The time of year is upon us where ghouls, spirits, werewolves, zombies and vampires arise and gather to frighten, capture, scare, possess, and most of all get down and have a good time at the Halloween party.

Here are some ideas to make that party more fun.

Costumes Everyone at the party has to dress appropriatley, and this means wearing a costume of the undead. Pets are excluded as they already have costume parts built in – Dogs have fangs, cats have claws, birds have scary wings, and small creatures such as hamsters have glowing red eyes. Everyone who walks on two legs however, needs to be one of the following.

• Vampire – A blood drinking daemon that lives off the blood of other creatures. Vampires are made by other vampires and often have extravagant names like Count Dracula. If you decide to be a vampire, make sure you create an extravagant name for yourself.
• Ghost – The spirit of a dead person returned from the undead to haunt a person or a place. Normally ghosts haunt something or someone for a reason, if you go as a ghost, what happened to you to make your spirit come back from the dead?
• Zombie – Monsters that come back from the undead and walk slowly with their hands out in front of them. They exist to create more zombies and that is really horrible. If you go as a Zombie, don’t worry, you wont have to walk slowly for too long, especially when the games start.
• Werewolf – When the moon is full and darkness descends people who are werewolves transform into huge hounds and hunt others until it is daylight. Once the moon phase shifts and it is no longer a full moon, then people do not become werewolves at night until another full moon…A werewolf is created when a person is bitten by another werewolf. Werewolves do not like silver as it can hurt them. If you go as a werewolf, do not worry, you will not have to eat dog food, so ice cream is still on the menu for you.
• Witch -Cackle cackle boil and bubble, and other witch spells can be used to make the food taste nicer at a Halloween party and should be used whenever possible. Witches are girls that cast spells and make potions. They normally have pointed hats and ride about on broomsticks. At Halloween parties however, they tend to eat ice cream and play games. Thankfully.

This is not all the costumes that can be worn at a Halloween party, and why not try and get creative by combining costumes! Why not be a pirate-vampire instead of a vampire, or instead of a zombie, a Knight-zombie? Maybe  instead of a werewolf, a werehamster?

Halloween Decorations

Ideally, the place where you have the party should be made to look as spooky as possible. Maybe scary pictures on the wall, scary objects such as spiders could be hanging from the ceiling.  The scarier the better!

Halloween Music

Probably best left to Mum or Dad, Halloween music needs to be scary yet at the same time it needs to facilitate dancing. A catchy beat about monsters, vampires, ghosts and possibly goblins always goes down well.

The Playgameshavefun Witch can often be seen dancing to these tunes:

Werewolves of London by Zevon

Monster by The Automatic

Monster Mash by Bob

by ‘Boris’ Picket and the Cryptkickers

If you can’t find any suitable music, you will be surprised to learn that your parents have tried to learn to play the guitar long ago when they were young! So if all else fails they can sing and play for your entertainment.

Halloween Games and Activities

All parties need games and activities, and possibly the best ones are on Halloween

Jack O’Lantern. Carve out the pumpkins to make them look as scary as possible.  It takes a little time to do but they look great once they have a candle burning away inside them.  Once they are carved out, maybe a competition for the scariest one. A good way to

decide is that everybody gets to vote for one, and they are not allowed to vote for their own even if they like it the best.

Put the Wart on the Jack O’lantern – Using a suitable object, ideally one that will push into the pumpkin or will stick to it, the first spooky character is blindfolded and span around three times. They then have to try and put the wart on the nose of the Jack O’lantern. The closest wins.

Bobbing for Apples - Put apples and water into a large bucket or bowel, and then using mouths only, see if you can pull one out. The winner is the one with the most apples. To make this more scary, why not put in tomato sauce to turn the water…Blood red…

Halloween Hunt - Like an Easter egg hunt the Halloween hunt has prizes hidden around the house and garden, with clues pointing to where they are. If you want to be spooky, you may find a ghoul or too dressed up as your mum or dad ready to scare you.

Remember, you are a scary too so don’t be too afraid.

Scary Stuck in the Mud – A player is chosen to be the ‘Spooky Catcher’, and everyone runs away. Once the ‘Spooky Catcher’, catches someone they have to stand still with their legs apart. They are stuck in the scary mud until someone crawls through their legs. Once this happens they are free to run around. If they are caught three times by the ‘Spooky Catcher’, they become a ‘Fiendish Spooky Catcher Helper’, and have to catch the other players too. mu ha ha!

