Last year I held a Pumpkin Party for a bunch of under-two’s who were too small for Halloween but whose mothers were quite keen to dress them up (well, I was at least). It seemed to go down quite well with the children, most of whom didn’t violently object to being dressed as cats, witches and pumpkins. The dog wasn’t overly keen on the orange cape, but she was quite chuffed to take her pick from the mountains of food that fell onto the floor. And nobody cried, at least not that I recall. This year, the same crop of smalls were a year older (and many, mine included, had new siblings) and I took a slightly more cavalier attitude to the now-Annual Pumpkin Party. Which is to say that I threw it all together at the last minute.
Instead of carefully crafted, handmade Pumpkin-shaped invitations weeks in advance, I sent a text two weeks beforehand to the mothers involved. The decorations were bought the day before at B&Q after a morning at Ikea with the Mothership (where I also scored a few Christmas decorations which I’ll probably forget about before the big day, but I digress) so generally fit the remit of “non-scary Halloween”. The food, instead of all being home-made with care from organic, locally sourced ingredients, was supplied by Messrs Mark and Spencer, save a couple of things brought by friends, including the most amazing Swamp Jellies (see last picture.)
I did make a vague attempt to cater for grown-ups by splashing out on a dozen plastic wine glasses from the 99p Store and whip up a batch of “Bloody” Mocktails (get me!) I bunged a teaspoon of Pomegranate Seeds in the bottom of a glass and half-filled the glass with cherry juice, then topped it up with Bottlegreen’s fizzy Elderflower. They didn’t taste too awful, and the floating pomegranate seeds did look quite macabre.
The Pocket Dictator gave them her seal of approval too, but then she does love the little seeds, and refers to them, in a rather Nigella-esque way as “jewels”. We also made a vat bowl of Virgin Sunrises, the orange juice giving my trifle bowl a hint of the Pumpkin, and threw in a bunch of “jewels” for good measure.
Oh, and I made a cake which looked loosely like a pumpkin, though tasted nothing like one. I did have grand plans for craftiness but none of the little ones seemed particularly bothered and were far happier running around in the damp garden dressed as Handy Manny, witches and princesses. So I left them to it and tried not to think about how much dog poo was hiding in the uncut grass.
They did all come back inside for food. I think every child had three jellies. Every child certainly had a trail of green jelly down their fancy dress costumes as they left clutching the Pumpkin Party bags. As ever, I’ve no idea whether they had a good time. All the chocolate was gone, so I assume so. And I put a toothbrush in each of the party bags. With that, and the stick of cucumber I put on every child’s tea plate, I figure I did my duty as a parent. Even better DH left me asleep on the sofa and did all the clearing up. Happy Days.
Now, where did I put those Christmas decorations?
Go on! You know you want to tell me what you think!