Ask A Boston Expert: Family-Friendly Halloween Party Ideas

When planning a party, one of the best places to go in Boston is Party Favors in Brookline. The local favorite in Coolidge Corner has been a staple in the party scene since it opened 50 years ago. Today, they feature creative hand-designed cakes and cupcakes for holidays, birthdays, graduations and other celebrations. They also sell everything you need to go along to complete the party, including invitations, centerpieces, balloons, confetti, streamers, plates, napkins, tablecloths, etc.

Husband and wife team John and Mary Lynn Pergantis bought Party Favors in 1992. Since then, the store has grown in popularity as the place in Boston to go for all your party planning needs. There are more than 1,000 decorations to choose from at this party store/bakery to create the perfect look, but the specialty here lies in their handmade cake designs for every occasion (John is a graduate of the Culinary Institute of America). Traditional cake flavors of chocolate, lemon and marble take on a new twist when fillings like French mocha buttercream are added and then topped with chocolate ganache, fondant or whipped cream.

Cupcake Decorating

"Kids can do cake decorating with candy," Pergantis said. "They can make spiders using licorice or gumdrops. They can also use chocolate. It's a lot of fun for both kids and families." Frosting can be made into scary shapes like a ghost, brightened up like a pumpkin or simply topped with candies to create fun shapes and faces.

"Make sure you get those plastic masks with an elastic," Pergantis said. "You can decorate them with glitter and paint and make your own creations with them." You can even add feathers using a glue gun, colorful stickers or bright beads to enhance any look. Creating your own personal look has no boundaries except your imagination, so have fun designing!

Lawn Decorating

"One fun thing for the kids to do is to help decorate the front lawn," Pergantis said. "They can make it focused on Halloween without all of the ghouls. Halloween has gotten sexy and gory and you don't want to introduce that to kids. Instead, they can decorate with spiderwebs or Casper the ghost." Make a scarecrow with some old clothes, carve a pumpkin, add some brightly colored exterior lights or hang some decorations from the trees to give your yard a boost this Halloween.

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Window Decorating

"Decorate the windows with lights or make ghosts with markers," Pergantis said. "You can even use tablecloths as decorations." Add spiderwebs, cut out black cats or witches and tape them to the glass. You can further enhance the look by adding orange or black lights, or add some cobwebs around the exterior of the windows for added effect.

"Hiding things with treasure maps is always fun for the kids," Pergantis said. "You can have a prize at the end. Musical chairs with a monster mash theme is fun, or ring toss if they are going to be playing outside. If they are staying inside, they can play a beanbag toss. You can even make your own inside beanbag toss by taking a cardboard box, cutting out a jack o' lantern face, painting it orange and then tossing the beanbags into the mouth."

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