Silly Critter Theme Party

For little children, traditional Halloween Parties are sometimes too scary. Christian families often want alternatives to the horror and morbid themes that usually accompany Halloween. This is a fun alternative, the Silly Critter party.

The costumes start with larger than life imaginations and a giant sense of humor. The idea is to create a fun atmosphere where the children are not afraid to laugh at themselves and enjoy the silliness of the situation.

The characters mirror those sometimes created for the Saturday morning TV shows aimed at little ones, but completely devoid of violence and bad stuff. These shows feature silly animals or people that are kind, loving, and they teach good family values. This is what this party is all about. It teaches tolerance and acceptance for what is different. It shows children they need to look beyond appearances to the person inside.

Most of you have seen, bought, or played with the Tupperware brand toy that puts a dog's head on a giraffe and allows kids to come up with several silly critters. This is your inspiration and starting point for costumes. Adding the wrong tail, or ears, or whiskers to an animal soon results in a very funny looking creature. You can add polka dots or wings on animals that should never have them such as the toys on Misfit Island in Rudolph's story. Costumes need only imagination and a sense of humor because they do not need to look like anything real. It is just pretend.

Use bright colors for the party decorations or use Halloween colors. Put scenes of magical places around the room where such Silly Critters might live. Here too it can be anything you wish since you are not copying what exists in the real world.

Food can be made up to look like the fairy tale landscape where trees are lollipops and Cupcake Mountains exist between Kool-Aid rivers. Use dips of ice cream for a base to create silly critters for dessert. Add licorice and gumdrop features, shoestring tails or tentacles. Popcorn balls or burgers could wear silly faces, or a large round cheese could have many eyes of olives. Pickles could sport arms and legs. Be silly and creative.

Use games of a classic nature with new twists to reflect the silly creature theme. Add an extra nose or a beard to your pumpkin when you play pin the nose on the Jack O'Lantern. Do relays using one of the stuffed creatures that grace TV land or those silly looking balls or a Haki-Sak with a face. Toss a beanbag through the opening of a critter with a wide-open face. Or bob for apples that have faces made of raisins. Bring your theme into all the aspects of the party.

This year try to wean your kids away from the usual violent and gruesome characters and find a whole new way of celebrating Halloween. For extra fun, ask adults to also dress up for this one. They will truly be creative.

Credits: Jo Ann Wentzel