Dem' Bones Halloween Party

By Jeanne Benedict

Skull Decor from Plum Party

Want to host a horrific Halloween party? Center your party theme around bones. From skeletal stemware to bowling with faux skulls, dem’ bones are everywhere at this affair.

Your Own Private Ossuary

Have all enter in ghoulish style through a cemetery archway. Once inside, chill them to the bone with a “wow” effect like a spinning skeleton torso or a pair of bony grave guards. Empty a bag of bones in the nooks and crannies of your party room, with a smoking skeleton cauldron in a dark corner.

Dem’ Bones on the Buffet

Skeleton Stemware at Oriental Trading

Skeleton Stemware and More

Skeletons and tabletop are a match made in Halloween heaven. Their spiny fingers are perfect for holding glasses or used as a pedestal when “the carpal bone’s connected to the radius bone”. Skulls are also brilliant as details on candlesticks or as cranial candles on the buffet. For a grand statement, at a steeper price, you can buy a chandelier fashioned from sculpted bones to hang over your dining table!

Skull Molds from Pushin' Daisies

Bony Buffet Food

Halloween usually falls on a weekday, so most are “dead on their feet” from working all day. Set up a low maintenance buffet. Food that you can prepare in advance and will serve a lot of people at the party, such as a soft cheese spread prepared in a skull mold, is perfect! I found this incredible webstore, Pushin’ Daisies, that sells skull pans, skeleton gelatin molds, and much more in the way of mortuary novelties. Pick up a couple of skull pans, and use one for the skull-mold cheese dish, and the other one to make a spooky skull cake for dessert. Round out the buffet with veggies and dip, and some “food on the bone,” such as Buffalo wings.

Easy Skull-Mold Cheese Dish

Allow 3 (8-oz.) blocks of cream cheese to soften to room temperature in a large bowl.
Mix in a container of flavored soft cheese, such as the Rondele’ brand. Add more Rondele' if desired, flavoring the mixture to taste.
Line the skull mold with a sheet of plastic wrap, and fill with cream cheese mixture. Cover with plastic and chill until party time.
When you’re ready to serve, unmold the cheese on to a large platter.
Fill in the in the skull eyes, nose and teeth with minced black olives.
Place crackers around the cheese mold on the platter, or in another Halloween-themed bowl on the table.

Fun & Bones

Skull Bowl

Set up a skull bowling game in your yard or an appropriate area of your home. Pick up a set of 12 skulls from Plum Party to use as bowling balls and tabletop décor. Use craft bowling pins, smaller than the pro size, and paint them black or bone white for all to knock down.

Grave Robber’s Coffin

Bid guests a final farewell with a decorative coffin of goodies, but make them dig for their treats. Fill the coffin with black shredded Mylar, or something similar, and bury trinkets like skeleton lollipops, interlocking bone candy, or mini squeezable skull balls with bulging eyes as party favors. At Oriental Trading you can buy in bulk, and they have a wide selection for this theme and many others. Throw in a couple of plastic spiders, or a rubber rat to creep guests out as they rob the grave.

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