Scary Statues of Dracula’s Castle! - Music is played and everyone dances. When the music is switched off everyone has to stop.  The last person to stop dancing or moves when the music is off is out of the game. The last person left wins.

Pass the Frightening Parcel - A prize is wrapped in many layers of scary wrapping paper with scary decorations over it. All the players sit in a circle and pass the parcel while the music is playing. When it is switched off the person with the parcel unwraps the first layer of wrapping paper. The music starts again and the parcel is passed around again until the music stops and more layers of wrapping paper are removed.  The winner is the player that unwraps the last layer of paper to be left with the Frightening Prize. muhaha muhaha

Haunting Blind Man’s Buff of Bluff! – This game should be played in a room that has no dangerous objects in it, or a wide open space. A person is chosen to be ‘it’, and they are blindfolded and spun around three times. The rest of the players scatter. ‘It’, moves around the room until they find a person in which case after feeling their face they try and guess who it is. If they do that person becomes ‘it’. If they guess incorrectly the game begins again with the same person as ‘it’.

Ghost Stories

Ghost stories were designed to be told at Halloween. You can have a competition among your friends or simply sit around and listen to mum or dad read aloud to you. Will you be afraid?

Fun

Halloween Parties should be fun and that means nobody gets upset. Remember this when playing the games.

Happy Halloween from everyone at Playgameshavefun!

Halloween costumes, decorations and music an be bought here. For USA and Canada, please click here

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Halloween evolved from cultural and religious practices. The Ancient Celts believed that when summer turned to winter, or when the days had less daylight, the border between this world and the otherworld became thin, allowing spirits to pass between the world. To stop this from happening, they lit fires and wore costumes and masks for disguise and to ward them off.  This festival was called Samhain, and is derived or from Old Irish and means “Summers End”

Ancient Britons also held a similar festival.

All Saints Day is a Catholic holiday, and was made in part to honour martyrs and the dead in the 7th century. Prior ro All Saints Day, many people used to honour the dead by holding rituals, not too disimilar to the Ancient Celts. This angered the Catholic Church who created All Saints Day to disuade people from practising in what they saw as an unholy ceromony.

In the nineteenth century, the festival had less religious and cultural significance and became more fun, with children taking part in such  past times as trick or treat.

You can find Halloween supplies at the Playgameshavefun store. For USA and Canada please click here

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As Halloween draws near children, it is time for you to venture into the world and do thy’s bidding.  You must knock on the doors of your neighbors houses and ask for treats.  If they do not give you treats, you must carry out tricks.  If you do not carry out tricks, I will work my magic and you will be sorry when I turn you into a teacher or your least favourite Uncle!!!

As I am a generous witch, children, I have some fiendish ideas for tricks should you need some this Halloween.  Ha ha ha cackle cackle!

Spooky Note!

If your neighbours do not give you a treat, then write them a spooky note and post it through their door.  Here are some you can use or perhaps you can use your halloween magic and create one of your own. Ha ha cackle cackle!

“When you read this note, you will feel a funny feeling in your throat, and if you blink your eye, you will take your last sigh!”

“Pumpkins, pomegranates, and tomato soup, as their are no treats you will be covered in soup!”

“A witches cat will sneeze today, and as you gave us no sweets it is coming your way!”

“The hounds are approaching so you better run and hide, the hounds are approaching and they are coming for your hyde!”

“Ha ha cackle cackle! Soon you will be locked in a witches shackle ha ha cackle cackle!” That’s my favourite children.

Sweet Wrappers!

If there are no sweets children, then remind your neighbour that you want one next time by leaving your favourite sweet wrapper on their porch or doorstep! Ha ha Cackle Cackle!

Sing the Spooky Song!

Chant this song children if no sweets turn up. In fact sing it anyway! Ha Ha Cackle Cackle!

“Tonight is the night for ghosts and ghouls

Goblins and Vampires the ones you fear the most!

They come with the werewolves,

They come with teeth

They come to seek out the one

without sweets!

So next year, make sure you have plenty

Make sure you have lots for the many

Halloween children that like to eat

Lots of things that are called sweets!”

Always Remember

To do what your parents or carer tells you to do on Halloween children, and remember that the Playgameshavefun Witch is watching you.  Ha Ha Ha Cackle Cackle.

