HarryPotterBoysCostume.com

There are so many Harry Potter boy’s costumes that it’s hard to choose

– although you probably won’t need to choose, I bet your kids know exactly what kind of Harry Potter Halloween costume they want, and I wouldn’t be at all surprised if it’s Halloween in the Deathly Hallows, spooooky!

Welcome to our Halloween blog, we hope you enjoy the stories about  Halloween customes around the world.  Halloween customs in the USA tend to  involve a lot of time spent shopping, so for me, one of the great things about choosing a Deathly Hallows theme for Halloween is, that not only is is hot, but you can get absolutely everything you’ll need for your Halloween Party in about 10 minutes flat by buying online with free shipping  and guaranteed overnight delivery times from Buy Costumes.

Another nice thing is that the whole family could choose Harry Potter themed outfits and yet still everyone can wear a costume which looks different from what the others are wearing.

Top choice at the moment are Gryffindor robes, and all the Harry Potter outfits are available at keen discounted prices, it’s under $10 for a full Death Eater rig-out including mask, wand and robe… you can get all the party decorations for Deathly Hallows too and there y’are, all your Halloween shopping done, a Hot Party theme, and it only took you 10 minutes.

We hope you have a fabulous Halloween…

…and whatever party theme you decide on, have a great Halloween Party, full of Fun and Utterly Fantastic!

Image via Wikipedia

Did I mention that we’re going to have a Hogwarts School Friends Breakfast  scenelet for our Halloween party theme this year?

I’m planning on using the same look as Barnley Hall in Yorkshire (in the picture).

The inspiration for Hogwarts great hall in the movie versions of Harry Potter was one of the dining rooms at Oxford University — but this great hall is a whole lot easier to do at home  -  we’re decorating the conservatory and the kids will be wearing Quiddich robes. Continue reading “Hogwarts Party Theme” »

The Winning Technique in Dookin’ fer Aiples

The kids all try to get an apple stalk between their teeth, and drag the apple out of the water by the stalk.  In more liberal pairts, they are allowed to bite into the apple.

But biting into the apple is considered unsporting, because then, by simply immersing your head and shoulders in the tub, you can force the apple to the bathtub floor, gain traction, and bring it from the water easily.

The Sporting Way to Win

Much harder, and therefore much more admired, is to seize the apple stalk, bob with the apple all over the tub’s water surface, gain fractional traction for a second as it bobs against the side of the tub, and bring it out with a lightning flick of your head.

To The Winner, The Prize

The lucky winner is the first kid to remove an apple from the tub.  S/he gets a “silver shilling” which they are expected to exchange for a a money prize of perhaps $5 or so, so that the silver shilling can be used as a prize again next Halloween.

But the fun is far from over when the winner emerges.  Avid adults continue to cheer on the rest of the kids.

Image by Firesign via Flickr

So How Is Dookin’ fer Aiples Played?

This game is a spectator sport, not unlike football — or even Quidditch -  in its fierce partizanship.

A tin baby bathtub, or similar water container, is placed in the middle of the room.

A dozen ordinary apples, with their stalks still attached, or perhaps (although it’s considered cheating) with a short stick thrust in, float on the water.

The Apples Float in a Tub of Water in the Centre of the Room

The kids kneel in a circle around the tub, their hands behind their backs.  If they move their hands, for example to lean on the floor, they are out of the game.  The adults form a larger circle behind, to cheer the kids on.

Every kid exchanges their “dook’d” apple for a candy apple.  If it looks as if some kid isn’t going to be able to grab a “dook’d” apple, a few adults will move  so as to obscure the kid from view, and when they back away again, miraculously the “dooked” apple will have been won

Dookin’ for Aiples is a great ice breaker, everybody gets very involved in the fortunes of the game, and adults and kids alike get soaked with tub water.

So it’s good to have towels and dry clothes to hand, which is why the Harry Potter theme works so well with this traditional Halloween game, because the guest aren’t likely to want to go off and change, that spoils all the fun.

With a Deathly Hallows theme, they can  just towel off quickly, and don a Gryffindor robe for the rest of the celebrations.

Image via Wikipedia

Scottish Halloween Costumes are for Group Entertainment

Family members often dress up to suggest a group entertainment idea, a sort of playlet, by their Halloween outfits.

Last year one of my my sons and I went to our Halloween Party as:  A Vampire and His Victim.  I wore a black velvet evening dress, with a little flour powdered over my face (the white victim drained of blood) and he wore his favorite maroon silk shirt, black slacks, some joke shop Fangs, and a little bright red lipstick trickling from his mouth to his chin to suggest Blood.

The playlet idea was very much admired, and every other Vampire at the party came to help out with the Vampire Attack Scenes.        It was great fun, and I put the polaroid souvenir we took into a photo montage which hangs in my bedroom now.

