You've probably seen those memes on Instagram that say: "Why do I need to celebrate Halloween when I've been wearing a mask and eating candy all year long?" Well Halloween's our favorite holiday and there was no way we were going to let the pandemic ruin it for us. So here are some of the things we did for our in-home Spooktoberfest in 2020. And don't forget to check out our list of top favorite Halloween movies on this post.
For starters, we paid a visit to Smile Disfraces Cotillon in Cordoba City, which has a ton of Halloween items like masks, plastic pumpkins, costumes and Halloween decorations for your walls, tables, and Halloween tree.
We actually went there to buy a Face Hugger mask from the "Alien" film, but they sold their last one by the time we got there. And while, we were pretty bummed about it, it didn't stop us from spending a couple of thousand pesos on some extra decorations.
Once we got home, we took out our black Christmas tree and decorated it with ghoulish ornaments like Jack O' Lanterns, Halloween masks and fake blood bags we had bought over the years. Then we finished the overall look with some purple lights and Jack O' Lantern lights that we got at Smile Disfraces Cotillon. Now, I might be bias seeing as to how it's our tree but I absolutely loved the way it looked!
Afterwards, we made a makeshift Halloween bar to die for. It had everything from with skeleton shots, a glowing Jack O' Lantern, and a spider web snack bowl full of candy being watched by the spirits. Beware what you take!
The idea was to use this space to add the Halloween snacks we planned to bake on the 31st. But first we had to plan our menu, which we thought was going to be smaller because it was just the two of us this year. But as you're about to see, it didn't really turn out that way.
We made sugar cookies in the shape of Jack O' Lanterns and witch hats and then ordered some donuts from American Donuts and tricked them out.
Above are the photos of another dozen donuts that our friend Franco sent us for my husband's birthday, which we turned into Jack O' Lanterns and monsters.
We even used a Jack O' Lantern mold that we bought from a store called Falabella to create this cake, and added orange food coloring to the cake mix to give it that orange-y tone. This helped us mentally since we weren't able to carve pumpkins this year. But we sure carved this one out with our mouths later on.
And our dessert bar wouldn't have been complete without The Blob or rather a bowl full of Jello with gummy shaped bones. Don't stick your hand in or you'll be sorry.
But the hubs really blew me away (get your head out of the gutter) when he created bats using nothing more than Oreo cookies and two white chocolate chips for the eyes.
And then we brought back one of my favorites, which is the dirt pudding. Obviously we didn't use real dirt. It's made with vanilla pudding, crushed Oreos and gummy worms. We dare you to take a bite! This isn't Mary Poppin's spoon full of sugar, honey!
Halloween wouldn't be the same without a bloody syringe on a cupcake and someone's brains saying hello. I have to say that the hubs really outdid himself this year.
But we were worried about going into a diabetic coma, so we did a couple of salty treats like these ghost nuggets and mummy potatoes. The ghost nuggets were the easiest. All we did was add eyes using barbecue sauce. And we cut a potato in half, baked it, and then cut slices of mozzarella cheese to create the illusion of mummy bandages before adding the eyes with barbecue sauce. And we didn't stop there.
We also made witch hats out of Dorito 3D chips,
Guacamole Cheese Spread and Ritz (or rather the Argie equivalent of Ritz) crackers. Then we created Frankenstein crackers with guacamole cheese spread for the face, olives for the nose and red peppers for the mouth.
But we always try to go above and beyond every year to make our food look creepier. And that's where these next items came in.
We gave these boiled eggs a Halloween makeover using black food coloring. To achieve that webbed look, we cracked all the shells, placed the boiled eggs in a Zip-Lock bag with the food coloring and shook them. Then we waited a while before peeling the shells. This was the end result. And yes, they're edible! But beware! A face hugger might be lurking inside.
Now I'm not going to lie. We normally prepare this much food not just for ourselves but for our friends. Unfortunately, we lost our heads and made way too much. So, as of this post, we're still eating Halloween treats, and our candy basket remains full. But now let me talk about the fun part, which involved wearing our masks and other Halloween accessories.
We bought this Face Hugger ring from the "Alien" film franchise at Foto Caja in Cordoba City. The store has a lot of items that are just perfect for Sci-Fi enthusiasts and I highly recommend it if you're living here. As far as those orange skull Jello shot glasses, I got those at Smile Disfraces Cotillon. And let me tell you, a little bit of rum and a cherry inside does the body good.
I of course wore the Jason Voorhees ring from "Friday the 13th" and I'll probably wear it again for the Friday the 13th that's coming this November. Unfortunately, I'm barred from slashing anyone because my husband says it's unkind (just joking. He fully approves).
We bought our masks at Smile Disfraces Cotillon, too. They were okay but I'm hoping to buy different masks and accessories that are spookier next year.
Another one of our Halloween traditions include a 31-day Halloween movie countdown, which involves watching one scary movie every day all through October. Some of the ones we saw this year included new favorites like:
- Alone (Starring Tyler Posey)
- Follow Me
- Witches (the remake but didn't love it)
- The Craft: Legacy (Didn't love this one either)
As well as some old favorites like:
- Resident Evil (Starring Milla Jovovich)
- The Conjuring (1 and 2)
- Hostel ( 1, 2 and 3)
- Insidious (1 and 2. We skipped the 3rd and 4th one because they sucked)
- Dead Silence
We also played "Hunter the Reckoning: Wayward." We don't know how we had this game in our possession and never played it. It's actually pretty scary. I swear, I had to go wipe myself three times and my husband screamed like he was being mugged in the subway station. Ironically, we were killing monsters in a subway station.
Despite the pandemic and social distancing restrictions, we managed to have a lot of fun. We also loved our Halloween decorations so much that we're probably going to keep most of them up until the New Year or maybe early next year. You would too if if you had spent as much time as we did putting them up.
Next up, Thanksgiving feast 2020! My husband promised to not go overboard with the dishes this year. But a part of me doesn't believe him and my stomach's okay with that.