If you need costumes or face paint, please visit the playgameshavefun store, as it has a dedicated section for Halloween. If you are from the USA or Canada, please click here for the store.

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Easter is a Christian festival to celebrate the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.  Many countries around the world celebrate Easter, and every country has its own ways of doing it.  To find out more about Easter, and how it began, click here.

In Great Britain, American, Australia, Canada, and countries where English is the most common language spoken, Easter is celebrated by giving Easter eggs to friends and family, decorating eggs, rolling eggs down hills, and being visited by the Easter bunny.

America has another tradition of Egg knocking.  People play the game in pairs, and each pair knocks the tips of their eggs together.  The tip that breaks off first loses, and the loser has to give that egg to the winner.  This is played with lots of people, until two people, or one pair is left.  Imagine how many eggs one person could win!

In Bermuda, kites are flown!  Everyone in Bermuda even if they are as old as your Dad or Granny makes kites and flies them at Easter.  This represents the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

In the Netherlands, Belgium, and France, church bells are silent until Easter Morning, when easter eggs appear.  The bells are silent as they are “flying to Rome”, which represents Jesus Christ’s execution at the hands of the Roman Empire.  They return on Easter day bring Easter eggs, which represents his resurrection.

Also in the Netherlands and Northern Germany, Easter fires are lit on Easter Day.

In Norway, as well as decorating eggs, many people stay in mountain cabins and go cross country skiing.   They also celebrate Easter by watching detective television programmes, and magazines print detective stories where the reader can guess who the murderer was.  Milk cartons show a new detective story every year.  A detective story is a story that is about the police investigating a crime.  Every Easter, all the shops close for five days, except shops that sell food which open for one day.

In Finland, Sweden, and Denmark, many children dress as witches and knock on neighbours houses collecting chocolate.  This is not for free however, as the children have to give decorated pussy willows.  This tradition is a mixture of two traditions.  Children also decorate eggs.

Food is a big part of Easter in Finland, Sweden, and Denmark, as normally a Smorgasbord, which is a meal which is made of lots of food is served.  This is often made from herrings, salmon, potatoes and egg.  Would you like a Smorgasbord?

In the Ukraine, Belarus, Hungary, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Albania, Macedonia, Slovenia and Slovakia also decorate eggs for Easter.  A few Eastern European countries also have other traditions too.  Such as:

Being smacked!  With a whip!  In the Czech Republic and Slovakia, the men often smack the women with a whip or pour cold water over them.  They do not hurt the woman, but instead it makes her laugh.  This is said to keep the woman looking beautiful and healthy.

Sometimes, the man does it to show he likes the woman, and in return the woman gives the man a chocolate egg.   In some parts of Slovakia, a woman can get her own back by pouring a bucket of cold water on any man she man wants to.

In Croatia and Slovenia, a basket of food is brought to the church to be blessed.

In Hungary, Transylvania, Slovakia, Kárpátalja, and Northern Serbia – Vojvodina, perfumed water is sprinkled in exchange for chocolate eggs the day after Easter.

How do you celebrate Easter?

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The story of Saint George and the Dragon.

Long ago, in the country of Libya, there was a city called Siliene.  One day, a huge and powerful Dragon made its nest in a spring, which is where the people of Siliene used to go to fetch water.  With the Dragon being in the spring, the people could only get water if they could get the Dragon to move.  Now Dragons have a huge appetite, which means they eat a lot.  So to get the Dragon to move, the people of Siliene would offer the Dragon a sheep.  When the Dragon moved to eat the sheep, the people would hurriedly get water and leave, in case the Dragon was still hungry.

If the people could not find a sheep, they would feed the Dragon a maiden.  Maiden, is an old word for a woman!  To decide which poor woman was chosen, the women would draw straws, which means each woman would choose a straw and whoever had the shortest straw, had to go and be the Dragon’s lunch!  One day, the princess drew the shortest straw, and she was marched off to be fed to the huge, hungry Dragon.

Just as she was about to be eaten, along came Saint George riding on a horse, and fought the Dragon and killed it.  The story says that he protected himself by making movements with his hand called the sign of the cross.

Things to know about legends and myths.