That was a non-traditional party, in fact a formal dinner at a local hotel where most of the guests were strangers to us, but the minute we introduced a reminder of Scotland’s Halloween tradition of group entertainment by coming in a “scenario costume”, dozens of people whom we didn’t even know joined in  –  the Scottish Halloween Party Tradition is alive and well in Scotland today.

The image shows the “crest” of Hogwarts school

This Year, We’re Dressing Up as Harry Potter’s School Friends

So this year we’re thinking of going as a family group,  that’s our family and my older boy’s girlfriend’s family, and doing a little playlet from Harry Potter, a Gryffindor House Breakfast table scenelet  -  we’ll have to buy Gryffindor House costumes, of course, they’re not as easy to put together at home as our Vampire idea was, but that’s just as easy for us, because BuyCostumes.com will ship worldwide with guaranteed delivery times… and their Harry Potter range of costumes is very affordable   but I bet my boy will make his own Harry Potter costume for all that  -  probably he’ll just buy Harry Potter glasses and wear this year’s favourite silk shirt (it’s black). But whatever he wears, I know it will be a great costume in the (nearly) Scottish Halloween tradition!

Image via Wikipedia

Scottish Halloween Customs  –  Halloween Costumes

It is unusual for a Scottish Halloween Party to have a theme, this is because the kids  — and adults — vie with each other in creating unusual costumes from bits and pieces found in the home, rather than wearing
store-bought outfits.

This tradition is widespread in Europe, for example

The image shows two German brothers and their sister “researching” their Halloween outfits!

Of course in the larger cities, like Glasgow and Edinburgh, most people wear store costumes, but the tradition of the family members coming together to help each other to create imaginative costumes out of everyday items is very much a part of the Scottish Halloween fun.

Image via Wikipedia

Halloween Horrors Front Page News

Universal’s famous Halloween Horror Nights event celebrates its 21st Birthday this Halloween, and for the first time in its history the organisors,Universal Orlando, have tweeted a “preview”.

twitter.com users were urged to come to Universal Studios Florida just after park closing for special access.

Lady Luck, who lives in a horrific Haunted Casino that has been created as her Haunted House home, changes from the benign if capricious goddess of gamblers into a ferocious monster!

Baaaad luck!!

Lady Luck is a cyber monster, Universal say that they’ve brought 3D to a new level in this creation  -  I only wish I lived near enough Orlando to go there myself…

The preview is on Friday 23rd September, to get times and tickets for Halloween Horrors click here

A Favorite Halloween Party Game in Scotland is “dookin’ fer aiples”.

‘member I said in my last post that the Scottish approach to Caramel Apples and Candy Apples or “toffee apples” as they call both these traditional Halloween treats, is raaaather different?

Toffee Apples are a Game Prize. 

The Game is called Dookin’ fer Aiples–

and if you dare to be different, the kids can add to the fun by wearing  Hogwarts uniform while dookin’   Continue reading “Halloween Party Games in Scotland: Dookin’ fer Aiples.” »

Halloween Celebrations themed to decorations and cards as well as  costumes

Spooky Halloween

Spooky isn’t an idea which is widespread in Scotland –  in fact you can hunt far and wide without finding a Halloween card at all!

So for those shaking their heads, the image shows a kinda neat Haunted House Halloween eCard which you can get for free at Punchbowl.

Looks a little bit like Hogwarts, doesn’t it?

Not very, of course, but not to worry, if you’re theming Harry Potter you can always get your Halloween cards sent to you from BuyCostumes.com, they ship all over the world  with guaranteed delivery times.

Did I mention that our family is going for a Deathly Hallows theme this year?

It’s real spoooky, I think, and has the great advantage of being mega affordable  -  the kids Death Eater costume is only $9.99.

Continue reading “Halloween Costumes and Cards” »

Image via Wikipedia

Halloween Party Traditions in Scotland:

Halloween is a very popular festival in Scotland, particularly in the Highland villages, where party games hallowed by thousands of years of tradition are the norm

Halloween parties in Scotland are designed to give every member of the community the chance to entertain each other.

The whole extended family will gather for a party celebration in one home — and in the villages that can mean the entire community.

The Scottish Answer to Trick or Treat

There is no “trick or treat”- ing as such.  Instead kids get loads of candy, small money prizes, and lots of kudos from dressing up for Halloween and “doing their party pieces”.

In the larger communities, children wearing their Halloween dressing up costumes go in groups from house to house, so as to entertain any housebound elderly who may have been unable (or unwilling!) to get out of their homes to travel to a Halloween party.

This notion of taking the Halloween party to the stay-at-homes is an idea which is widespread in Europe, it isn’t confined solely to Scotland.

The picture shows two kids about to join one of the groups going from house to house to entertain the elderly and be rewarded with candy; they carry decorated sacks to put their candy into.

the boy’s costume looks a little like the Deatheater, doesn’t it? Continue reading “Halloween Parties in Scotland:” »