MYSTIC REVELS - HALLOWEEN 1925

The Autumn Sketch Book

of Bess Stanhope

October 31, 1925

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It's Halloween Day and I'm so excited. Irene Bitz and I are putting the finishing touches on the Mystic Revels party we are hosting at her home. We have been planning it for weeks! Fortunately, Irene is mad for Halloween and she bought most of the party supplies and decorations. We began our party planning by consulting several issues of Dennison's Bogie Book (above).

The Bogie Books give instructions galore for everything you need to host a successful Halloween party, midnight supper, card party, social, open house, dance, soiree or revels. I don't think there's a theme they haven't covered!

Every terrific Halloween party requires an intriguing invitation. Here's ours!

We've hung this crepe paper streamer all around her living room.

We're putting this crepe paper banner across the front of the buffet table.

We'll keep the lights low but have set out plenty of lanterns to set just the right spooky mood.

For our guests, there'll be horns, noisemakers and blowouts,

and hats for those who did not wear a costume.

Don't you just love this colorful coaster?

We've hung these colorful die cuts on the walls.

Some of these die cuts are older, having been made in Germany. Irene has been collecting them.

This crow is my favorite.

And one must have an owl at Halloween.

Tables will be set up with Halloween-themed board games, and there will be a small round table tucked into a corner, where I, Esmerelda the Gypsy, will be telling fortunes.

Later, we'll clear the table for card games, including whist and bridge.

We looked at several sample menus for our buffet:

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Hot ham shortcakes with cheese sauce

Dill pickle sticks

Celery curls

Radishes

Pumpkin-face tarts

Ice cold Coca Cola

Chicken corn

Nuts

Caramel Apples.

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Here's another menu:

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Goblin-face meat pies

Julienne carrots

Orange ice

Chocolate cookies

Ginger ale

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Irene's husband Ed, liked the idea of the meat pies, but he wasn't too keen on the other items on these menus. He wanted heartier fare.

We finally decided to go with heated pans of meat balls and chicken wings, plus finger sandwiches, salmon croquettes, cheese straws, deviled eggs, Waldorf salad, a carrot and celery tray, angel food and devil's food cakes, sweet cider, Coca-Cola, ginger ale, coffee, chicken corn, nuts, popcorn balls and caramel apples. We won't be serving liquor, but I am sure there will be a bottle or two of red eye passed around.

Today is very warm for Halloween Day - 70 degrees - so I'm certain the children will enjoy trick or treating. Once they are safely back at home, our revels can begin. Because it is a Saturday, we can stay up late without a care! And guess what, tonight the moon is full. A full moon on Halloween is a rare occurence. It won't happen again until 1944!

I wonder just what we will see under the full moon tonight?

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NOTES: Chicken corn is an early name for candy corn, which was invented in 1898. Red eye is a homemade whiskey popular with the Germans From Russia settlers in North Dakota. Many of the best early Halloween decorations were made in Germany, but of course their importation stopped when WWI broke out. Halloween paper goods were quite inexpensive back in the day, but now are extremely collectible and terribly expensive. A copy of the 1925 Dennison's Bogie Book (Bess' year!) recently sold for $160.00! I have taken poetic license and mixed vintage decorations from the 1910s, 1920s and 1930s. Shh, don't tell. I didn't check the actual weather for Halloween 1925 in North Dakota, but it was a Saturday and there really was a full moon that evening.

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If you enjoyed this glimpse of vintage Halloween, you might want to check out this post I wrote last October. You may also enjoy scrolling through my other October 2007 posts to see the entries about vintage Halloween postcards.

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HAPPY HALLOWEEN EVERYONE !!!

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