Legends and myths are stories that have been retold for hundreds of years.  Over time, they have changed and altered, so how we tell the story today may well have changed to how the story was told when it was first created.  Though many legends are believed to be about true people and true events, sometimes the people and the events were pretend, or made-up.  Sometimes they were based on true events, but changed slightly to make them more exciting, or to make something appear slightly different to the way they actually were.  Often they have a moral tale, which is a tale that tries to show right and wrong.

The Crusades.

Around nine hundred years ago, there were a series of wars called the Crusades.  The wars happened due to people believing that if you were not the same religion as their religion then you were wrong.  Times were a lot stricter than they are now, and many people believed in magic and witches.  For many people, religion was very important, and for someone not to be the same religion, or not to use the same church, was a terrible thing.

Christian soldiers from all over the Christian world, marched into a part of the world called the Middle East, to fight Muslim soldiers.  Muslim soldiers were known as Moors.  The Christians believed that Jerusalem which they believed to be the birthplace of Jesus Christ, and was in the Holy Land, belonged to them.  Muslim Soldiers had captured this land sometime before. Christian soldiers wanted to drive out the Muslim soldiers from the Holy land, and reclaim it.

When Christian soldiers returned from fighting in the Middle East, the story of Saint George began to spread.

Saint George, is the patron saint of these countries.

Belgium

Brazil

Bulgaria

Canada

England

Georgia

India

Italy

Lebanon

Malta

Ossetia

Palestine

Portugal

Serbia

Spain

United States of America, where he is the patron saint of the Boy Scouts of America.

A patron saint is a person that who is thought of as a great person by the Christian religion, and is seen as a protector of a land or nation.  All the countries above belive that St George is their protector and was a great person.  There are many statues and paintings of Saint George in many cities around the world.  Moscow, in Russia probably has the most.  The George Cross, is the flag of England.

Who was Saint George?

Like many legends and myths, nobody is really sure who St George actually was.  He lived a long time ago and probably fought in the Crusades.  It is believed that though he fought for the Christians, he was probably born into a Muslim nation and was Muslim by birth, and was probably from Turkey.  Every year in the countries that have St George as their patron saint, have a day or celebration in his honour.  In England, this day is knows as St George’s day.

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Mother’s Day,  is only a few days away, and it is always nice to buy your mum a card on this day.  In fact, it is nicer if you make your mum a card for this day. Mum’s tend to like pretty cards, rather than pictures of your favorite toy even though it maybe pretty, or a picture of a great warrior. What
ever you decide to make or draw, it is always good to make the card colourful.

Our mums are always there to look after us. They make our meals, see that we have enough clothes, play with us, and make sure we are clean! So on this day maybe it would be a good idea to something nice for them. Maybe make them a nice drink or a meal. Get Dad to help if you can. I dare say she looks after him too.

In the UK, (England, Scotland, Northern Ireland, and Wales), Mother’s Day is the fourth Sunday in Lent. This year, it falls on March 14th, so don’t worry there is still time to make something nice for Mum.

Ideas to do something nice for Mum.

You could make Mum a nice drink or meal.

You could do something that Mum normally does, like hoovering.

You could bring Mum something nice to read or eat in bed.

Let Mum have a long time in bed.

Draw Mum a nice picture.

Buy or pick some flowers for Mum (If you pick flowers make sure you are allowed to!)

Let Mum watch her favorite film on TV.

Different countries celebrate Mother’s Day at different times. In the United States of America, Mother’s Day is a national holiday. This means that nobody goes to work unless Mother’s Day a national holiday, and that Mother’s Day should be spelt with an apostrophe between the ‘r’ and the ‘s’. In grammar this is called a singular possessive, and means that something belongs to someone. So David’s toys means that the toys belongs to David. Mother’s Day means the day belongs to Mum.

The Roman’s celebrated Mother’s Day too.

The Roman Empire also celebrated Mother’s Day. They held a festival called Matronalia, which was in honour motherhood, women in general, and of the Roman goddess Juno, who was the Goddess of childbirth, and patron goddess of Rome. It is believed that mums received presents of some kind on this day.

Mother’s Day is celebrated all over the world and at different times. This tells us how important our mums are to all of us!

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For many of us Easter is a time when the Easter Bunny arrives and hides Easter eggs in our house.  Very often, our families buy Easter eggs for us, and we all have a lovely time munching on big chocolate eggs.  Sometimes these eggs are so big, they are as big as our heads!

