A Halloween Party Idea

A friend asked me for details on the Halloween party that we threw last year with our friends Eric and Rachel, and I thought the rest of you might like the details too because it turned out to be a really fun party. The idea came from Rachel's parents. Every couple of years someone in their big group of friends throws a Halloween party, but they don't tell anyone who the host is. The invitations tell everyone to meet at a remote location that's kind of spooky like the entrance of a cemetery. At first it's a little creepy because you have no clue who invited you and what's going to happen, but as you hear from friends who ask you if you got a similar letter, you figure out that it's someone from your group of friends.

Anyway, here's what our invitation said:
GOOD EVENING . . .

May I entice you to join our company of ghoulish acquaintances in a haunting evening of mystery mingled with enjoyment? On the evening of the 29th day in the month of Halloween, you will be required to meet at my fall residence, the “City of Dublin Cemetery” on Route 33/161 by the “Washington Vault” by 6:30 p.m. and no later than 6:45 p.m. Don’t get too comfortable, but do wait for the entire ghoulish gang to arrive and therein find the further instructions necessary to arrive at our final resting place for the evening. It is most desirable that you dress appropriately for this, shall I say “odd” season.

My personal secretary, “Miss Washington,” will be anxiously awaiting your RSVP reply no later than Friday, October 21st, whether you choose to share in this memorable evening or not. Please contact her at (___)___-____ between 9:30 am and 5:30 pm.
Please bring edibles of the potluck sort (sweet, salty, salads, drinks, desserts, etc.) that could be consumed by 8 or more ghouls. It would be most advisable to keep the little ghouls at home for this event.

Trustingly yours…………………….Mr. Frank N. Stein

The hardest part was figuring out who to invite so they wouldn’t suspect that you were the host and then throwing people off so they wouldn’t think it was us. This was a little bit of a downside beacause everyone had to know each other so they couldn't connect that's another couple we've heard hang out with the Fords, but we've never met them so the Fords must be the host, etc. which meant we had to leave out a few friends we would have liked to invite.

We printed the invitation out on plain paper and cut letters out of magazines to spell out their last names on the envelopes. Then we hung them from string at their doors so they were eye level when the opened the door and we doorbell ditched while Larry stood about 50 feet away wearing all black and a skeleton mask and just watched them (some of them noticed, some of them didn’t, but it was creepy). All of our friends have a pretty good sense of humor so we knew none of them would call the police or anything, but that might not work for everyone.

We left an envelope at the cemetery with directions. Then we came and met everyone and pretended we had no clue what was going on:

Good evening . . .

The guest list has been finalized, and herein are the names of the suspects around you:

Mr. & Mrs. _____
Mr. & Mrs. _____
Mr. & Mrs. ______
Etc.

I cannot reveal which of you is our secretive host, but the mystery will unravel if you dare to proceed on your mission. If everyone is present, and you all agree to commit yourselves to this cause, proceed to the next page.





Ah, you’ve decided to proceed. Don’t say you didn’t have a chance to escape! Since any of you could be our host, none of you can be trusted alone. You will be paired in alphabetical order with two couples to a team starting with the pairing of the Andersons and the Carters and so on. Watch your back as you might not know the couple that you are paired with as well as you think you do!

Once you establish your teams proceed to _____________ in Dublin.

Does the address seem familiar to you? That’s because it’s one of yours. It’s up to the resident whether or not they will reveal their identity and their involvement with tonight events. Make haste, for the first team to arrive at your final destination and correctly reveal your host will be justly rewarded.

It just worked out conveniently that we were pared with Rahcel and Eric alphabetically so we pretended to go on the scavenger with everyone else and then we skipped the last stop so we’d be at our house when everyone got there. We cut up the rest of the directions and put them at the different homes tied to bright orange pumpkin buckets with the items mentioned in them.

You’re not as clever as you may think. You may know who lives here, but you are no closer to knowing who your host is because the party will not take place here.

I fear you are being followed. In order to throw the others off of your trail, each of you must don one of the items in this bucket (fake mustaches) to help disguise yourself. Once each of you is wearing one of these items you may proceed to __________, Columbus, where further instructions await you.


You haven’t reached the party yet, and I fear you are in serious danger. It appears as though you are still being followed, and the other guests are becoming more suspicious of each other by the moment so each team member must add a pair of these plastic fangs to his or her disguise and move on quickly.

I’m afraid your host might not recognize you and your host isn’t kind to unwanted guests. Head to ___________ where you must find a tombstone with each couple’s name on it. Your tombstone will be a useful form of identification when the time is right. Hurry before you are caught.


The prize is within your grasp, and yet you have not reached your final destination. Have you discovered who your host is? Write your accusation on the back of your tombstone and then take it to the back porch of ___________where your guess will be documented.
At this point two of the homes they visited were our own so people who thought we were the hosts saw that nothing was going on there and some of them were thrown off.


I think it would be wise to take a picture of each couple with their accusation. With your accusation in hand your situation grows even more dangerous. Who knows, it may be the last picture ever taken of you so be sure to straighten your mustache, bare your fangs, look brave, and don’t forget to use the flash. After you have your picture taken, make a mad dash to _________Columbus. You don’t have time to waste!

The last address was ours again so the frst team that guessed the correct host and made it back to our house first won the game. Then we had dinner and treats and played a few other games and prizes and that was it. I wish I had some pictures with me right now because everyone went all out and there were some really great costumes.

This year our get together is a scaled down a bit and won't involve as many people, but hopefully it will be just as fun. I would give you some of the details, but that might spoil part of the surprise so you'll just have to wait for my report on how things went.