Plan a Halloween dinner that will make their skin crawl. This year we did just that with a spider theme. Every year we strive to have a themed dinner with the family either on or around Halloween night. It can be simple or extravagant. The point is to have a little fun and create memories with your kids. Like the time I tried to create an spooky setting by using a fog machine indoors. In case you didn’t know, a fog machine will set off the fire alarms in your house. And now you know. All that frantically running around to turn off the alarms lead to the kids being upset and not wanting to eat. That’s a memory that they may not forget.
So this sounds fun and you would like to do it for your next Halloween but you want a few ideas to get you started. Here are a few creepy crawly ideas to help you plan.
Scary Decor
Search around your house for decorations you already have or get some from your local dollar store. I actually found most of my decorations at Micheal’s, including the plates, napkins, cups, fake spiders, and skull. They always have cute party themed Halloween supplies and if you wait until almost Halloween to shop then you can get them at a discount. The rest was clearance from Target the year before. Shopping after the holiday is over can save you tons of money.
Creepy Crawly Food Ideas
So I covered just about every food group in a spider theme. Pinterest will help you out if you need a little inspiration.
The main course was spiderweb pizza. Made with pre-made pizza dough, pizza sauce, pepperoni, and string cheese. I cut the string cheese with a pizza cutter to get smaller pieces for the spiderweb. The spider on top was added after we cooked it. My littlest quickly found the spider on top and threw it to the floor. He definitely does not care for spiders. You could do a black olive spider instead but yuck. So I found these adorable sugar spiders from Country Kitchen Sweetart in Fort Wayne and you can order them online too. They also have other cute seasonal items so check them out.
Another spooky dish was the classic mummy dog with black guts. The mummy dog is simply a hot dog wrap in a crescent roll. The noodles were regular noodles seasoned with butter and garlic then we added black food dye. The boys, who normally love eating it, won’t touch it because of the color.
The spiderweb pretzels were made with white chocolate and more of those sugar spiders from the same store.
Continuing the spiderweb theme with the cupcakes. I made the spider webs with black candy writer. I did them free handed but the best way to do them is print off a spiderweb clip-art from the internet and lay it under wax paper. Then trace the design with the writing chocolate. To release it from the paper, I pop it in the freezer for about a minute first. I added the spiderweb to a simple cupcake with white frosting and placed them in a spider leg cupcake holder. Doesn’t get more spidey than that.
Here is another idea with white chocolate and Rice Krispies treats.
Finished off the theme with this gorgeous spider web cake from our favorite place, Halls Takes The Cake.
Spooky Spidery Surprises
We added a little fun to the night with more spidey surprises. The bucket was filled with chocolate ghost truffles, bats, and skulls plus light up spider glasses and necklaces. I have to say that putting those spiders on the buckets gave me the heebie-jeebies.
Comment below with your favorite Halloween dinner tradition that you do with your family. I would love to learn about more.