Christian belief

Easter, did not start when the Easter Bunny came along with a basket full of eggs and clues.  Easter is a Christian festival.  This means that within the Christian religion or faith, there is a festival called Easter.

People who belong to the Christian faith, are called Christians, and many Christians believe that a man called Jesus Christ was the son of God.  Jesus Christ’s beliefs on how people should be and behave were not shared by the Roman Empire.  An empire is when land and people are ruled over by another person or country.  The Roman Empire began in Rome, which is now the capital city of Italy.  It conquered many lands through fighting.  After the land was taken over, it became part of the Roman Empire, and the land and the people would have to do as the Roman Empire wanted, and have the same beliefs.  As the Roman Empire did not like Jesus Christ’s beliefs, which were now shared by many people in many lands, they executed him by nailing him to a wooden cross and leaving him to die.

However, many Christians believe that he was brought back to life by God, and this is what the Easter festival celebrates.  Very often, the time when Jesus Christ was brought back to life is known as the resurrection.  This has all been written down in the New Testament section of the Bible.

Easter Bunny

As we know the Easter Bunny brings us lots of chocolate if we have been good.  He was first seen in Germany in the 1600s, and like Father Christmas or Santa Claus, gave out presents of chocolate eggs to children that have been good.  So make sure that you are.

In the 1800s, Easter Bunny went to America as well as Germany, and now he goes all over the world giving out chocolate eggs to all the children that have been good.

Easter Eggs

When an egg hatches, whatever is inside the egg is born.  This new life is what an Easter egg represents.  So we give each other chocolate eggs to celebrate the belief of the Christian faith that Jesus Christ received a new life from God when he was resurrected..

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Traditionally, an Easter egg hunt consists of a child searching around the house for  their chocolate eggs.  This is a lot of fun and is a nice way to start Easter day.  There are ways however, to make it more fun and to keep it alive if your children are a little older.

Easter Egg Hunt Clues

Instead of just randomly placing the eggs around the house, why not leave a clue to where the next egg is hidden?  So if the next egg is hidden by the television, why not say the next egg is near the device where you watch your favorite programme.  How hard or cryptic you make the clues is up to you, the key thing is to make the Easter egg hunt fun!  Don’t make them too hard, and give plenty of encouragement.

Here are some clues to get you started.

The next egg is where your toys are kept…

There might be an egg where bread goes in and toast comes out…

An egg could be where you have breakfast…

There could be an egg where use a mouse…

An egg could be opposite the stairs…

Have you looked near the flowers?  Some might be buried in the garden…

An egg could be by the plant by the window…

When creating a clue, it is sometimes nice to draw a small picture such as an egg, or Easter Bunny’s paw print.  Try and get the clues to flow.

Easter Egg Hunt – Google

If your children are at a point where the clues are solved to easily and seems to be a little dull, try this.

Instead of leaving clues to specific objects, leave the name of an inventor which has to be Googled.  The object the inventor invented, is where the next egg is hidden.  So for example John Logi Baired invented the television, so your children find his name as a clue, they Google it, and then find the next egg hidden by the television.  Amazing.

As finding the inventors of objects can be difficult, here are a few to get you started.

John Logi Baired – Television.

Alexander Graham Bell – Telephone.

Percy Spencer – Microwave Oven.

Sir John Harrington – Flushing Toilet.

Charles Babbage – Computer( Not strictly true as there were many inventions that led to computing as we know it today, Mr Babbage’s Difference Engine was arguably one of the first computers to be invented.  The point is that if you type his name into Google, he is deeply associated with computing.)

George Nissen – Trampoline

Easter Egg Hunt – Pirate Map.

‘X’ mark’s the spot for this one.  You draw a map of the house and if you are feeling ambitious and if you have one, the  garden too.  You mark ‘X’s where the eggs are hidden.  If you are happy to dig up bits of your garden, then you can bury the eggs in the ground.  We would advise that you put the eggs in a plastic container, rather than just in their wrappings.  It has been known that creatures other than humans have enjoyed a good egg.

When creating the map, draw areas of the house as reference points on the map.  So the stairs can be cliffs and a rug could be the sea.  A table makes a good island and so on.  This can be great fun if your children are at the age where they love pirates, and love dressing up.  Every time they find some ‘treasure’, make them say ‘agrhhhhhhhhhhhh’, in  a pirate voice.  Great fun!

If you have any ideas for an Easter Egg Hunt and want to share them, please feel free.

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