Mark Kauffman
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